End of an era: Cooley’s last show

By Brenna Wiegand

Heralding spring, thousands of green iris blades emerged at Cooley’s Gardens; barely in time to bid their patriarch farewell.

Richard C. Ernst, president, manager and hybridizer of the major bearded iris growing operation, passed away unexpectedly March 2, 2011, after a brief illness. He was 57.

From pioneer stock, Ernst led the company with decisive wisdom through economic rises and falls while continually plunging forward in the hybridization of hundreds of beautiful new irises.

For decades, he was in hot pursuit of a true red iris. His work advanced from paintbrushes and paper cups to developing patented molecular-level modifications. These discoveries could soon mean the fulfillment of that dream.

Along the way Ernst produced a number of stately near-red beauties including ‘Forge Fire’ (1991), ‘Fire Pit’ (1992), ‘Red at Night’ (1992) and ‘Classic Bordeaux’ (1996).

In 2002 Ernst’s iris ‘Ring Around Rosie’ took the Wister medal, the highest award there is for a tall bearded iris.

Cooley’s Gardens has always been a family business. Ernst’s grandfather Rholin Cooley, just a couple generations off the Oregon Trail, started the business in 1928 with his wife Pauline. Apparently, they enjoyed the iris given them by their family doctor Rudolph Kleinsorge just a few years before.

Through their grief, Ernst’s wife Kati and his sisters Georgie Johnson and Judy Nunn are laboring to undertake the many preparations necessary to open the public gardens for this, its final season.

The days and hours they’ll be open, Kati said, depend on how much they can do and the help they have.
Those empty, muddy boots are mighty big to fill.

The family agrees that without Rick Ernst at its helm, it’s time for Cooley’s to call it quits.

“There isn’t anyone else with the knowledge to step up and take over,” said Kati. “But 83 years is a good run.”

Rick and Kati shared many adventures: a honeymoon biking across Australia; snowshoeing, camping, sleeping in a snow cave…

“It’s such a big transition for me,” Kati Ernst said. “We were together all the time. He was my best friend, my teacher and the love of my life.”

Of late, they were learning to homestead. He loved to show off the peppers he was growing and was starting to can.

His lifetime, overarching passion was music. He could pick up about any instrument, played in numerous bands and wouldn’t miss a weekly jam session with old-time fiddlers.

His daughter Amy Ernst also learned much from her father, including the importance of research and not being afraid to take a stand – even if it differed from her dad’s.

“He loved life and dived into it,” she said. “He was full of stories of his adventures – and lots of jokes.”