Donor support helps Hahn Horticulture Garden blossom
Virginia Tech’s public teaching and display garden has a new covered event space and more enhancements on the way.
When looking for a place to hold their wedding, Virginia Tech faculty member Ramtin Haghnazar and Ph.D. student Yasaman Ashjazadeh found the perfect option just steps from where they work.
In September, they were the first couple to share their vows at the Hahn Horticulture Garden’s new garden marquee – a covered, open-air, 2,800-square-foot venue for weddings and events.
“We wanted an outdoor place in a beautiful landscape that protected us from the possibility of rain,” said Haghnazar, assistant professor in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design. “It was perfect, from the setting, to the service, to the affordable price. We and our guests had a wonderful time. The Hahn Garden would be great for any event.”
The garden marquee is the newest addition to the six-acre public teaching and display garden in the heart of the Blacksburg campus. Completed in August – thanks to support from alumni and donors – the marquee offers a much-needed event space, and a source of income to sustain the garden.
“We are a self-supporting entity, so all revenue from event rentals goes straight into our daily operating fund to cover everything from paying student workers, to plants and mulch, to equipment,” said Hahn Horticulture Garden Director Scott Douglas. “Having a permanent structure with a hard floor enables us to host more events – which allows us to bring in more revenue to achieve our goal of being a teaching garden.”
Located next to the Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion, the marquee accommodates up to 184 people. It features a two-tiered green metal roof, tapered wood columns with Hokie Stone bases, a smooth concrete floor, and expansive garden views.
Douglas said the venue has been reserved for several game day tailgates and is booking weddings into the spring of 2026.
Cultivating progress
At a ribbon-cutting in September, friends of the garden celebrated the new venue as the first milestone in an ongoing, donor-fueled expansion campaign.
“I have watched the garden develop over the last 40 years,” said Hokie alumnus Mike Hildebrand '74, owner of James River Nurseries and a key supporter of the marquee project. “Watching the Blacksburg and Virginia Tech community work together to develop something special has been exciting. The marquee space will certainly be a catalyst for getting more visitors to the garden. James River Nurseries’ – and my – success has been supported for many years through the horticulture program, so giving back has been a privilege.”
Hildebrand and his wife, Susie, are longtime sponsors of paid student internships at the Hahn Horticulture Garden and of its main fundraising event, the Garden Gala.
Additional funds for the marquee came from the Peggy Hahn Memorial Garden and T. Marshall and Peggy Lee Hahn Horticulture Endowments, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, and Patricia Ceperley, a longtime garden volunteer and friend.
Ceperley also supported the launch of an interactive digital application that will allow students and visitors to locate and learn about each plant in the garden.
“I have supported the Hahn Garden for nearly 20 years – both as a Master Gardener who helped pull weeds on Monday nights and as a Friend of the Garden by joining every year,” Ceperley said. “One of the main questions visitors ask is, ‘What is this plant?’ It's important to be able to answer that question so they can use the information to develop their own gardens.”
Growing a campus gem
The Hahn Horticulture Garden is the largest public garden in western Virginia, open 365 days a year as learning resource for gardening, landscaping, and environmental awareness. It’s also a living laboratory for Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students to better serve the landscape, nursery, and public horticulture sectors.
A planning study completed last year proposed new additions, including a Japanese-style Zen garden, a glass greenhouse, a formal garden, added walkways, a catering hut, and water-conserving rain gardens.
The Saunders family, a Virginia Tech alumni family who owns Saunders Brothers Inc. nursery in Piney River, Virginia, is sponsoring the next chapter of growth: a new formal garden, characterized by neat, clipped boxwoods and flowering plants laid out in structured, symmetrical patterns.
“The formal garden will provide valuable learning experiences for students to install and maintain a highly managed and controlled landscape style that’s very different from other spaces in the garden,” Douglas said.
He added, “It’s exciting to see these new spaces coming to life, especially as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the garden. We’re grateful to all our sponsors and volunteers, who are partnering to make the Hahn Horticulture Garden a regional destination.”
To learn more about how to support the Hahn Horticulture Garden, please contact vtgarden@vt.edu or visit https://hahngarden.vt.edu/support.html.
