Hans Peter Sass (September 19, 1868 Alt Duvenstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany - September 18, 1949 Bennington, Nebraska), breeder of gladiolus, iris, peonies, hemerocallis, lilies and lilacs. He and his brother Jacob Sass immigrated 1884 to the USA with their parents.
Three breeders with the Sass name introduced peonies, but the most prominent was Hans Peter Sass (1868 - 1949), of Elkhorn, Nebraska, who operated Midwest Gardens. In 1933 he sold much of his stock to Interstate Nurseries of Hamburg, IA and they introduced a number of them in 1937.
[From The American Iris Society Iris Encyclopedia:]
Hans Peter SassHans Peter Sass Grave Memorial[From "The Peonies", by Myron Bigger, 1962, p.38:] "Hans Peter Sass came from Germany to Omaha in 1884 and became a farmer. He started peony growing in 1903 on his eighty-acre farm near Washington, Nebraska. He began breeding in 1908 and used hand pollination. He kept careful records of his crosses. He worked mostly with the bomb type as seed parents because they had no Pollen and could not self-fertilize and he used Edulis Superba, Felix Crousse, M. Jules Elie, M. Martin Cahuzac, and other top varieties. He never took any active part in the Society, perhaps on account of language difficulties. He sold out in 1938 to Interstate Nurseries, Hamburg, Iowa."
