By Eileen Moon
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – The rain Sept. 7 did nothing to dampen the dedication of a Native Species Garden at the historic Strauss Mansion in Atlantic Highlands, where dozens of local residents gathered to honor the contributions of Anne Petereit, otherwise known as the Atlantic Highlands Flower Lady, by establishing the garden in her memory.
The event, hosted by the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society, was the culmination of a year-and-a-half of efforts to create a garden comprised of plantings native to the soil and climate of this small town on Sandy Hook Bay.
“This has been one-and-a-half years in the making and it really adds so much beauty to the mansion,” said Joanne Dellosso, who, with the support of former Atlantic Highlands librarian and gardener extraordinaire Marilyn Scherfen, applied for a $750 grant from the Native Plant Society of New Jersey to pay for the installation. “Marilyn sent me a posting for a Native Species Garden grant,” Dellosso explained. “I thought, let me give this a try. You could have picked me up with a feather when I got it. Without them, it wouldn’t have been possible.” After a couple of meetings to decide what types of plants would do well in the garden, the two women set off with Dellosso’s husband, Roy, a former councilman and vice-president of the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society, and Historical Society board member Rich Sails to Cicconi Farms in Jackson to select the plants.
The plant pros at Cicconi Farms “gave us a lot of guidance,” Dellosso said. “We put 62 plants in a Toyota truck.”
“I was the truck driver,” her husband added.
Once the plants arrived safely in Atlantic Highlands, “I got a bunch of volunteers, and we put them in the sun.” For the next month, Dellosso made sure the plants were watered every day.
She contacted Jeff’s Lawn and Landscaping Service in town to get an estimate for the plantings at the Strauss Mansion but the owner volunteered to do the work for free when he learned it would be dedicated to The Flower Lady.
Although a transplant herself, Petereit grew deep roots in Atlantic Highlands over the course of a lifetime. Emigrating from Germany in 1962, Petereit settled in Atlantic Highlands with her husband, Lutz, in 1971. While raising their children, Michael and Lisa, Petereit volunteered in many borough organizations, including the Atlantic Highlands Elementary School PTA/ PTO, the garden club, the historical society, and the recreation department.
She also maintained her own gardening business – but for Petereit, the business of gardening was both work and play. She could often be spotted carrying jugs of water down First Avenue to water the potted plants around the town’s main thoroughfare. For decades, Petereit applied her prodigiously green thumb to keeping the town she called home in bloom.
When Anne-Luise Petereit died in June 2024 at the age of 89, she left behind a visible legacy rooted in the town’s public spaces and in the private gardens of many of her fellow Atlantic Highlands residents. From the flowerpots on First Avenue to the plantings in the harbor and the tulips waving hello on Memorial Parkway, beauty blossomed wherever she touched, her friends said.
“When I was on the Harbor Commission, she did a beautiful job making sure the harbor flower boxes were always beautiful,” Mayor Lori Hohenleitner said. “She took pride in it.”
And God help the litterbug who dropped a cigarette butt in a flower box, recalled Anne’s daughter, Lisa Ramsthaler. “She would give them the business. She’d say, ‘Let me tell you something…’ ”
Those who braved the drizzle to attend the ribbon-cutting for Petereit’s memorial garden thought the rainy day made perfect sense – Anne was gardening from above, making sure the freshly planted blooms of the Native Species Garden were well-watered by Mother Nature.
A rescuer of drooping plants, Petereit was known to pull over to the side of the road to collect discarded greenery that would soon return to bloom under her care. To neighbors, she was a perennial source of cuttings and a fount of gardening wisdom.
When the Dellossos moved to town in 1989, Anne came over to introduce herself. Dellosso told her how much they admired her gardens, but Petereit didn’t return the compliment. Nevertheless, it was the beginning of more than three decades of friendship.
“She really cared so much about the town,” Dellosso said. “She loved beautifying it.”
The article originally appeared in the September 18 – September 24, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
