Letter from the Executive Director

Greetings! I started my position as Executive Director of The John Fairey Garden Conservation Foundation three years ago this month. Taking stock on this anniversary, I am most moved by the generosity of the Garden's many supporters whose largesse comprises an ecosystem of aid – financial contributions, volunteering, expertise, service, advocacy –that sustains our mission. This brings to mind a Greek proverb, Blessed are those who plant trees under whose shade they will never sit. John, of course, qualifies for literal reasons. Metaphorically, our benefactors do, too. A few of you have never been to the Garden. Many of you do not visit on a regular basis or may not have been here for some time. Still, at some point you may have sponsored a table or bought a ticket to our Taking Root luncheon, or donated to our annual appeal, or volunteered your time to weed or repair something at the Garden. All means of helping to ensure the sustainability of the Garden, whether or not you ever personally benefit. Why? There could be a host of specific reasons: one of the most comprehensive collections of oaks in the U.S.; our extensive woody lily collection; our collection of plants wild-collected in Mexico; the rare plants we conserve; John’s genius for garden design. I would propose a motive even more profound – you support the Garden because you cherish beauty. The instinct to preserve beauty is proof that the angels of our better nature, constantly under siege from coarser impulses of vulgarity, are resilient and viable. Please consider this month's letter a heartfelt thank you for whatever you've done to help preserve this particular manifestation of beauty for the past three years and before. We are going to need your support in the future. In exchange, we promise to do our best to see that The John Fairey Garden lives up to its particular promise of beauty that John began defining over fifty years ago. Warm regards,

Member Appreciation Day - Saturday, June 24th

Members are the lifeblood of The John Fairey Garden and we are dedicating our last Open Day of the season, Saturday, June 24th, to celebrate them. In appreciation for your support of the Garden, all members may tour the Garden at your leisure from 10 - 4. Volunteers will be stationed around the Garden to assist if necessary. The Nursery will be open for plant sales from 10 - 3. Here is a schedule of events for the day:  MEXICAN PASTRIES AND COFFEE - served from 10 am til noon. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE scavenger hunt We will provide a selected list of Mexican plants in our sales nursery that are planted in the Garden. Be the first to take a photo of a listed plant as found in the Garden and text it to Nursery Manager, Craig Jackson, and you can take that plant home with you. One plant per participant, please. TACOS, SANGRIA, OTHER REFRESHMENTS - served from noon til 3 pm. RAFFLE *** Each attendee will be given a free raffle ticket. (Additional tickets may be purchased for $5 each.) At 1 pm we will raffle fourteen separate items listed below: Five potted succulent arrangements TJFG swag - our new t-shirt, "BEHELD" book, a package of Garden notecards, our new tote bag. A $100 shopping spree in our sales nursery Three membership upgrades to the Patron level Two membership upgrades to the Benefactor level One membership to the Founders Circle level A free private Garden tour for one member and five guests, plus lunch in the picnic grove (Tuesday through Saturday except Open Days with one week's notice). *** Must be present to win raffle This event is for members only. If you're not a member but don't want to miss out, you can join here.

Notes from John Fairey's Mexico Plant Collecting Journals

Trip #48 - March 17th - 23rd, 1993 John and Carl left the Garden at 8:20 am on a cloudy and warm Wednesday, March 17th on their 48th trip to Mexico. They made four collections on this day on their way to Monterrey – two Allium, an Iris - "fine blue with bright cadmium center," and a Gaillardia. On the second day of the trip, their fifth collection was a Hesperaloe with small pink inflorescence collected at 700 feet above sea level in an area that is noted to be "heavily grazed," approximately 22 miles east of Linares, in Nueveo Leon. John and Carl often came in contact with plants endangered by development and heavy grazing. Hesperaloe is a yucca-like evergreen perennial succulent native to the Chihuahuan desert in western Texas south into northeastern Mexico. Although it is closely related to yuccas, it is a member of the century plant family not the yucca family. This plant ended up in the North Dry Garden in front of the Colonial Blue wall inspired by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's 'Casa Azul' outside Mexico City. The interior ends of the wall are painted a coral color that is mirrored in the Hesperaloe's inflorescence which appears in late spring.

Daikin Volunteers at the Garden

Though we don't have a photograph of them in action, last month Daikin sent over sixteen volunteers to spend the day helping around the Nursery. And help, they did, blazing through a long list of tasks so quickly we almost ran out of things for them to do. This included extracting rocks from the ground, moving heavy tables, fertilizing plants in the Nursery, weeding, up-potting, putting labels on pots, putting tags on stakes, and other nursery-related chores. As seen in the photograph above, they started the day with a short tour of the Garden led by Nursery Manager, Craig Jackson. Thank you Daikin for your continued support of the Garden.

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Closeups from the Garden

This month's closeups are dedicated to the Agave salmiana var. ferox 'Green Goblet' that was highlighted in last newsletter's Notes from John Fairey's Mexico Plant Collecting Journals. This Agave was a third generation pup of an Agave collected on Mexico trip #43 in August of 1992. Planted in 2010 in the Gallery Courtyard, it survived the past two severe winter freezes but is naturally succumbing to nature's course. In a conversation with music producer, Rick Ruben, Paul McCartney discussed how one always knew when the end of a Roy Orbison song was coming because of the way he ramped up the volume, pitch, and drama. Agaves are the Roy Orbison of the plant world, telegraphing their end in dramatic, colorful fashion at a high register.