Letter from the Executive Director |
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Greetings!
Like the Prunus mume 'Pink Panther' above, our first newsletter of the year is bursting with good news as we ride the year-end momentum from our most successful Annual Appeal ever which brought in over $25,000. Thank you to all who contributed, especially our anonymous corporate supporter who matched those contributions. We are grateful for the support of our mission to preserve, share, and advance the horticultural and artistic legacy of John Fairey.
The good news I have today regards the "share" piece of our mission, and is probably the most compelling reason why one should be a Garden member. Beginning Saturday, April 6th and for all Saturdays after (barring holidays), members of The John Fairey Garden will be able to walk the Garden at their leisure from 10am - 4 pm. We have wanted to open the Garden up for some time and decided that beginning the process with members who obviously have a stake in our mission was the proper first step as we transition to a Garden that is open daily to all. While we're not quite there yet, we feel like we can provide members with a great experience while still protecting the Garden. This will involve introduction of some signage, some areas of the Garden will be cordoned off, and we'll ask our guests to be mindful and stay on paths and not venture into the beds – standard expectations for a botanic garden visit but ones we've not had to address so intently with our docent structure. We expect there will be a learning curve but hopefully we can reach a balance between Garden preservation and access. I invite you to feel free to provide your feedback on anything we can do to make this new way of being in the Garden a success.
But wait, there's more! We're also very excited to announce that we will offer audio tours to members beginning April 6th. Once a member checks in to the office, we'll provide a phone number they can call to access information about Garden history, special features of the Garden, and information on select plants and trees. We think our guests will enjoy the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the Garden. If, however, you wish your experience to be without audio accompaniment, you obviously will be free to not use the service.
For those of you who aren't members, we hope that the prospect of opening up the Garden will make becoming a member an easy decision. If you choose not to join, we will still offer Open Days with docent-guided tours twice a month, and private tours for groups of five or more.
We see this as a new chapter in the history of the Foundation, and we're excited that our members will be able to experience the Garden at their own pace, resulting, we hope, in an even deeper connection to, and appreciation for, this extraordinary environment.
Warm regards,
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If you're not currently a member but would like to have Saturday access to the Garden AND get early access to our upcoming Budding Out Plant Sale & Festival, join below.
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BUDDING OUT IS A MONTH AWAY! |
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The Budding Out Plant Sale & Festival, our premier spring event, is only four weeks away. We're still adding vendors but already have more vendor participants than before, and there will be a wide offering of rare and difficult to find plants, crafts, art, photography, informational presentations, and, of course, food and drink. We will also be offering tours of the Garden hourly.
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We'd like to thank our Partner Sponsors for their generosity. |
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New Events Page on Website |
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We're really pleased to announce that we have added an events page to our website. This will allow guests to pre-purchase tickets for select time slots for special events, Open Day tours, and private group tours. We hope you find this new feature useful and convenient.
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We had six participants in our inaugural Paint and Sip event at the Garden on February 10th. Led by Sarah ?, the group made paintings of Agaves and as you can see, there was some talent in the building. Thanks to Sarah and our Office Manager, Kara, for organizing this event. We’re sure to do more. |
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From left: Katie Hammond, Kaitlin Pflughaupt, Dawn Wilson, Sarah Mellot Carter, Jo Ann Wolf, Ashlyn Mashburn
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Notes from John Fairey's Mexico Plant Collecting Journals
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Trip #44- August 21 - 24, 1992
John Fairey and Carl Schoenfeld got an early start on this 44th trip to Mexico, leaving the Garden just after 7 am to drive to New Braunfels where they picked up fellow plant explorer, Scott Ogden. It was a short three day trip to Linares, San Francisco, Santa engracia Hacienda and San Carlos. Their intentions to go to Puerto Purificacion were squashed due to high water at a river crossing.
A Dioon edule (not the exact one pictured below) was the very first collection of the trip, collected as a seed at an altitude of 3400'. Though palm-like, the Dioon edule, also called virgin's palm, is a large, evergreen cycad endemic to Mexico. It is widely distributed in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range which, as you know, was where John and Carl focused most of their collection efforts. Cycad's are the oldest seed plants and pre-date the dinosaurs. The Dioon edule is drought tolerant and cold hardy, two increasingly critical characteristics for plants in this part of the world. The photograph below was taken since our last freezing spell. True to form for a John Fairey collection, it is not only suitable for our climate, it is a stunningly beautiful plant whose leaves interact in a particularly lovely way with raking light.
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