Letter from the Executive Director and Artist in Residence | | |
Greetings!
Late August in the Garden is not exactly a liminal time, as we're still in the steady grip of summer, but one does start looking ahead to the fall—or what passes for it here—confident, now, that we're going to make it through another summer. This summer has been less oppressive than the last, with the much-appreciated combination of occasional rain and light breezes, which I don’t remember ever feeling last summer. September will likely remain hot, but we can now finally begin to convince ourselves that fall will return.
Heat or not, work continues at the Garden during the summer months, and we've made some improvements and additions we hope will translate into a better experience for our guests and members once we open back up in the fall. One that will be most apparent to our guests is our office refresh. In July, we repainted the office, moved out the ragtag assortment of furniture that had accumulated over the years, and replaced it with matching desks and some uniform, clean storage/display units. We hung some beautiful black-and-white photographs from Mexico that were in John’s collection. We’ve not yet identified the photographer, but we hope to someday. They had been hung in my office, but I’m happy to have them in a more public space now that there’s room for them.
Other work has been going on behind the scenes that will not be noticeable to the public (yet) but is nonetheless critical to the professional functioning of a botanic garden. Wally and Ashlyn have been using our new GPS unit, generously donated by Parliament Energy, to accurately identify and map plant locations in the Garden. Someday, this information will be publicly available on our website. In the meantime, we are steadily making progress on this project. Just this week, Wally finished identifying and mapping all our oak tree locations — a big task.
We look forward to seeing you at our first Open Day of the season, Saturday, September 13. As usual, we’ll be giving docent-guided tours at 10, 11, and 1 p.m., and the nursery will be open from 9 to 3. If you haven’t already, it will be a good time to check out the newly established greenhouse devoted to the John Gaston Fairey Signature Plant Collection.
I hope you have an enjoyable Labor Day holiday. We hope to see you at the Garden soon.
Warm regards,
| | Letter from the Nursery Manager and Horticulturist | | |
The dog days of summer are in full swing at the nursery, but that doesn’t mean we’ve slowed down! Despite the intense heat, lack of rain, and muggy conditions, many of our plants are doing well—some are even thriving. In fact, I’ve continued to grow our nursery collection as the summer has progressed, and I’m excited to share updates on our current projects.
First, the begonias gifted to us by the Fort Worth Botanic Garden are doing quite well. Many of the leaf cuttings have produced new shoots and have been upgraded to 6-inch pots. Some have even grown enough to be divided or to harvest more leaf cuttings from them. If you recall, the end goal of this project is to introduce 32 different species of Mexican begonia into our garden to test their cold hardiness. Since this can’t be achieved in just one winter, I’ve been tasked with propagating multiples of each species to test in the coming years.
Second, you might remember that Wally brought back cuttings of about 50 different taxa of plants from UC Berkeley earlier this summer. Unfortunately, some of those cuttings didn’t survive beyond the mist bench and had to be discarded. On the bright side, several successfully rooted and were upgraded to 1-gallon nursery pots. These cuttings were selected from a list of plants we’ve lost over the years—either ones that were previously planted in the garden or specimens John and Carl collected in Mexico that never made it in. I’m happy to say that this fall, several species from that list will be making their way into the garden!
Third, we’re thrilled to announce a pop-up sale at the Hotel St. Augustine on September 20! Houstonians: this is the perfect opportunity to visit us while staying close to home. The sale will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the hotel courtyard. I plan to offer plenty of perennials and shrubs, as well as some trees and indoor plants. The end of September is an ideal time to start planting again, so come visit and browse the selection!
Lastly, a big shout-out to everyone who attended our Summer Succulent Sale. Despite the heat and the threat of rain, we had a fantastic turnout and sold some beautiful plants! We’re excited to continue the tradition next summer. Our next major plant sale at the garden will be the Trunk Show, featuring a wide selection of trees and shrubs. It’s going to be a great event this year—mark your calendars for October 4. I hope to see y’all there!
As always, if you have questions about plants, nursery stock, or anything else, feel free to contact me at ashlyn@jfgarden.org.
All best,
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Gardener Luke Kelley braved the summer heat and constructed a crevice garden just west of the office in the Sierra Madre bed that we are still in the process of planting. You can see an image of it at the top of the newsletter.
This crevice garden is opposite the one Adam Black put in seven or so years ago. Luke has just begun carefully placing some specimens in the rock garden which, like the rest of the Sierra Madre bed, will continue to receive new plants once the cooler weather arrives. Here's a list of plants currently in the crevice garden:
Russellia sp. 'San Carlos'
- Tradescantia pallida
- Agave victoria-reginae
- Agave bracteosa
- Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor'
- Dyschoriste sp.
- Marshallia caespitosa
- Echinocereus reichenbachii
- Echinocereus pentalophus
- Coryphantha compacta
- Grusonia schottii
- Zephyranthes 'Big Dude'
- Zephyranthes 'Star Spangled'
- Zephyranthes 'Kathryn'
- Zephyranthes 'Early and Often'
- Echinocereus enneacanthus
- Chrysactinia mexicana
- Tradescantia sillamontana
- Ariocarpus fissuratus
| | Our good friends at the Hotel Saint Augustine in Houston have invited us back for a fall plant sale. We’ll be there on Saturday, September 20, 2025 from 10 am - 2 pm with another excellent selection of perennials, woody plants, and some trees. September is the perfect time to begin putting some plants in the ground, so join us for a sale of distinctive plants you won’t find just anywhere, all propagated at The John Fairey Garden Nursery. We hope to see you there. | | |
Board members Tom McCasland and Isaac Stein help set up at the Spring Market at the Hotel St. Augustine. We'll be back in the same spot on September 20th.
| | Notes from John Fairey's Mexico plant collecting journals | | |
Trip #33 - August 16 - August 20, 1991
On August 16, 1991, at 9:30 a.m., John Fairey, Carl Schoenfeld, Mel Shemlack, and Rob Nicholson from the Arnold Arboretum departed the Garden for Mexico, the thirty-third Mexican plant expedition trip for John and Carl. According to the travel record, they got a bit of a late start that morning as they had to "pot plants that Rob brought from the Arnold." First things first, afterall.
This was a productive five day trip that saw them pass through Mamulique, Monterrey, Chipinque, Linares, Highway 85 to San Francisco,Ciudad Victoria, San Carlos, El Diente, Linares, Iturbide, and Saltillo.
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Our records indicate they made 45 collections on the trip, the very first one being Yucca rostrata seeds collected at an altitude of 2,150' "on the new road to Mamulique." One of those very seeds is now a thirty four year old Yucca rostrata currently growing in our gallery courtyard not far from the turquoise colored Lars Stanley bench. (see above) Of the forty-five collections made on that trip, fourteen live on in the gallery courtyard, the north dry garden, the arboretum, and the woodland garden. You may be able to make them out on the map below. Here's a list:
Brahea moorei (4)
Nyssa sylvatica (1)
Philadelphus sp. (1)
Hamamelis mexicana (1)
Bauhinia bartlettii (2)
Yucca rostrata (2)
Beschorneria rigida (1)
Quercus porphyrogenita (2)
| | The Twelth Annual Taking Root Luncheon Coming Soon | | | | |
A reminder that our twelfth annual Taking Root Luncheon, co-chaired by Cabrina Owsley and Allison Parsley, will be Wednesday, October 22, 2025. This year we're returning to the gorgeous, newly remodeled ballroom at The Junior League of Houston. (see detail at left)
We're thrilled this year to be honoring a stalwart supporter and friend of the Garden, the visionary, Christopher Knapp. And in keeping with our tradition of compelling speakers, we couldn't be more excited to welcome author and New York Times columnist, Margaret Renkl as our guest speaker.
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"The garden reconciles human art and wild nature, hard work and deep pleasure, spiritual practice and the material world. It is a magical place because it is not divided."
Thomas Moore
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