July News from the Garden
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Letter from the Executive Director
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Greetings!
Six weeks ago, Houston native, Greg Floyd, was choked to death by a Minneapolis police officer. Eight days later, social media users posted black squares hashtagged
#blackouttuesday
, an action meant to call for a pausing of business activity to reflect on racism. I posted a black square on the
garden’s Instagram account
though I felt sheepish about it. In the face of institutional racism and police brutality, it seemed like a pitiful gesture. To not participate, however, would have felt obtuse. Still, posting on social media is not much of a commitment, so I was resigned to the fact that while it might have been worthwhile as a gesture, it made little to no contribution to the cause of fighting racism in general, and supporting
Black Lives Matter
in particular.
African Americans comprise 47% of the population of Hempstead, the town nearest The John Fairey Garden. Even though I’ve been involved with the garden in some capacity for over five years, I've never seen an African American in a tour group or in our nursery. Small wonder, as we've never made any concerted effort during that time to welcome Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) to the garden. The truth is, we’ve not done a good job of nurturing a relationship with anyone in our immediate community, but whatever tentative attempts we've made, we didn’t make a point of seeking out people of color. Ironic, considering the garden is best known for its
collection of plants from Mexico
.
Nineteen years ago, under the direction of our founder, John Fairey, the garden organized a symposium at neighboring Prairie View A&M University, a public historically black university, called, “Vanishing Borders – Gardens: Common Ground for International Understanding.” Today, however belatedly, I promise that we will build on John’s efforts to expose the artificiality of borders and promote commonality. This time, however, it feels necessary that we aim our focus a little closer to home. We commit – with pleasure – to building new relationships in our immediate community, and making it known to our BIPOC neighbors that we welcome them with open arms to The John Fairey Garden and its community of supporters. I encourage you, as someone who already supports the garden, to do what you can to help us make the garden as inclusive as possible.
Sincerely,
Randy
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Illicium anisatum
'Murasaki-no-sato'
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This fast growing uncommon star from Japan provides incredible ornamental interest throughout the year with colorful foliage and typical
illicium
blooms. Going into spring, its glossy leaves are variegated, dark green and chartreuse. Soon, white blooms with red streaks emerge, followed by successive flushes of new glazed purple foliage through summer, each hardening off in turn to green and chartreuse. This dense shrub is often conical in form at maturity and grows up to about eight feet, unscathed by freeze down to zone 7 (0 F). Although it requires regular water during its formative years, by maturity it becomes somewhat drought tolerant. In fact, the heavily mulched specimen at The John Fairey Garden resides comfortably near a dry garden in part shade, unbothered by pests or deer. -
Craig Jackson, Nursery Manager
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Notes from the Nursery Manager
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Dear Fellow Gardeners,
The nursery pipeline has been vigorously active over the last six months, churning out plants that will add splash and excitement to your landscape.
Succulents are always a top seller, especially the paddle plant (
Kalanchoe luciae
), yet as always we try to find some new kind of kick, something we've never had before, so lo and behold we now have available the really cool
Ledebouria crispa
, only a few inches tall at maturity with very crinkly leaf margins, a below ground caudex, and capable of being a house plant in a sunny spot. Of course, you’ll find the equally splashy
Ledebouria floribunda
right next to
L. crispa
trying to flag a ride to your garden.
On to shrubs, if you love rock rose (
Pavonia lasiopetala
), then you’re sure to love the red mallow (
Pavonia missionum
). Native to riparian areas of Argentina and Paraguay, this versatile fast growing plant takes dry part shade or moist full sun and produces incredible prodigious orange-red blooms. Of course, we also carry rock rose. In the salvia department we now offer two gorgeous newbies. Collected in the Hill Country along the Frio, mealy blue sage (
Salvia farinaceae
) has incredible purple flowers and very light gray, almost white, buds.
Salvia reptans
, given to us by a friend in Dallas, has bright violet flowers and linear leaves. Two trees that are sure to move quickly (once we open) are
Magnolia macrophylla
var.
ashei
, rare native to the panhandle of Florida, and
Acer oliverianum
var.
formosanum
, a lovely medium-sized maple with green bark and bright red leaves in fall.
Lastly, we are offering a selection of clematis vines in four inch pots:
C. texensis
(bright red flower),
C. pitcheri
(purple) and
C. carrizoensis
(periwinkle purple to white) – all Texas natives! They were grown from seed, so we eagerly await the moment of truth when the flowers open. I also eagerly await the moment when the nursery opens to the general public. In the meantime, we do have a wide variety of plants in the nursery. If you're interested in anything in particular, please email me at
craig@jfgarden.org
, and I'll be happy to make arrangements with you for purchase and pick up.
Happy Gardening,
Craig Jackson
Nursery Manager
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Magnolia macrophylla
var.
ashei
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Friends of the garden,
Metalab
, and
Long-Term Builders LLC
, donated time, design skills, and materials for the creation of our new sign. We are most appreciative.
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Windham Builders
, did an excellent job restoring the fountain wall and the "Frida Kahlo wall" in the north dry garden. We're so pleased to see the vibrant colors and hear the fountain again.
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