Letter from the Executive Director and Artist in Residence

Dear Randy,

There’s an old DJ saying: “When in doubt, play the Beatles.” For an Executive Director, it might be: “When in doubt about what to write for your newsletter, thank your supporters.” After all, without supporters, we would not be able to pursue our mission to preserve, share, and advance the horticultural and artistic legacy of John Fairey. 

This mission statement underpins all our efforts on behalf of the Garden, and we take it seriously because our experience of John's horticultural and artistic legacy is meaningful to us. And as an institution we have a responsibility – which we also take seriously, – to provide the best opportunities for our constituents to have meaningful experiences in, or associated with, the Garden.

What makes for a meaningful experience? At best it could be one that triggers a personal insight or revelation. Or maybe one learns something of interest. Or maybe it's simply the experience of witnessing beauty. It’s our charge as a public garden to point out and gently steer our audience toward the meaningful pleasures a singularly envisioned cultivated landscape can provide for an audience with a wide array of interests. In our case, this could be the pleasure of encountering and identifying John’s totally unique pairing of Mexican and Asian plants. Or it could be the appreciation of the narrative of a South Carolinian and a Texan who became so enamored with the flora of a country that they traveled there over 100 times to collect seeds and cuttings, in many instances rescuing them from a threatening environment. Or perhaps one might draw inspiration from John's transformation of a traditional garden extensively damaged by a tornado, into an internationally recognized botanic garden prized not only for its horticultural significance but also by its highly personal design. The dedicated gardener might take pleasure in learning that John Fairey and Carl Schoenfeld were responsible for introducing dozens of plants into horticulture in the U.S., many of which are commonplace today. Conversely, at our plant sales we've witnessed the excitement of discerning gardeners as they load their cart with distinctive plants that are rarely found in commercial nurseries. Of course, not everyone shares an interest in gardening or the pleasures I've identified, but the simple pleasure of walking through the Garden and observing the beauty and diversity of color, textures, sounds, smells, and plants, is, it seems, an experience most human beings find enjoyable or, sometimes even, edifying. 

All of these examples relate to the "preserve" and "share" components of our mission; we continue to "advance" it as well through collecting efforts - either in the wild or through other botanic institutions - through the creation of the John Gaston Fairey Signature Plant Collection, by participating in conferences and public markets, and through a number of other public facing initiatives.



So, to those who make financial contributions, serve or have served on our board, volunteer, are members, advocate for the Garden, visit the Garden, buy plants, attend Taking Root, who are vendors and presenters at Budding Out, who read the newsletter – Thank you!

When in doubt, I'm playing "I Saw Her Standing There," and expressing my gratitude for your support of the Garden.

Warm regards,

Letter from the Nursery Manager and Horticulturist

Big things are happening in the nursery! We are excited to finally announce the grand opening of our John Gaston Fairey Signature Plant Collection sales greenhouse on Saturday, April 26th. You will find a unique selection of plants, and we'll continue to add more plants to our inventory as they become ready.

Starting in the late 1980s, John Fairey and Carl Schoenfeld made over 100 botanizing trips to remote regions of Mexico to document and conserve rapidly vanishing, uniquely diversified plants. John and Carl propagated the species they collected and introduced them, as well as other unusual plants, into the garden. They started the renowned Yucca Do Nursery (the site of the current John Fairey Garden Nursery) to share those plants with the public, influencing garden design in Texas and beyond. The John Gaston Fairey Signature Plant Collection honors that legacy. In addition to showcasing our Signature Plants inside of this new greenhouse, we have also designed a new display garden in front of the greenhouse that consists entirely of Signature Plants.

The fun doesn’t stop at the Signature House, though. Also occurring on April 26th, we are hosting a Paint and Sip, led by Sarah Mellott-Carter of Carter Homestead. This time, the focus will be cactus, which we will paint while drinking mimosas. Yum! All painting materials and drinks are included in your $45 ticket. We encourage you to bring a sack lunch. More information can be found on our website here. We hope to see you there!

Finally, we have a new project brewing in the greenhouse. The Fort Worth Botanic Garden has the largest collection of Begonias in North America, many of which hail from Mexico. They were kind enough to share cuttings of 32 of these Mexican Begonias, which we are now growing in the greenhouse! I am experimenting a bit with the propagation methods: half of the cuttings are sitting on our mist bench, and the other half are stored in “mini-humidity chambers” inside of Ziploc bags. All cuttings were treated with rooting hormone and placed in vermiculite. The hope is that once the cuttings produce new plants, we can begin to plant them in the ground in our garden to test their cold tolerance in the environment. Our hopes are high! This will be a long project, so if you’re interested in following along to see the progress, follow our nursery Instagram account @jfg_nursery!

All best,

Budding Out Report

We concluded another successful Budding Out Plant Sale & Festival last month. The weather cooperated and we had a robust turnout which was reflected in our plant sales. We're already thinking about ways we can improve the sale next year. If you attended as a customer, volunteer, vendor, or presenter, and you have any ideas you think might make the sale better, please let us know.



Mike Glier, Post-Residency

Mike Glier wrapped up his two week trial residency in the Garden at the end of February. After he returned home, I asked him if he'd write up a short piece about his stay at the Garden. I'm sharing it below. A few of pieces Mike made while here are currently in an exhibition of Mike's paintings at Downing Yudain Gallery in North Stamford, Connecticut.

I am delighted to have been a visiting artist at the John Fairey Garden, a very special place. I arrived on a cool, wet and breezy day, not quite what I expected from sunny Texas, but the weather was an improvement on the sleet driving sideways at my home in upstate New York. I spent the first day mostly on the porch, drawing the rain as it dripped off the palmettos. The next day the rain cleared but the wind picked up and the garden was shaking and shimmering, palmate forms flaring like lady’s fans and sword-like leaves sawing and clacking against one another. I spent that day drawing the movement of the garden, in particular the twirling leaf of a creek-side iris and a flowering branch that lifted and dropped, lifted and dropped throughout the afternoon. The wind settled as the week progressed and I noted small flocks of Bluebirds, and Cedar Waxwings. I began to draw the songs of Cardinals and Carolina Wrens as if they were lines of music; and added to the song list the discordant whistle of a Hawk, drawn as two parallel lines that curve toward one another but never touch. With pencil studies in hand, I spent much of the second week in the studio developing eight paintings of Agaves, which feature the contrast of thorn and flesh that characterizes this noble plant. At the end of two weeks, with portfolio full, I said goodbye to Executive Director, Randy Twaddle, most excellent host, sat for a moment on the bench in the woodland garden and headed back home to paint snow while thinking about Texas Cycads who lived during the time of the dinosaurs.  – Mike Glier

Agave v.5

acrylic, paper and pencil

16" x 12", 2025

Hawk and Song Birds

acrylic, paper and pencil

16" x 12", 202

We're thrilled to have been invited by our friends at the Hotel St. Augustine in Houston to participate in their inaugural Spring Market at the hotel on Saturday, May 17th from 11am - 3 pm. We'll have a distinctive collection of plants for sale – many of them from our John Gaston Fairey Signature Plant Collection – as well as some Garden merchandise. It should be a fun event with other makers and artisans. And as a bonus, the hotel's esteemed neighbor, The Menil Collection, is holding it's Community Day that day as well. It should be a fun day in the neighborhood. We hope to see you there.

Notes from John Fairey's Mexico plant collecting journals

Trip #94 - May 7, 2004 - May 16, 2004

May 17, 2004, the first day of John and Carl’s 94th trip to Mexico was the first entry in composition book #17, the next to last Mexican plant collection journal kept by John and Carl. Trip #94 was an extensive nine day journey that encompassed 2371 miles. Twenty four collections were made on this trip, and, relevant to Ashlyn’s nursery letter above, 4 of these collections were listed as "Begonia sp.", the first being identified as the 13th collection on the trip. These seeds were collected near the town of Xilitla, at Las Pozas, the sculpture garden of Edward James, an eccentric British poet, artist and patron of the surrealist movement. In the early years, James designed Las Pozas as a plantation for a large collection of orchids. After an unprecedented frost that destroyed much of the plantation, James began constructing the surreal sculpture garden. (Another story of a severe weather event changing a garden's trajectory). Notes in the journal describe the seeds coming from a plant with “large round leaves, delicate panicles of cream and white. Flowers on 24” stems.” The entry says these were “gathered from the snake path,” a reference to a feature of Las Pozas where stone and cement serpents line a pathway through the garden. The three other successive Begonia collections were made the next day near Tamazunchale, on Highway 85 about an hour's drive away from Las Pozas.

photo by Eva Phan



SAVE THE DATE FOR TAKING ROOT

Though it's months away, please take the time to put our twelfth annual Taking Root Luncheon on your calendar for Wednesday, October 22, 2025. This year we're returning to the gorgeous, newly remodeled ballroom at The Junior League of Houston.

Our fabulous Co-Chairs, Cabrina Owsley and Allison Parsley, are already hard at work to help make this our most successful luncheon ever. We're all thrilled this year to be honoring friend of the Garden and 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.

We hope you'll join us for the Garden's most important fundraiser of the year.

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