Letter from the Executive Director

Greetings! For the past few months it's been all "Budding Out," all of the time, around here so I'm pleased to report that this year’s event more than repaid the effort. We estimate that we hosted between 700-800 guests; plant and merchandise sales were brisk; the weather was perfect; and the garden now has 61 new members/supporters as a result of the event. If you're one of those new members, welcome! All of those quantifiable metrics are great and without them we wouldn't be able to claim the event an unqualified success. The most gratifying aspect for me, though, was watching people enjoy themselves, hang out, and take advantage of the beautiful surroundings. It was also great to see the warm and animated interactions among our community of plant people who share a common interest. We had a particularly large contingent of Austin gardeners and designers visit us that day, and we're really excited to strengthen our ties with that community. We’re grateful for all the vendors who participated (we received lots of feedback about how helpful and kind the vendors were) and grateful for all our guests who showed up to support the garden. We’re looking forward to expanding the vendor pool next year, both plant and arts vendors, so we hope to offer an even bigger and better sale and festival next year.  This year’s Budding Out gave us a glimpse of the event we think it can become – a full day of plants, art, food, drink, music, presentations, and camaraderie. We hope you'll return next year to help us realize that vision.  Warm regards,

Selections From The John Gaston Fairey Collection of Mexican Folk Art Coming to the Garden in May

Plants weren't the sole focus of John Fairey's collecting trips to Mexico. He collected Mexican folk art as well, amassing a collection that ultimately comprised more than 500 pieces. Later in his life, John gifted his collection to the Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) in memory of his parents. Thanks to the generous cooperation of the AMSET Board of Directors and Director, Lynn Castle, we are pleased to announce select pieces from John's collection will return to the Garden for a three month long exhibition in the Garden gallery, beginning May 7th, 2022 for members. Due to limited resources and parking, admission to the exhibition will timed and ticketed. We will sell tickets to the exhibition only, or guests may purchase a combination exhibition/Garden tour of the North Dry Garden, which will highlight plants from our Mexican collection. Exhibition-only tickets will be $10 for members, $15 for non-members. Exhibition/Garden tour will be $10 for members, $30 for non-members. Tickets will be available online at a later date to be announced. We hope you'll come experience another aspect of John's passion, keen eye, and deep appreciation for the culture of Mexico. 

Visitors to the Garden This month we were fortunate to host some special visitors from Colorado. Mike Kintgen, Curator of Alpine Collections at the Denver Botanic Gardens, stopped in to visit with Nursery Manager, Craig Jackson, and take a tour of the Garden. Mike, who has officially been with the Denver Botanic Gardens since 2004, is currently involved in both horticultural and conservation projects of alpine, US native and steppe plants and ecosystems worldwide and in the US. Mike is a popular lecturer locally, nationally and internationally, and has authored many articles in horticultural journals and gardening periodicals.

Later on the same day, longtime friend of the garden, Mengmeng Gu, Professor/Extension Specialist, Department of Horticultural Science, Texas A & M AgriLife Extension Service, brought Plant Select® Executive Director, Ross Shrigley, to the garden for a tour. Plant Select ®, a cooperative program administered by Colorado State University and Denver Botanic Gardens, seeks out, identifies, and distributes the very best plants for landscapes and gardens from the inter-mountain region to the high plains.

A North Dry Garden Highlight

This beautiful Yucca treculeana was showing out in the North Dry Garden recently so we thought we'd share the beauty with you. This Yucca was planted in 2010 from seed given by longtime friend of the Garden, David Richardson.

Collection Management Upgrade Though it may not sound very sexy, we are thrilled to report that we recently upgraded our collection management system to IrisBG, a collections management software which has become the preferred software of botanic gardens around the world. Nursery Manager/partime IT Director, Craig Jackson, built our previous database which was very serviceable and useful. This upgrade adds some features and makes it easier to accomplish the tasks necessary for a robust management system, and for sharing information with other institutions. The IrisBG software gives us functionality that allows Accessions with plant and determination history, plant mapping, collectors, origin, material, permits, references, parentage, etc. Taxa with synonyms, common names, description, occurrence, conservation status, references, parentage, etc. Taxonomic hierarchy with genera, families, orders, etc. Images for accessions and taxa. Plotting of plants, garden locations and localities directly on maps. Maps showing plants, garden locations and localities. In the future we hope to translate this data into more public forms of consumption to share, giving our guests more context into the plant collections at the Garden. 

Notes from John Fairey's Mexico plant collecting journals

Trip 89 John Fairey and Jonathan Wright, who at the time was at Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, Pennsylvania, made trip #89 to Mexico on February 14th, 2002. Below is the entry for the first day of the trip. Trip 89 to Mexico. 14 February 2002 First day to Monterrey, Linares, San Carlos La Bufa (camping out) then 2 days at Hacienda at Santa Engracia and out to Cuidad Victoria and on to La Peña. Botanizing expedition to show Jonathan Wright, fellow from Chanticleer, Pennsylvania.

On day four of the trip, the first find of the day was a large, silver Agave found by Jonathan Wright near Miquihuana. A pup from that plant was brought back and planted in the north dry garden in 2006 with the cultivar name of 'Jon-Jon,' in honor of Jonathan Wright. That plant is pictured above. Jonathan Wright would continue his close relationship with John until John's death in 2020. Jonathan is currently Ruth Lilly Director of The Garden and Fairbanks Park at Newfields in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Closeups from the Garden