Letter from the Executive Director |
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This month's header image taken in the South Dry Garden was selected because it seems exuberant. That's our state of mind right now as we reflect on all that's going on at the Garden. It's an exciting time and we are grateful for all of you who sustain us through memberships, donations, and participation in our fundraisers such as the Taking Root Luncheon.
I hope you were fortunate enough to join us at this year's Taking Root on October 13th. The event was a smashing success with a record-breaking number of attendees who listened to our thoughtful speaker, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, share her insight into ways in which we can create a meaningful relationship with the natural world around us.
If you were there you also got to hear (or, maybe even contributed to) the audible gasp from the audience when we announced a pledge of $1 million from Austin-based renewable energy firm AP Solar for the creation of a permanent endowment for The John Fairey Garden Conservation Foundation. This pledge was facilitated by board member, David Klein, and we are most grateful for David's efforts and AP Solar's incredible generosity. This gift is a major first step in the Foundation's drive for financial sustainability.
We also announced another capacity building effort, Stewarding Eden, an initiative to raise $175,000 for the commission of a comprehensive water study for the Garden by San Francisco-based civic engineering firm, Sherwood Engineers. Sherwood is an industry leader in designing sustainable water infrastructure, and the intent for this study is to show us how we can achieve net zero water usage at the Garden. John Fairey's introduction of xeric plants into ornamental horticulture reduced water usage. We are inspired to contribute to that legacy through thoughtful conservation of water. In keeping with the importance of design and aesthetics, we intend our water infrastructure to enhance the beauty of the Garden, not just provide a pure infrastructure function.
We will be fundraising for Stewarding Eden through grants and the patronage of individuals and foundations who are committed to sustaining natural resources. Our desire is to implement best practices in sustainable and responsible water use and share our experience and knowledge with our neighbors and other water intensive entities. Though we began thinking about this in the spring, this summer's extreme heat and our ongoing drought underscore the importance of this initiative. If you're interested and would like to learn more, please email me.
We couldn't envision or accomplish any of this without the support of our members and engaged community. Thank you helping us with our mission to preserve, share, and advance the horticultural and artistic legacy of John Fairey. We hope you'll accompany us on this journey as we explore the most meaningful ways to achieve that mission.
Warm regards,
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Notes from John Fairey's Mexico plant collecting journals |
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Trip 96 – November 3, 2005
John Fairey and Corey Mason, a graduate student in the Landscape Architecture department at Texas A&M University left for trip 96 on Thursday, November 3rd, 2005. They collected in Eagle Pass, Texas, and ten specific areas in Mexico. Acorns were the focus of this trip, and John and Corey amassed a whopping 2,630 acorns over the course of their 1688 mile journey.
When in the Garden looking at oaks that John wild collected, one doesn’t typically think of all the acorns gathered that didn’t make it; as John’s journal suggests, there are a lot of them, hence the need to collect in such high numbers.
As it turns out, one of the Garden’s most highly prized trees came from one of the 95 acorns of this particular species collected on this trip – the Quercus crassifolia located in the South Dry Garden. To me it's akin to magic to think of an acorn on a branch of a tree in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, harvested by a man who brings it back to Hempstead, Texas, where it is grown in a pot for two or three years and then gets planted and grows to be a signature tree in an internationally recognized garden. One could hardly envision that from the modest journal entry:
T96-13s-110505
Quercus sp large leaf with mustard color hairs underside of leaf. East of La Encantada.
Below is an excerpt from an entry by Roderick Cameron for Q. crassifolia on the International Oak Society website. Interesting to see that Alexander von Humboldt was the first of two to collect this oak. If you haven't read Andrea Wulff's fantastic biography of Humboldt called 'The Invention of Nature,' I highly recommend it.
Quercus crassifolia is a tree ranging in height from 4 to 15 meters, and is usually easily recognized by its leaves: stiff and leathery, glossy blackish green above, covered with a layer of pale brown hairs beneath, and with bristle-tipped teeth above the widest part of the leaf. It was first collected by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland on their famous five-year journey to Latin America at the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries; the name was published by Bonpland in 1809, thus making this species one of the first Mexican oaks to be described (several species were described by Luis Née in 1801). Amongst its numerous common names in Spanish, perhaps the most distinctive is Encino chicharrón, based on the similarity between the leaves and the fried pork rinds popular in Mexican cuisine and known as chicharrones (encino is one of the generic terms for Quercus in Mexican Spanish). The epithet crassifolia derives from the Latin crassus, meaning solid, thick, or coarse (it is the origin of the English word “crass”), and refers to the thickness of the leaves.
You can read the entire Q. crassifolia entry on the International Oak Society website here.
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Quercus crassifolia in the South Dry Garden. Collected on Trip #96. |
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Close up of Quercus crassifolia leaves. |
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Images from the Taking Root Luncheon |
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This year's Taking Root – our ninth annual luncheon – took place on a lovely warm fall day at the Bayou Club. More people attended this luncheon than ever before, and they were treated to an insightful and uplifting talk by our featured speaker, Lyanda Lynn Haupt.
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1. Lyanda Lynn Haupt 2. Co-chairs, Jessica Phifer and Susie Tucker 3. Michael Zilkha with a copy of Lyanda's most recent book 4. Board Vice President, Mark McKinnon; Board President, Wally Wilkins; Advisory Board member, Jay Jones 5. Taylor Byrne-Dodge; Cate Stewart; Ann Swanson 6. Taking Root attendees at the Bayou Club 7. Page Kempner; Sissy Kempner; Mary Kempner 8. Board member, Satara Henry; Cyndi Shantz; Marcus Taylor 9. Board Treasurer, Susan Young; Betty Moody; Kathryn McGovern.
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We sent out our first monthly newsletter last week from The John Fairey Garden Nursery. If you'd like to receive it, please email us, put "nursery newsletter" in the subject line, and we'll add you to the mailing list.
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