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In this short life that only lasts an hour
How much - how little - is within our power.
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Letter from the Executive Director |
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Greetings!
I saw this fragment framed in an exhibition in New York City recently and was struck by this concise expression of the human condition penciled out on a torn scrap of envelope. I thought about it in the context of gardening in general, and The John Fairey Garden specifically. John Fairey harbored a perspective biased toward the “how much,” and his work and imagination applied steadily over the course of almost fifty years turned a nondescript pasture into an exquisite botanic garden and cultural landscape. Not that the process was a steady evolution culminating in what one sees today – delivering a brutal illustration of the other half of Miss Dickinson’s equation, a tornado swept through the property in 1983 decimating the canopy John had established. As an adherent of the optimistic philosophy of the how much, and also a recipient of the reality of the "how little," John was necessarily prone to resilience, and he regrouped and altered his approach to the garden to reflect one that would be more in line with the conditions left in the tornado’s wake. In doing so, he set a new course for his collecting that would profoundly alter the trajectory of his garden, bringing him and the Garden much greater recognition than if he would have stayed the pre-tornado course.
This tug of war between how much and how little plays out with great frequency and at all scales in our interaction with nature. In the past few years it’s felt as though nature has added some extra muscle to its lineup, but I’m buoyed by the fact that the how little can be a positive catalyst for the how much. The tension between the two, present always in the makeup of the universe, manifests in our lives every single day. In the face of this duality, all we have is our response. And our response doesn’t have to be sullen or resigned, it can and should be optimistic and rooted in gratitude for the realization that we have an opportunity to improve rather than stay comfortably mired in a status quo that upon closer inspection reveals itself to be unsustainable.
This month The John Fairey Garden and the Rice University Department of Architecture co-hosted a two-day symposium we co-organized with Maggie Tsang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Rice, called Garden Ecologies - Environmental Transformation and Care. Panelists and moderators came from universities, practices, and organizations across the U.S. and Mexico. The first day of the symposium was at Rice, convening two panels - garden histories and landscape practices - and the second day was at the Garden where we gave a tour to over sixty people, ate lunch in the picnic grove, and hosted a panel on landscape management. Presentations over the two days included Emily Dickinson’s home conservatory and Kew Gardens; a contemporary “ruins” project outside Mexico City; urban ecology management along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou; experimental, citizen-driven, community-based care of public lands in and around Los Angeles, and more.
It was an uplifting two days and I'm grateful that the Garden was able to participate in a contemporary conversation about what it means to steward a garden in a time of climatic and cultural disruption. I am indebted to Maggie for helping bring such a diverse and thoughtful group of committed academics and practitioners together to talk and think and imagine how we can best respond to what’s in front of us, acknowledging, like John, the how little while not letting it stop us from setting our sights on the how much.
Warm regards,
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Thank you to our diverse community of members, guests, partners, and organizations from Texas and beyond who we have had the privilege of hosting and serving this year. Your largesse has allowed us to preserve, share, and advance John Fairey's horticultural and artistic legacy and has also given us the courage to make big plans for the future. This year, we are excited to announce that an anonymous donor will match every
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Taking Root Luncheon, October 19, 2023 |
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Our tenth Taking Root Luncheon was, by any measure, our most successful. 226 people attended and thanks to our generous supporters, we raised over $220,000. Additionally, we were thrilled to honor philanthropist and longtime friend of the Garden, Nancy Thomas. Carrie Rebora Barratt, Director of the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, New York, captivated the audience with her presentation, Art and Nature: Homes, Gardens, Museums and the Human Spirit, in which she placed John Fairey in context with Henry Francis DuPont, Henry Clay Frick, Frederic Church, Georgia O'Keefe, Jack Lenor Larsen, and Philip Johnson. Carrie illustrated the history of homes as sites of creative restoration, and the importance of the connection between art and nature.
Thank you to all who made this event such a great success!
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Craig Jackson Retires from the Nursery |
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Craig Jackson, Nursery Manager and docent extraordinaire, retired from the Garden earlier this month after being involved in many facets of the Garden's operations over the years. Starting as a volunteer, Craig ultimately became Nursery Manager, responsible for propagating plants for the Garden and our sales nursery while creating and maintaining the initial plant database, guiding group tours, and maintaining relationships with horticulturists, plant collectors, and institutions across the Country. Thank you for everything you did for the Garden, Craig. Happy Trails!
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Craig Jackson and Will Fleming at the Garden in November. |
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Will Fleming Awarded The Charles Leonard Weddle Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Texas Native Plants. |
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Longtime friend of The John Fairey Garden, Will Fleming, was recently awarded The Charles Leonard Weddle Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Texas Native Plants at the Native Plant Society of Texas's (NPSOT) annual conference in Nacogdoches, Texas, in November. Will has over 45 years of experience bringing native Texas flora into horticulture. One of his most well-known plant selections is Ilex vomitoria “Will’s upright Yaupon” which was awarded the first ever Lynn Lowery Award by NPSOT. You'll notice this Yaupon to the right of our entrance gate. Congratulations, Will!
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Notes from John Fairey's Mexico Plant Collecting Journals |
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Trip #45 - October 7 - 14 , 1992
John Fairey, Carl Schoenfeld, and Brett Hall, who was on the staff at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden, and is currently the California Native Plant Program Director there, left Hempstead on a "clear, warm, hazy" Wednesday headed to Monterrey. It was a busy seven day trip with stops in Monterrey, San Carlos, Ciudad Victoria, El Cielo, Matehuala, Doctor Arroyo, San Antonio Pena Nevada, La encantada, Siberia, making 126 collections along the way. One of the early collections on the trip were acorns from a tree they identified as "Quercus sartorii" with a noted "cut leaf form."
Sticking with the designation by which it was initially offered by Yucca Do Nursery, it is listed in our database as "Quercus sp. 'San Carlos', refering to the San Carlos Mountains in northeastern Tamaulipas where it was collected at 2900' altitude. The identity of this oak species is inconclusive, and could be a new, undescribed species. The unique shape of the narrow, jaggedly toothed leaves that emerge a blushy pink color make this a favorite oak among many enthusiasts.
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