EXPERIENCE AN EXTRAORDINARY GARDEN

Established by John Fairey in 1971, The John Fairey Garden (formerly Peckerwood Garden) is an extraordinary preservation garden on 39 acres near Hempstead, Texas. The garden is widely acclaimed for the originality of its design, its education and conservation programs, and its exceptional collection of over 3,000 plants, including many endangered and rare plants from Mexico, North America, and Asia. Docent-led group tours are offered on Open Days (see calendar), private tours are available to members by appointment. We look forward to seeing you at the garden!

Seasonal Highlights

Acer skutchii
Acer palmatum ‘Orido Nishiki’
Acer discolor
Acer oliverianum subsp. formosanum

Maples (Acer)

Late fall is the season when John’s use of maples brings dramatic, impressionistic color to the woodland garden. In the Hallway, the Cloud Forest Sugar Maple, a critically endangered maple collected in El Cielo, Mexico, bursts into yellow. Visible behind it are reflective tall vertical trunks of Bald Cypress. Nearby, Oliver’s Maple bursts into orange then red. A Big Toothed Maple turns orange. Just across the creek, Acer rubrum turns that deep red so familiar to east Texans, while in the Arboretum a Sugar Maple glows yellow. These incredible displays are never guaranteed on any given year, but you definitely don’t want to miss them when they do appear.

Camellia ‘October Affair’
Camellia sasanqua ‘Gingetsu’
Camellia ‘Autumn Spirit’
Camellia sasanqua ‘Tanya’

Camellias

In the light shade of savannah holly and pines, camellia flower buds have begun to open, revealing incredible colors and shapes that give a different meaning to the phrase “fall color.” Nestled among deep green glossy leaves, a panoply of flowers are adorned with huge golden stamens or ruffled double pink petals. Some are deep red, others white like porcelain. In the garden, over seventy camellia cultivars will be in full bloom by mid November, and many will continue blooming into March. The camellias of The John Fairey Garden have put on this glamorous show every year for decades, a spectacle that visitors surely don’t want to miss.

yucca linearifolia
agave sp. mr. ripple
nolina nelsonii
dasylirion, yucca rostrata

Woody Lilies

yucca linearifolia, agave sp. mr. ripple, nolina nelsonii, dasylirion and yucca rostrata
In the garden, as in the wild, woody lilies may be found growing in the shade of pines, hickories and oaks, or solitary in full sun. Yet here, John carefully selected the location of these plants. Smaller agaves, such as Agave ferdinandi-regis, line the paths providing low spiny texture. Behind them larger grassy dasylirion add a gentler texture. A third vertical layer of nolina, yucca and columnar cactus arises and is juxtaposed with an important garden architectural feature, such as the Blue Wall or the corrugated aluminum garage or house. Between these solitary long lived plants may be found, as also in the wild, rocky, gravelly soil, in this case pea gravel and bull rock.

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