The Oak Berm is a signature feature of The John Fairey Garden. John created this berm to plant and highlight oaks that he collected in northeastern Mexico. John and Carl Schoenfeld made 107 botanizing trips to Mexico, primarily in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains, beginning in 1988. All the oaks in the berm were wild collected as acorns, and planted as saplings by John through the years.

Specimen in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains

There are approximately 600 species of oaks in the world. Mexico is the center for oak diversity, having 160 native species, over 100 of which are endemic.

Their native range consists of beautiful forests of conifer, oak and hickory at elevations from 1,000-3,000 feet. These forests have much in common with the eastern forests of the U.S., and it is thought that they were connected at one time, but that millennia of glaciers and dry weather created a divide. The area around The John Fairey Garden roughly coincides with the most westerly longitudinal line of the eastern U.S. deciduous forests.

Some of the oaks in the berm are:

• Quercus polymorpha (Monterey Oak)
• Quercus aff. pringlei – (The species of this oak remains to be scientifically described and named)
• Quercus rysophylla (Loquat Leaf Oak)
• Quercus aff. Sartorii ‘San Carlos’ 
• Quercus germana (Mexican Royal Oak)