I have seen the Garden’s Future

I remember watching the first Planet of the Apes movie in 1968, and being struck by the depiction of Earth’s landscape after a nuclear war in which humans were wiped out. Unquestionably, humans manipulate landscapes for our own use, and have done so since we evolved into two legged creatures some 4-5 million years ago. Gardens are by definition human contrived, and without our intervention, they devolve into a shadow of their former selves, left with plants that will survive without human intervention. In almost all cases, garden diversity will be dramatically reduced, and despite what we’re often told, what plants remain may not be what was growing in region 100,000 years earlier. In the case of a botanical garden, collection diversity always declines quite rapidly without highly knowledgeable horticultural care. This is why we keep beating the proverbial drum for those with financial means, to help build the JLBG endowment at NC State University before it’s too late.

So, what happens if the JLBG preservation endowment doesn’t get fully funded in time? I’m glad you asked, and perhaps the photos below can tell the story better than I can. I’ve had the opportunity to follow a case study recently at the South Carolina Botanic Garden in Clemson, SC. When I first visited the garden in the 1970s, I found it very park-like, with several older rare specimens, but certainly nothing that fit the classic definition of a true botanical garden. The same was true over the next few decades, until Dr. Patrick McMillan took over the directorship of the garden in 2010. From this point, the trajectory zoomed upward, and it became not only a botanic garden, but a world class one. New garden sections came on-line rapidly, and the collections increased exponentially, primarily from his wild collections across the country.

Before he left in 2020 (during COVID), we were allowed to make several plant rescues at the garden of cuttings and seed to preserve some of the incredibly rare plant germplasm, since we feared what would happen when Patrick departed. After he left, the level of staff funding, combined with the overall lack of horticultural knowledge, especially from garden leadership, resulted in a dramatic reduction in even basic garden maintenance in many of the sections. While we hoped for the best, our worst fears were realized.

I recently returned to the garden for the third time since Patrick left, and each time, the maintenance of the garden continues in a downward spiral, seemingly due to the lack of leadership and certainly plantsmanship. The garden finally hired a new director in August 2023, and while I know nothing about the staffing, funding, or internal workings since that time, I couldn’t see any visible signs of maintenance improvement.

I’m certainly not trying to pick on SCBG, because I love the garden, and they certainly don’t have the market cornered on poorly maintained botanical gardens that have gone dramatically backwards after loosing their horticultural heart and soul. The key for any garden to avoid this is twofold; an adequate endowment, and a good board/leadership, that understands the garden’s mission, and how to keep the garden it at a high level of plantsmanship and maintenance. This is the reason we are pushing so hard to fully fund the NC State Endowment to preserve Juniper Level Botanic Garden. What a tragedy it would be if we were to quickly loose 75% of the plant collections. If you think this is an alarmist scare tactic, just look at the images below from my recent trip to SCBG for a great case study.

The first few images focus on the Sonoran Desert Garden at SCBG, which has been horticulturally decimated. I estimate that over 75% of the wild documented collections that were there in 2020 have died. The hardy cactus collection, which was one of the best east of the Mississippi, is down to a few unhealthy clumps of opuntia, and little else. Labels don’t appear to have been touched in four years, as tags of dead plants remain tossed around by weather or visitors There also doesn’t appear to have been any attempts at weed control in four years, as this section is completely consumed with a carpet of the horrible Asian native Fatoua villosa (mulberry weed). At this point, I’m not sure that anything other than a small nuclear explosion could get rid of this weed. Our native Andropogon virginicus (broomsedge) has also been allowed to seed unchecked, choking out even more rarities. If there has been a single weed pulled in four years, I couldn’t tell it. Rare shrubs that should never be cut back, were recently butchered by weed trimmer crews, who obviously had no idea what they were cutting, and had no knowledgeable supervision.

It’s always a good idea to start with a “before” shot, for some perspective.

And now…

We also walked through the amazing Natural Habitat garden, which brought me to tears, due to the lack of proper maintenance. While some of the native plants will surely survive, the incredible diversity that existed before, is being dramatically reduced as the most vigorous species have taken over and are choking out everything else. The breathtaking pitcher plant display that I used to marvel over, doesn’t appear to have been weeded in four years.

As before, we’ll start with a “before” photo from 2020.

The photos do a better job than I ever could to show why we must have a fully funded endowment soon, if Juniper Level Botanic Garden has any chance of being preserved in anything close to its current state. While the land on which JLBG sits, is safe due to our donation to NC State, the plant collection has no safety net without proper curation, which requires a fully funded endowment. All the plant exploration we’ve done over the last 30 years and all the plant rescues of private collections that we’ve done over the last two decades will be quickly erased without the proper future funding in place to maintain the garden and collections.

If you find the above case study compelling, we hope you’ll help us spread the word about our funding needs for the future, since many of the plants at JLBG face certain extinction without you. If you’re able, we hope you’ll consider JLBG as part of your end of year giving, and if you’re the lucky one who wins the current $1 billion+ lottery…don’t forget JLBG. The plants and several future generations of gardeners will thank you!