Self Preservation

We’ve made it to the end of another calendar year, which, with the financial business challenges of the last two years, is indeed a feat that didn’t come easy. 2026 marks our 40th year as both a botanical garden and nursery. It’s been a fascinating journey, which now has many more years behind us, than in front of us. By donating both JLBG and Plant Delights to NC State University, we made sure that the land that JLBG sits on will be preserved, but the funds don’t currently exist for much in the way of maintenance, once I (Tony) become disabled, composted, or unable to maintain my current work schedule.

The Endowment to preserve JLBG at NC State University, is the only way the plant collections and nursery can be saved. To reach the required $20 million in funding that is required to keep the garden maintained and the nursery functional, we still have a ways to go. So far, the endowment sits at just over $6 million dollars, which would be great if I was twenty years younger. Most of those funds are in the form of life estates (wills and planned gifts). While these are incredibly valuable, they can’t currently be used to switch over to University control, which would allow me to step back into the plant world, from the business side, while I’m still somewhat coherrent, and physically able to still garden. The endowment cash gifts, which can be used to hire staff, once the university takes over, currently sits at only $1.2 million. That would equate to sustaining 1 full time staff member. I don’t mind admitting that after running a business for 39 years, I sure could use a mental health break.

Since we’re in the midst of the season of giving, we’ll join the long list of folks, hoping you’ll be able help financially build their endowments. Sorry for not being subtle, but those of you who have reached the age of 73 and have an IRA, are required by your dear Uncle Sam to start taking money out of your retirement each year. Unless your IRA is a Roth, any money you take as a distribution is taxable…unless you directly transfer the funds into a 501-C-3, like the JLBG Preservation endowment. If you need help with such a tax saving donation, then Development staff at the NC State College of Agriculture and LIfe Sciences will be glad to assist you. Endowment opportunities such as naming rights, research, plant exploration funding, etc. are all available as well. Lastly, if you’re the recent $1.8 billion dollar lottery winner from Arkansas, we sure hope you like plants and gardening…hint, hint.

Our current funding, which allows us to stay financially viable until the Endowment is fully funded, has also had a challenging two year stretch. To mitigate the financial challenges caused by three years of extraordinarily high inflation pressures and greatly reduced consumer confidence, we created a garden membership program in January 2024. In that two year span, our membership has risen to 510. Our overly ambitious goal for 2026 is to reach 1000 members. Your support of our membership program has been an invaluable piece in being able to survive until the endowment is fully funded. If helping us maintain the gardens, preserve rare plants, and teach from our work isn’t enough, we hope you’ll find the other benefits of membership will themselves, be worthwhile. If you’d like to join our JLBG family of members, you can do so here.

This fall, we also instituted a $5 on-site parking charge when visiting JLBG. Garden members, volunteers, and staff are exempt. The $5 charge is also fully refundable if you purchase plants when you are here. We felt this was the fairest method to offset the cost of having and maintaining a parking lot for over 250 vehicles, since we don’t current charge to visit the garden. For 2026, we are also beginning to explore event rentals as an additional revenue source. This requires quite a bit of planning to make sure events don’t jeopardize the plant collections. Our amazing journey continues, and we sincerely thank you for being a part of our family of supporters!