Spring Fever? Tour Fairchild Gardens
Monday, March 21, 2016 at 2:01AMArticle and photos by Susan Schaefer
If you’ve ever wondered how your roast or corned beef met that zesty horseradish topping, you can thank a mid-Western gentleman scholar named David Fairchild, a botanist, bureaucrat and adventurer from Kansas, whose notable career began under the influence of his father, president of Kansas State College of Agriculture. Young Fairchild went on to Iowa State and Rutgers Universities before joining the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. in the early 1890s. While working for the USDA, Fairchild introduced more than twenty thousand exotic plants into the United States, among them the first flowering cherries of Washington, D.C., soybeans, mangos, alfalfa, nectarines, dates, bamboos, and yes, horseradish.
Here in Minnesota where the Mill City moniker reflects our deep agricultural roots we recognize Fairchild for his targeted support of applied botanical science to provide American farmers with “economic plants” for market development. Much of our state benefits still.
But another reason for winter weary Minnesotans to appreciate Fairchild is the chance to escape to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens located in the lush, hidden neighborhood of Coral Gables, Florida, just south of Miami, part of his legacy. Here it is possible to wander 83 acres of mesmerizingly landscaped paths past some 11 lakes, stone walls laden with blossomed vines, sunken gardens, tropical mini-forests, and museums and exhibition buildings replete with an innovative butterfly house aflutter with bewitching varieties.
As member of the Center for Plant Conservation, a consortium of botanic gardens involved in preservation of endangered U.S. flora, FTBG’s plant collecting efforts have intensified to identify and save endangered plants including tropical fruit, Florida and native plants, and orchids. The annual orchid extravaganza, which typically coincides with our spring break, is worthy of a day trip.
While the Central Mississippi riverfront slowly greens, and we seek out gardening tips at Como Conservatory, the MN Landscape Arboretum, and the now open Macy’s Annual Flower Show, I recommend a visit to FTBG to partake of the colorful chaos of flora and fauna in their native setting. Here’s a small taste to whet your wanderlust.
Susan Schaefer can be reached at susan@millcitymedia.org.
