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| Brooks Garcia |
Brooks was raised with a gardening sensibility from a very early
age. By the time he was in his mid teens he was entering horticultural
competitions...and winning. He attended and graduated from the
University of Georgia with a degree in environmental design. Twenty
five years ago he moved to Atlanta, GA where he still lives. For the
last twenty three of those years Brooks has been the owner and operator
of his own company, Fine Gardens, a design firm,
http://www.atlantafinegardens.com/. He also writes the blog Sarracenia
Obsessed, http://www.sarraceniaobsessed.com/ where he shares his
adventures in growing and breeding this temperate, carnivorous plant.
When he's not gardening at work, then he's at home working in his garden
and if he's not doing that, well, he's probably still gardening in the
production vegetable garden for the local Georgian restaurant, Home
Grown GA. He also enjoys just being outside, hunting or hiking the
countryside.
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| Bog Fever |
"I find horticulture rewarding
in so many ways. It feeds my soul and my client’s. It
is an artistic expression
and allows me to shape a space and create a mood." Brooks loves the
'hort-head' community for the shared passion of plants; how they grow
and bloom and for the ups and downs one experiences in learning the
cultural requirements of some exciting, new precious. "I
am greatly discouraged by
the dumbing down of plants in our culture, the attitude of mow, blow and
go and
of instant gratification, the big box store mentality of marketing
plants." He says that he can't imagine a life where he isn't working
with plants. Goody Davis, a close friend of Brooks is credited with
being his biggest garden influence. She is/was directly responsible for
his love of horticulture. Beck Cherry and Mary Izard also helped the
gardening passion along, they believed in him and hired him to be their
personal gardener and the early age of sixteen. His personal garden is
fairly small and designed utilizing classic English and cottage
principles. Brooks sees horticulture as a series of trends and feels
the ornamental garden is on the downward slope. Ornamentals will
eventually regain their popularity, but until then, small, local,
organic farming is the new horticulture.
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| Blood Moon |
Brooks true horticultural love is the
Sarracenia and the only plants that he breeds. Sarracenias are a
carnivorous, pitcher plant native to the United States and Canada, that
prefer to grow in acidic, full sun bog conditions. He's completely
fascinated by their primal nature and their ease of care once a few
cultural requirements are met. He starts thousands (or maybe tens of
thousands) of seeds each spring where only the strongest survive.
Perhaps 1% of these seedlings make it to registration. He breeds for
vigor, interesting pitcher shapes and a bright, stable color. He's
hoping to see the elusive, good, clear orange emerge from his lines.
After being grown out by Brooks for four or five years, divisions are
sent out to some of his grower friends in varying USDA hardiness zones
for further evaluation. Temperature has a lot of impact on pitcher
color, so it can't always be trusted to be true for everyone. If all of
his strict criteria are met, the seedling is given a cultivar name and
made available to the general public.
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| Savannah Fire |
He offers this advice to all new breeders, which I believe applies to all genera. "Choose excellent stock plants to
work with, dogs only beget dogs. Think through your crosses but don’t be afraid
to experiment. Stay away from freakish trends. Develop your own style and
vision. Be ruthless in your culling, raise your standards of what is good.
Don’t be too quick to proclaim something cultivar worthy and be patient for the
cream to rise to the top. Trial your plants with other top growers to ensure
stable plants that produce even results."
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| Wilkerson's White Knight |
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