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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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