Happy birthday to my mentor

Allan Ross Taylor

I have been blessed with no end of mentors and gurus and guiding lights throughout my life (everyone has, of course, but do we always know it?). I think it would be fair to say that THIS fellow has perhaps influenced me in more ways, more profoundly than anyone--shaping much of my intellectual worldview, and launching (much to his surprise I expect) my career as well.

It's more than a little appropriate to show Allan next to Yucca elata--he went through an enthusiastic succulent phase that had more than a little impact on me (roughly 1964-1977: we go way back!). He's been through many phases of plant enthusiasm (rock gardening first and foremost, cacti, quest for the hardy Eucalypt, rhododendrons, cyclamen and Greek bulbs, manzanitas, but especially now trees (conifers, oaks, maples--you name it). Many of the plants Allan has researched have become mainstream and are being grown around the world.

Cupressus arizonica

He deserves special credit for introducing the super-hardy strain of Cupressus arizonica from Luna County, New Mexico. I accompanied Allan on one of his early forays to locate that incredible colony high on the shoulder of Cooke Peak: he'd contacted the ranchers who owned the property and obtained permission to get seed. That form is significantly tougher and incredibly variable and continues to produce outstanding landscape plants that thrive across much of the Temperate Zone...

Twenty years later I returned to that ridge in New Mexico with colleagues and almost all the cypresses had died from prolonged drought.

I first met Allan when he visited our home (he was dating my gorgeous sister--who was 18 years older than me at the time): I was perhaps five or six? I suspect I became as infatuated with Allan at the time as had my mother and sister and the rest of our family! In my case I selected him as my "father by preference" (My gruff, chubby Greek father with the accent was so much less desirable in my eyes back than than the tall, brilliant Anglo). I think I even managed to capture a bit of the complex magic of that early passion in my chapter of The Roots of my Obsession, where various gardeners describe how they developed their horticultural passion: I owe mine to Allan, pure and simple.

When one's relationship with a hero stretches over nearly seven decades, and said hero is a polymath with an out-sized personality, even touching on the highlights would take a novella (as least--if not a chubby tome)..how does one try and convey birthday greetings to such a one in a mere blog?

One doesn't!

Χαρούμενα γενέθλια! Дорогой зять Viva mucho y prospere ~

MARIPOSA DE LA SIERRA
(Antonio Machado)

A Juan Ramón Jiménez, por su libro Platero y yo

¿No eres tú, mariposa,
el alma de estas sierras solitarias,
de sus barrancos hondos
y de sus cumbres agrias?
Para que tú nacieras,
con su varita mágica
a las tormentas de la piedra, un día,
mandó callar un hada,
y encadenó los montes
para que tú volaras.
Anaranjada y negra,
morenita y dorada,
mariposa montés, sobre el romero
plegadas las alillas o, voltarias,
jugando con el sol, o sobre un rayo
de sol crucificadas.
¡Mariposa montés y campesina,
mariposa serrana,
nadie ha pintado tu color; tú vives
tu color y tus alas
en el aire, en el sol, sobre el romero,
tan libre, tan salada! ...
Que Juan Ramón Jiménez
pulse por ti su lira franciscana.

Sierra de Cazorla, 28 de mayo de 1915