For those who treasure the flora of the Chihuahuan Desert, and the birds, bees and other pollinators it sustains, the Big Bend Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas’s spring sale is a beloved annual event. It’s an invitation to bring native plants into our gardens and yards. But this year’s sale, to be held Saturday, April 26th in Alpine, is also an invitation to support a new venture – the Patty Manning Pollinator Garden, at the Alpine Public Library.
The garden’s namesake was a passionate advocate for our region’s plants. Manning, who passed away September 8th, managed the Sul Ross greenhouse for 18 years, worked as a teacher and consultant and, with her partner Cindi Wimberly, founded Twin Sisters Natives. That business offered plants Manning had cultivated, with careful expertise, from seeds she’d collected.
That expertise was never pretentious – Manning was eager to share what she knew. Her grounding as a botanist and a person was as solid, and as richly textured, as limestone bedrock. For Manning, science was a soulful enterprise.
Price Rumbelow is a staffer at the Rio Grande Joint Venture, a bird-conservation group.
“I'll just say that she was a really good friend and mentor to a lot of people,” Rumbelow said of Manning. “She was just very honest and approachable, but then also very knowledgeable.”
In addition to his work with the Joint Venture, Rumbelow also owns High Desert Landscaping. And he’s spearheaded the creation of the new garden.
In fact, it was his idea. When Rumbelow proposed it to her last August, Manning embraced the plan. The native plant society and the Tierra Grande Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists joined the effort, and Marfa’s Jim Martinez, a veteran garden designer, offered his services.
Manning was committed to making native Big Bend plants available to the public – and the garden will feature plants Manning herself cultivated: salvias and mistflowers, penstemons and skeleton goldeneye, sotols, agaves and ocotillo.
The site, Rumbelow said, will include several components: a butterfly garden, a cactus garden, a patch of native grassland, trees and shrubs for shade. Pathways will wind through it.
“We decided on ultimately breaking this out into a few smaller gardens that are all housed within this overall pollinator garden,” Rumbelow said. “So as you move through the garden, you can kind of have a chance to be by yourself and still experience the garden with other people.”
The garden’s creators ultimately plan to install a pergola and benches, where library staff, the Texas Master Naturalists and others could host programs. There will be interpretive signs, and Martinez has donated copies of his books on Big Bend gardening.
Because education is at the heart of the vision – as it was in Manning’s work. The planners hope the garden will inspire visitors to cultivate native plants themselves.
“Just encouraging people to learn how to do this in their own backyard and to really promote the use of native plants – if there's a theme here, that would be it,” Rumbelow said.
Funds have been raised through grants and a silent auction at Alpine’s Ritchie Hotel. Volunteers – including, Rumbelow hopes, local school children – will do the planting. And attendees at the April 26th sale can purchase plants for the garden. Information on donating is also available at the Native Plant Society’s website, npsot.org/big bend.
The gates to the Patty Manning Garden are expected to open in June. It will be a fitting tribute to a singular figure in West Texas conservation.
The plant sale is Saturday, April 26, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., behind Forever West Texas Realty at Eighth Street and Avenue E. Check, cash and credit card.
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