Pierce Rose Reception
The Pierce Family: Jack Pierce, Nancy Pierce, Robert Pierce, Chip Pierce
Recent rains helped water the 200 rose bushes that were given to the Dallas Arboretum and transplanted this past fall in the Boswell Family Garden. The Dallas Arboretum on May 29th held a rose ceremony to honor the gift, donated by Nancy and Robert Pierce and their sons Chip and Jack Pierce. This rose collection enhanced the already established Rose Mary Haggar Rose Garden, and as all the roses are now blooming with magnificent colors and scents.
The permanent plaque reads, “Donated by Nancy and Robert Pierce in honor of her mother Cherrie Perkins Wells.” Wells encouraged Nancy to start this collection decades ago, and it fueled her passion for roses. When the Pierces recently moved to a home with limited space for her roses, she called Mary Brinegar, Dallas Arboretum president and CEO, to see if the garden would like to have them, and she accepted.
Brinegar welcomed everyone to the ceremony and thanked the Pierces for their donation, which enhances an already lovely garden that overlooks White Rock Lake. “This area was developed because a wonderful man named George Boswell wanted to make a major contribution honoring his wife and daughters, so we call this the Boswell Family Garden.” The family was represented by Veta Boswell and her daughter Kama Koudelka.
Dave Forehand, Dallas Arboretum’s vice president of gardens, spoke about the particular garden’s vision. He met Dr. George Boswell and Warren Hill Johnson, a landscape architect, who served on the Gardens and Grounds Committee. “Warren was very good at coming up with interesting names, so one day he called Dr. Boswell and said, ‘I think we should call the garden El Inesperado,’ and Dr. Boswell hung up on him. When Dr. Boswell called Warren back, he said the name of the ranch where he grew up was called El Inesperado, which means the ‘unexpected.’ So that was how the garden was named.”
As more than one million visitors come to the Dallas Arboretum annually, they can enjoy
this ‘unexpected’ garden with clipped topiary bushes, landscaping by Warren Johnson and a curving stacked stone wall along where more than 200 new rose bushes make their home.