Sponsor a Plant
One of the requirements for any project of this nature is funding. And, like most projects dealing more with education, culture, science, and art than with business, financing can be an occasionally difficult process. Therefore, we at Destination: Forever Ranch and Gardens find it necessary to solicit donations of several types, ranging from money and materials to information and labor assistance. Since this is such a multi-faceted endeavor, help in any one of these areas is greatly appreciated. What this page will deal with is some of the ways in which individual people, businesses, and other organizations may be able to assist us at D:FR in making this garden a reality.
One tangible way you can support D:FR is to take part in our plant sponsorship program: you adopt a particular plant of your choice and "sponsor" it at a certain level. What we will do for a one-time only donation is note that the particular plant you have chosen has been "adopted" by you. For the lower levels of sponsorship, an aluminum tag with your name inscribed on it will be placed right adjacent to the plant. For higher levels, a small sign will be placed in front of your beneficiary. We will be happy to e-mail you a photo of your particular specimen. For higher levels, as well, we can send you a nice 5x7 color photograph of your plant, if you wish, along with information on what it is, its Latin name, how we care for it at D:FR, and an accounting of its personal history, such as how we dramatically rescued it from the jaws of an approaching bulldozer, and so on. A twist on this sponsorship program is for you to donate a particular plant to us in lieu of actual money, perhaps in memory of a loved one, and we will do the same thing as if we had chosen the plant for you. What follows is our current list of sponsorship levels and the types of plants you can adopt:
For a $5.00 donation we will name a small cactus such as a hedgehog, pincushion, or seedling saguaro for you. If you have a particular type of plant or a certain species you wish to have planted in your name, give it to us with the Latin name (if you know it -- this will avoid confusion) and we will set to obtaining one and planting it when conditions are best for its potential survival.
For a $10.00 donation, you can adopt a larger plant of the same type. For instance, it can be a mature hedgehog cactus in a 6-inch or 1-gallon nursery pot, rather than a seedling in a 3½ -inch pot. Or we can make it an agave, an aloe, or a mammilaria. If you’d rather, we can make it two $5.00 plants. We are nothing if not flexible!
For $20.00 we will name a 2-gallon nursery plant in your honor. Or we can save a banana yucca (Yucca baccata) or red barrel cactus (Ferocactus acanthodes) from the bulldozer in your name.
For $35.00 we will save average-sized Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), large barrels, or medium-sized ocotillos (Fouquieria splendens) from death. Actually, we would save them anyway, but this will help cover our expenses in doing so, and of course you get the credit. Or we can put your name on a 5-gallon nursery plant such as a palo verde tree (Cercidium floridum or C. microphyllum), a lovely golden barrel (Echinocactus grusonii), or a Mexican cardon (Pachycereus pringlei). Have a particular favorite? Tell us and we’ll get it and name it.
$50.00 will get you a rather large Joshua tree or ocotillo, or a 15-gallon plant such as a magnificent century plant like Agave desmettiana, a tree aloe like Aloe barberae, or a nifty Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera). Or buy the naming rights to a dozen small plants. Your choice. We think you get the picture.
For the truly dedicated, $100.00 will obtain a very large Joshua tree such as the one shown in the photo above. Or we can get you a terrific (and pricey, even to us) 15-gallon, slow-growing organ pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi) or a 10-year-old golden barrel with multiple heads, or a sizeable 24-inch boxed tree like the legendary ironwood (Olneya tesota). Want something weird that no one else grows named after you? Here’s your chance to put your own name to a Cyphostemma juttae, a bizarre member of the grape family that hails from South Africa and Namibia, that no one grows because they can’t be bought in the garden section of Wal-Mart. For the record, we have a Cyphostemma juttae sitting here right now, waiting to be planted soon, crying emptily for a sponsor. (In truth, it’s growing happily, and it is available. For now.)
BARTERING
A very good method of obtaining many things desired in the garden is by barter, or the trading of goods and services for other goods and services, which can either be similar or rather different. At D:FR, for example, we have traded plants that we have a surplus of for other plant materials. At the moment, we have access to plenty of Joshua trees and have traded several loads of them with regional nurseries for other stock that we do not have easy access to, such as golden barrel cactus and organ pipe cactus. Since Joshua trees are often difficult for area nurseries to obtain otherwise, this arrangement suits both parties. If, by chance, you are a nursery or a grower of desert plants and are interested in a trade of your materials for some of what we have access to, please e-mail General Manager Jan Emming at jemming@destinationforeverranch.com
DONATIONS
Of course, we at D:FR are more than willing to accept outright donations. Some general categories of items we could use are any desert plants and nursery stock (of course); construction materials such as Portland cement, gravel and pumice, rebar, and lumber; books, magazines, subscriptions, and articles on natural themes and alternative living methods; any equipment related to solar electrical generation such as photovoltaic panels, batteries, inverters, etc., new or used; propane tanks and backup generators; water-well-related components such as storage tanks and pipes, plumbing hardware, and (this would be wonderful) a DC solar water pump. If you think an item might be useful and you don’t see it here on this list, suggest it to us. We probably just forgot to mention it!
LABOR, SKILLS, AND SERVICES
Since many people reading this page will have useful knowledge to contribute to the actualization of a complex endeavor such as D:FR, we are always willing to exchange ideas, hear differing viewpoints, and swap stories. We certainly welcome your comments and support, for any reason you might choose. Our General Manager’s knowledge of desert-related information is certainly extensive, and he is always willing to speak with others who wish to know more. If you have an area of expertise you feel you can contribute to in some way at D:FR, we wish to hear from you. We have been blessed thus far with several local neighbors of D:FR who have been willing to donate a certain percentage of their time and sweat equity to assist us in planting large plants and moving heavy items of several stripes, as well as technical assistance with computers and electrical components, and for this we thank them. If you happen to be passing through the area and wish to see what we are up to or even help out on whatever is planned for the week, please drop us a line.
MONEY
Since money is a somewhat universal language, we have to mention that we accept it as well. Ours is a rather new project and outright requests for money are a bit foreign to us, so we have not yet gotten to the point where we can accept online credit card charges, although we are considering this. We do understand that this may be a bit inconvenient for many individuals, but bear with us while we learn the pathways open to us. Since credit card payments are not yet an option, that leaves generous donors with the options of cash, personal check, or money orders. We would gratefully acknowledge any amounts sent by any person or persons. If you would like to send any sort of financial support via these methods, please mail to:
Destination: Forever Ranch, c/o Box 160, 1711 Stockton Hill Road, Kingman AZ 86401
Or send an e-mail to us for further information or to get an answer to a question.
A note on all donations: We are a private, non-commercial group of dedicated individuals who are building a private garden on privately owned property. We are in no way affiliated with a public-sector organization, charity, the Federal government of the United States, or the State of Arizona. We receive no tax or public grant money for our operating or construction expenses, and cannot therefore offer tax-deductibility or any other related classifications applicable to typical charities or non-profits. All donations must be voluntary, will be used in good faith, and will be gratefully acknowledged. To avoid any appearance of impropriety or charges of fraudulent behavior, we cannot offer more than that, however.
Should you seek to actually give us even more money, we want to talk to you beforehand about what rock in our future Boulder House we should name after you. It goes on from there. Humor aside, the point is that we could certainly use any funding at any level, and we thank you in advance for your generosity. To reiterate from the top of this section, any help is grandly appreciated, be it useful information, materials, goods, services, or cash. Given the nature of this project at this time, we are very capable of high flexibility, so if you see a way to help us and/or yourself in a mutually desirable manner, please contact our General Manager at jemming@destinationforeverranch.com
In closing, we give prior thanks for any help, and we appreciate that you even came to this page to begin with and read this far. Perhaps we can work a deal out that helps us all.