Introduction to Mesa Garden | 梅萨花园介绍

      Mesa Garden 是一家有着近50年历史的仙人掌与多肉植物苗圃，由 Steven Brack 于20世纪70年代创立。它的核心特色在于：所有植物材料均来自野外采集，并附有准确的产地信息，这在多肉植物爱好者圈子里是极为珍贵的。

      从 Steven 在威斯康星州农场少年时期对植物的兴趣，到1973年搬至新墨西哥州，再到1980年与 Steven Hammer 同赴南非，Mesa Garden 的根基是野外考察与种子采集。Linda Brack 的长期支持、家人与员工的共同努力，使苗圃从索引卡片和油印目录时代，一步步发展到14座温室、数据库管理和全球客户网络。

      2016年，曾在 Mesa 工作多年的 Aaron 和 Tarah Morerod 夫妇接手苗圃，延续 Steven 的传承，并进行了技术升级——新数据库、条形码、专业发票、带照片的购物网站。Mesa Garden 的价值不仅在于出售种子，更在于它保存并分享了有明确产地记录的植物种质资源，这对多肉植物的保育、研究与园艺栽培都具有重要意义。

      对于中国爱好者来说，Mesa Garden 的种子以对版、纯度高著称。生石花（Lithops）和肉锥（Conophytum）是其主要品类，其中生石花可能因外形“妖艳复杂”而并非人人喜欢，但这恰恰是它独特魅力所在。需要注意的是，购买和引进需符合中国相关法律法规。

图片及文字均来自 https://mesagarden.com/ ，以及仙珍圜论坛 http://www.xianzhenyuan.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1796880（作者：haolingy）又名熊童

版权均为Mesa Garden 所有，本文仅作文化交流用途，任何未经授权的盗用或改编均违法。

关于我们 / About Us

EN: Mesa Garden began in the 1970s as a passion that grew into a nursery. After years of collecting and cataloging many cacti and succulents in the wild, Steven Brack built a nursery that allowed him to share his passion with people all over the world.

CN: 梅萨花园始于20世纪70年代，最初只是一份热爱，后来发展成了一家苗圃。Steven Brack 在野外采集并记录了大量的仙人掌和多肉植物，之后他建立了一座苗圃，得以与世界各地的爱好者分享他的热情。

EN: More than 40 years later, we are dedicated to continuing Steven's legacy by growing seed stock plants from material that was originally collected in the wild. We share those seeds with other people around the world who appreciate the unique beauty and symmetry that first sparked our passion for these plants.

CN: 40多年后的今天，我们致力于延续 Steven 的遗产，用最初采自野外的植株来培育采种母本。我们将这些种子分享给世界各地的人们，他们同样欣赏这些植物那独特的美感与对称性——正是这些特质最初点燃了我们的热情。

Mesa Garden 的历史 / Mesa Garden's History

梅萨花园的开始——Steven Brack 的故事 / The Beginning of Mesa Garden – Steven Brack's Story

EN: I grew up on a small family dairy farm in Wisconsin and from a very young age was interested in growing plants. A family relative had some cacti and succulents on her windowsill that captured my curiosity. I finished my college education with a B.S. in physics in 1970, but at this same time my interest in plants was growing rapidly.

CN: 我在威斯康星州一个家庭小奶牛场长大，很小的时候就对种植植物感兴趣。一位亲戚的窗台上种着一些仙人掌和多肉植物，引起了我的好奇。1970年我完成了大学教育，获得物理学学士学位，但与此同时，我对植物的兴趣正在迅速增长。

EN: The idea for a nursery started forming in my mind in the early 1970s. I had been interested in cacti and succulents, I think primarily because of the odd shapes and symmetry. The first serious contact with the plants was in college libraries, and I borrowed and read all the books on the topic there were.

CN: 开办苗圃的想法在20世纪70年代初开始在我脑海中形成。我一直对仙人掌和多肉植物感兴趣，我想主要是因为它们奇特的外形和对称性。我第一次认真接触这些植物是在大学图书馆，我借阅了那里所有关于这个主题的书籍。

EN: In the libraries I also found journals from Europe that specialized in the plants. I wrote away and subscribed to a couple of them. In the journals, small specialist nurseries offered seeds for sale. Sometimes the seeds, which always were offered only by Latin name, had the geographical origin of the seeds. This was fascinating to me. I could look up the locations in atlases and learn about the climate too. At this point, I was very enthusiastic about finding seeds that were accurately named with known origin data.

CN: 在图书馆里，我还发现了来自欧洲的专业期刊。我写信订阅了几本。在这些期刊中，一些小型的专业苗圃出售种子。有时这些种子——通常只以拉丁名出售——会附带种子的地理来源。这让我着迷。我可以在地图集中查找这些地点，还能了解当地的气候。那时，我对寻找名称准确、来源数据已知的种子充满了热情。

EN: I dove headfirst into growing plants from seed and found out that it was interesting, challenging and not that difficult. Yes, it took some time, but when one is in their early twenties, one has a lot of time ahead of them. My wife Linda was very supportive in all of this and gave me a lot of assistance.

CN: 我一头扎进了从种子开始种植植物的世界，发现这既有趣、有挑战性，又并非那么困难。是的，这需要花些时间，但当一个人二十出头时，面前还有大把的时间。我的妻子 Linda 在这一切中非常支持我，给了我很多帮助。

EN: I also found sources of specialist books, again from Europe. The book with the greatest impact was by Schwantes, called Flowering Stones and Midday Flowers. This book was about the huge mesemb family. It is quite a large book with a few black and white photos, but the text was just fascinating. They were recounting travels in South Africa and Namibia by early explorers searching for all the odd plants to be found. The idea of travelling to explore for plants was overwhelming.

CN: 我还找到了专业书籍的来源，同样来自欧洲。影响最大的一本书是 Schwantes 写的《开花石头和日中花》（Flowering Stones and Midday Flowers）。这本书讲的是庞大的番杏科家族。这是一本相当大的书，有几张黑白照片，但文字非常引人入胜。书中讲述了早期探险家在南非和纳米比亚寻找各种奇特植物的旅行。到野外去搜寻植物的想法让我无法抗拒。

熊童注：Schwantes、L. Bolus、S. A. Hammer 和 N. E. Br 是番杏科（Mesembryanthemaceae）中最常见到的名字。事实上安哥拉和津巴布韦也有分布。

EN: At about this same time there was an article by Doug Rowland of the U.K. about his visit to New Mexico in the African Succulent Plant Society. This was a homemade journal done on a mimeo machine, but the travelogue by Doug describing all the wonders of the deserts and mountains of New Mexico was equally intriguing. So as soon as we completed our obligations, Linda and I set off for New Mexico to scout it out, leaving our young daughter at home with her grandparents. After being in New Mexico for about a week, we managed to find a job and a place to live and returned to Wisconsin to gather up our belongings and daughter, and we moved to New Mexico in the spring of 1973.

CN: 大约在同一时期，英国的 Doug Rowland 在非洲多肉植物协会发表了一篇关于他访问新墨西哥州的文章。那是一本用油印机做的自制期刊，但 Doug 描述新墨西哥州沙漠和山脉所有奇观的游记同样引人入胜。所以，我们一完成手头的事务，Linda 和我便出发前往新墨西哥州考察，把年幼的女儿留在家里由祖父母照顾。在新墨西哥州待了大约一周后，我们找到了工作和住的地方，然后回到威斯康星州收拾行李、带上女儿，于1973年春天搬到了新墨西哥州。

EN: On many weekends, we as a family went off on camping trips all over the region to hike and explore for plants. The focus was to build a collection of plants that had a known origin. We collected seeds to exchange with other enthusiasts, mostly in Europe. At this point it was just a matter of time. We started a lot of seeds each year and over time expanded the collection. In 1975 we took the first trip to Mexico with my brother Bob. What an eye-opener, to see so many incredible plants in nature. So, in the next few years, many more trips to Mexico took place.

CN: 在许多周末，我们一家人会去各地露营，徒步探索植物。重点是建立一个来源明确的植物收藏。我们收集种子，与其他爱好者交换，主要是欧洲的爱好者。到这时，一切只是时间问题。我们每年播种大量种子，随着时间推移，收藏不断扩大。1975年，我和我的兄弟 Bob 第一次去了墨西哥。看到自然界中那么多令人难以置信的植物，真是大开眼界。于是在接下来的几年里，我们又去了很多次墨西哥。

EN: Then in 1980, we took our first trip to South Africa with Steven Hammer. Another totally overwhelming experience, which led to many more trips over the years. By this time the basic plan was underway, and the collection just kept expanding from material found on the trips.

CN: 然后在1980年，我们和 Steven Hammer 一起第一次去了南非。又一次完全令人震撼的经历，此后多年我们又去了很多次。到那时，基本计划已经走上正轨，收藏随着旅行中发现的材料不断扩大。

EN: Linda was always a big part of the nursery, she gave steady support and helped with all the work. For the first few years we did all the work as a family. Eventually there was enough orders and work that we started hiring students to work part-time. As things grew, we took on full-time employees who became essential and just like family to us.

CN: Linda 一直是苗圃的重要部分，她给予了稳定的支持，并帮助完成所有工作。最初几年，我们全家一起做所有的工作。最终，订单和工作量足够多了，我们开始雇学生做兼职。随着业务增长，我们雇了全职员工，他们变得不可或缺，就像我们的家人一样。

EN: In the early years, all the information on the plants was kept on index cards. In 1985 we bought our first computer, and all the records were entered into a database. With the help of Chris Nelson, the first programs were written to deal with all the tasks needed, and eventually I learned to program and wrote about 50 more programs to perform needed functions.

CN: 早年，所有植物的信息都记录在索引卡片上。1985年，我们买了第一台电脑，所有记录都录入数据库。在 Chris Nelson 的帮助下，第一批程序被编写出来，用于处理所需的各种任务。最终我学会了编程，又写了大约50个程序来完成所需的功能。

EN: In the early years, the catalogs were done on a typewriter and copied on a mimeo machine, which could make up to 100 copies from each hand-typed page. The family helped collate these lists by hand which we sent out by mail. The first list contained seedlings and was sent out in spring of 1977. By 1980 the task of making the catalogs at home was turned over to a commercial printer that made the sheets for the catalogs. For many years, we continued to hand collate the catalogs, but eventually printing companies did the entire catalog. Somewhere around 2005, we found we just could not handle stuffing all the envelopes to send out catalogs, and out of necessity we stopped printing a paper catalog and instead, made the catalog available on our website. This worked out very well. People all over the world could see the catalog quickly and not wait the two weeks for it to arrive by post.

CN: 早年，目录是用打字机打的，然后用油印机复印，每一页手打的内容最多可以印100份。家人帮忙手工整理这些列表，然后我们通过邮件寄出。第一份列表包含幼苗，于1977年春天寄出。到1980年，在家制作目录的工作交给了商业印刷商，由他们印制目录页。很多年里，我们继续手工整理目录，但最终印刷公司承包了整个目录的制作。大约在2005年，我们发现实在无法应付装信封寄送目录的工作，出于无奈，我们停止了纸质目录的印刷，转而将目录放在我们的网站上。效果非常好。世界各地的人们可以很快看到目录，而不必等上两周的邮寄时间。

EN: Eventually, 14 greenhouses were built and filled with plants, and a loyal customer base established. Long-term, full-time employees were now very close to us. After more than 40 years of working on this project, with our backs and bodies tiring, we had a very capable young couple wishing to take the reins and keep the nursery going. This was Aaron and Tarah Morerod. Linda and I never imagined that what we worked to build would ever grow to such size with so many customers. Many customers came to be good and close friends as well. So, it was with great sadness, yet satisfaction, that Linda and I turned over the nursery and entered retirement.

CN: 最终，14座温室被建起并种满了植物，一个忠实的客户群也建立了起来。长期的专职员工与我们关系非常亲近。在这个项目上工作了40多年后，我们的背和身体都疲惫了，这时有一对非常有能力的年轻夫妇希望接过缰绳，让苗圃继续经营下去。他们就是 Aaron 和 Tarah Morerod。Linda 和我从未想过我们努力建立的事业会发展到如此规模，拥有这么多客户。许多客户也成了我们的好朋友和亲密朋友。因此，Linda 和我怀着极大的不舍，同时也带着满足，移交了苗圃，步入了退休生活。

—— Steven 和 Linda Brack

延续传承——Aaron 和 Tarah 的故事 / Continuing the Legacy – Aaron and Tarah's Story

EN: Tarah and I worked under Steven Brack for six years in high school and college. We enjoyed the company of Steven Hammer and Chris Barnhill during our time at Mesa while we picked cactus fruits, cleaned seeds, repotted seedlings and pollinated flowers. Every spring, we would take the plastic off the greenhouses and replace them in the fall to prep for winter.

CN: Tarah 和我在高中和大学期间在 Steven Brack 手下工作了六年。在 Mesa 的日子里，我们一边采摘仙人掌果实、清理种子、给幼苗换盆、给花朵授粉，一边享受着 Steven Hammer 和 Chris Barnhill 的陪伴。每年春天，我们会把温室上的塑料膜取下，秋天再重新盖上，为过冬做准备。

EN: Tarah and I were dating and working together at that time. We married in 1998, and our boss and friend, Steven Brack, attended our wedding. We increased our knowledge of growing cacti and succulents as we pursued our college degrees at the University of New Mexico (UNM). I earned a Bachelors degree in business and left Mesa in 2001. I went to work for a packaging company in Albuquerque. Tarah left in 2002 to start nursing school and graduated with a BSN, RN from UNM.

CN: 那时 Tarah 和我在约会，也一起工作。我们于1998年结婚，我们的老板兼朋友 Steven Brack 出席了我们的婚礼。我们在新墨西哥大学（UNM）攻读学位的同时，也增长了种植仙人掌和多肉植物的知识。我获得了商学学士学位，于2001年离开 Mesa，去了阿尔伯克基一家包装公司工作。Tarah 于2002年离开，开始上护士学校，并从 UNM 毕业，获得护理学学士、注册护士资格。

EN: During our time away, we thought often about Mesa Garden and missed our time working for Steven. So, in October of 2013 I decide to visit Steven and Linda with my 4-year-old daughter, Gillian. After a brief visit, Steven offered me my old job filling seed packets. I was still working part-time at my job in Albuquerque and came in on Tuesdays to help out Steven. After working for Steven for a few months, the conversations about taking over the business happened frequently. About a year later, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to run Mesa Garden on my own. I needed Tarah's help.

CN: 离开的那段时间，我们常常想起 Mesa Garden，怀念为 Steven 工作的时光。所以，2013年10月，我决定带着我4岁的女儿 Gillian 去拜访 Steven 和 Linda。短暂拜访之后，Steven 让我做以前那份装种子袋的工作。我当时还在阿尔伯克基兼职，每周二来帮 Steven。为 Steven 工作了几个月后，关于接手生意的话题越来越频繁。大约一年后，我意识到我无法独自经营 Mesa Garden。我需要 Tarah 的帮助。

EN: Tarah came back to work at Mesa again and quit her nursing job. And in 2014, I quit my packaging job at Ethicon and began to work full-time for Steven.

CN: Tarah 回到 Mesa 再次工作，并辞去了她的护理工作。2014年，我辞去了在 Ethicon 的包装工作，开始全职为 Steven 工作。

EN: After 13 years, Tarah and I were finally able to reacquaint ourselves with all the amazing plants at Mesa Garden. We worked with Steven for two more years, absorbing as much of Steven's lifetime of knowledge and wisdom as we could.

CN: 13年后，Tarah 和我终于能够重新熟悉 Mesa Garden 所有令人惊叹的植物。我们又和 Steven 一起工作了两年，尽可能多地吸收 Steven 一生积累的知识和智慧。

Steven, Linda, Tarah, and Aaron (10/17/2016)

EN: In October of 2016, we signed our lives away to become the new owners of Mesa Garden. Since then we have made some major technology upgrades. The new database allows us to email customers a professional invoice. Barcodes now help us ensure accuracy in our orders, and printed packing slips allow our customers to see more information about the seeds they bought.

CN: 2016年10月，我们签下了“卖身契”，成为 Mesa Garden 的新主人。自那以后，我们进行了一些重大的技术升级。新的数据库让我们可以向客户发送专业的电子发票。条形码现在帮助我们确保订单的准确性，打印的装箱单让客户可以看到他们所购种子的更多信息。

EN: This sleek shopping website (with photos!) is the newest phase in Mesa Garden's development. We are so excited that our customers can finally see pictures of the plants their little sprouts came from.

CN: 这个简洁的购物网站（带照片！）是 Mesa Garden 发展的最新阶段。我们非常兴奋，客户终于可以看到他们的小苗来自什么样的植株。

EN: As of this year (2019), Tarah and I have 13 years of experience and we are continuing the work of Steven Brack, by making all of these treasures available to our customers. We truly hope all of our customers will enjoy the new site – and the convenience of a shopping cart!

CN: 到今年（2019年）为止，Tarah 和我已有13年的经验，我们正在继续 Steven Brack 的工作，将所有这些珍宝提供给我们的客户。我们真心希望所有客户都能喜欢这个新网站——以及购物车的便利！

EN: Thank you so much for your business! – Aaron and Tarah Morerod

CN: 非常感谢您的惠顾！—— Aaron 和 Tarah Morerod