The California Nursery Company's Ramona Float in the 1929 Fiesta de las Rosas

The California Nursery Company float
in the 1929 Fiesta de las Rosas parade.
"The Wedding Scene from "Ramona'' was the
presentation of the California Nursery Company
of Niles, California."
Photographer - Frank Steiner, May 18, 1929
From OCLC WorldCat

In 1929 the California Nursery entered the Fiesta de las Rosas parade in San Jose with this float featuring Ramona's wedding place. Read the souvenir booklet and find the nursery's float on page 16.

San Jose has a very long history of parades to celebrate roses and to highlight San Jose as a "garden city". In 1896, the first "Carnival of the Roses" parade was held.  The Rose Carnival became the "Fiesta de las Rosas" in 1926.  The parade has since transformed into the Rose, White, and Blue parade.

What was the inspiration for this float in 1929? 

This was around the time that George C. Roeding, Jr. was thinking about renovating (or was in the process of renovating) the old Vallejo Adobe building. The 1931 catalog announced that the adobe would soon be renovated. The cover featured a beautiful pen and ink drawing of the Old Adobe.  See related article about Fred Reimers who transformed the adobe from functional to beautiful.

In 1928 "Ramona" was released. This silent movie starred Dolores del Rio and Warner Baxter. (For many years it was thought to be lost. Now you can find it online.) See the book Ramona Memories for how Helen Hunt Jackson's novel affected the selling of California for years and years. Bruce Roeding was not aware of any connection with Ramona, but then he was born in 1928!

An Abundance of Apples

This is the time of year to make Julia Child's version of the apple Tarte Tatin.  (What with "little Bart" being in Belgium, I was tempted to call it Tart Tintin... and apparently I am not alone.)

From Wikipedia 

Tree Rings

From the book, Sequoia National Park, 1937.

Most school kids in California have probably seen a redwood tree section showing the annular rings on it with dates, like "WWII ends", "Columbus discovers America", "Jesus was born", dates like that.  So it's pretty common knowledge that trees can show years passing by the number and kind of rings they set down.

If you want to refresh your memory, here's the NOAA website that talks about tree rings. And here's the wikipedia article on dendrochronology.

Ok, so now you know all about that tree ring stuff.  Did you know that humans also have annular rings?

Selecting that perfect tree

Looking for that plant that is low maintenance, drought tolerant, and is a great tree?  And maybe one that will not grow so tall that the utility company hacks at it periodically?