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!

In 1929, the California Nursery Company entered this float into the Fiesta de las Rosas parade.  The theme of the float was Ramona's wedding from the book, Ramona.  Helen Hunt Jackson's book was well-loved and made into many movies, plays, and apparently, parade floats.

May 23, 1929 Washington Township News Register

You can watch a movie of the 1929 parade, which unfortunately does not include the nursery's float, but is otherwise fun to watch.

Still not convinced there is a connection with Ramona's myth, even if a flash in the pan?

Note the position of the guitar player, his sash, his shirt, his pant gussets compared to the 1928 Ramona poster. 

Perhaps there was a fleeting link with Ramona in Northern California. We do have many streets named Ramona in the Bay Area. Southern California had several "Ramona's Marriage Places' where the fictitious Ramona was married. But our town is a town with Mission San Jose nearby. Jose de Jesus Vallejo owned the land where the nursery was located. We had our own connection with Spanish and Mission Life. 

See the 1932 Rose Show  and the April 1932 movie that includes images of the welcome tulip garden with its tiny adobe buildings, the nursery office, cars driving through the area which would soon become the famous show gardens, the recently restored Old Adobe with Frances Roeding and other attractions on California Revealed. This predates the road through the nursery property (see news 1, 2

In the 1932 catalog, the "Old Adobe" is "One of Northern California's Chief Scenic Attractions." 

The nursery's show gardens and new retail center were not to come until 1934. 

The rose 'Ramona' AKA 'Red Cherokee' was said to have been sold by Fancher Creek according to helpmefind. However, a quick search did not surface it. It looks quite nice!

1932 catalog

The Old Adobe was again a float in 1940/1941. It can be seen here in a movie from the California Nursery Archives.

In the 1946 catalog

1946 catalog with Peace Rose cover and the Old Adobe door.

1935 Catalog

More fun stuff:

• Read more about the 1929 parade in the Fiesta de las Rosas collection in the San Jose Public Library.
• The Rose White and Blue website Rose White and Blue website has some history. 
• The 1928 silent movie, Ramona, came out the year before this float.  The movie starred Dolores del Rio as Ramona, Warner Baxter as Alessandro, and Roland Drew as Felipe. Also see wikipedia article.
• You can listen to recordings that were made to advertise the movie.
• Helen Hunt Jackson wrote about the plight of the American Indian in "A Century of Dishonor" in 1881. However, it was not as popular as her fictionalized account, Ramona. Ramona was believed by many as a real person and her story was popularized and exploited by boosters to sell all kinds of things in Southern California and to a smaller degree in Northern California as well. Note how many cities have streets named Ramona.
• Read Ramona online from Google books.  This is a 1912 copy of the 1884 book with illustrations.
• Read Ramona online from Project Gutenberg (no illustrations).
• Ramona Memories explores the 1884 book by Helen Hunt Jackson and how the myth of the fictional Ramona influenced and permeated the culture of Southern California in advertising, architecture, boosterism.
• September 1885 Overland Monthly has two articles about Helen Hunt Jackson. Milicent wrote one called "The Verse and Prose of H.H."