Giant Rhubarb and Giant Sequoias

Niles Giant Rhubard, 1919

This year I spent hours looking through old California Nursery Company orders. I was searching for the palm trees that were sent to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. I ran into many other interesting orders that I put on the back-burner for future research.

Two orders were for different members of the Hearst family.

One order was on November 25, 1914 - for Mrs. P. A. Hearst in Pleasanton - for two kinds of rhubarb, Myatt's Linnaeas and Lorenzo. The order was probably for 150 rhubarb stalks, not plants, because they were 5 cents each and a plant went for 25 cents each. The order filled 3 bags. I wonder what was the rhubarb dessert that Mrs. Hearst and her guests enjoyed at the Hacienda del Pozo de Verona ?

Another order was for 20 giant sequoia trees (12 to 14 foot Sequoia gigantea) for William Randolph Hearst, April 25, 1914. The bill included travel for one of the California Nursery Company workers, W.B. Kirk. The trees were sent to San Simeon by boat. This was four years before work started on La Cuesta Encantada - Hearst's Castle! Where would they have been planted? This has been an interesting mystery for months until this week.

We recently toured the cottages, kitchen, and upstairs of Hearst Castle and asked the tour guide if she knew where 100 giant sequoias might be planted (The number grew from 20 to 100 in my palm-overloaded memory over the last months. It was 20, not 100.) She didn't know, but she knew just the person who would know and through her help and another guide's help we met the tour guide who knew everything horticultural, Eric W.

So here's the answer. In 1914, the trees were planted on a peak north of the castle (was it Burnett Peak?). The Hearst property is huge and these trees are on a peak distant from the Castle.

We also found out that the California Nursery Company (CNC) provided many many plants for the landscaping. Nigel Keep, a former CNC employee, worked for Hearst in San Simeon from 1925 to 1947. (Hearst's San Simeon, the Gardens and the Land. p 68).

An interesting side note is that dynamite was one of the tools in the planters' tool boxes to give the trees a foothold into the rocky ridges. "The 6,535 pines set out on Reservoir Hill were all in five gallon cans, and dynamite was detonated in each planting hole to assure penetration of the roots beyond the shallow soil." (p. 116).

References

• The photo of the ladies and the rhubarb: V-5 "Niles Giant Rhubarb" July 24, 1919 - California Nursery Historical Park Archives
• Perhaps the rhubarb recipe is in the Castle Cookbook mentioned here with the Welsh Rarebit.
• The Castle Cookbook was previously The Enchanted Hill Cookbook: The favorite recipes of William Randolph Hearst
• Rhubarb: The Wondrous Drug, Clifford M. Foust
• List of American Varieties of Vegetables for the Years 1901 and 1902
• From the 1913-1914 California Nursery Company catalog: