Where was Fancher Creek Nursery and the Roeding place?

David Rumsey Township 13 South, Range 21 East. 

(Compiled, drawn and published ... by Thos. H. Thompson, Tulare, California, 1891)

Note: F.T. Eisen was the neighbor to F. Roeding

The Lost Fruit Books

Col. Wilder pear, p. 145

A certain nurseryman has told me often about some lost books about fruits with color illustrations of fruits. They were owned by his grandfather who died shortly before he was born. I finally looked them up to see if I could show him the books online. Here they are:

• The pears of New York By U. P. Hedrick, assisted by G. H. Howe, O. M. Taylor, E. H. Francis, H. B. Tukey.
• The plums of New York by U.P. Hedrick ; assisted by R. Wellington ... [et al.].
• The peaches of New York by U. P. Hedrick, assisted by G. H. Howe, O. M. Taylor, C. B. Turbergen.
•  The cherries of New York by U. P. Hedrick, assisted by G. H. Howe, O. M. Taylor, C. B. Tubergen, R. Wellington.
•  The grapes of New York by U.P. Hedrick, assisted by N.O. Booth ... [and others]
• The small fruits of New York (not online?)
• The Apples  of New York volume 1 and volume 2

Fruit Growers' Conventions 1881-1921

The Proceedings of the Fruit Growers' Convention make for interesting reading. The conversations were captured and recorded for posterity. Jokes, anecdotes, and tones of voices can be read again many years later. It's like you were there.

• 1881 Sacramento, Dec. 6, 1881
• 1882 Nov. 1882
• 1886 6th, Sacramento, Nov. 15, 1886 
• 1889, 10th, Chico, CA, Nov 20-23: Bulletin
• 1894 18th, Sacramento, Nov. 20-23:
• 1895, 19th, Sacramento, CA, Nov. 5-8:
  note in 1895 "20th, 21st, 22d, 23d have never been published"

• 1901, 26th, San Francisco, CA, Dec. 3-6:
• 1902, 27th, San Francisco, CA, Dec. 2-5: 
• 1903 28th, Los Angeles, May 5-8
• 1904 (other, and), 29th, Fresno, CA, Dec. 8-11:
• ?1905  xx Santa Rosa, CA: Roeding (fig and Burbank anecdotes), Rixford, Maslin, Wickson, Irish, Hecke, Shields on Chinese labor, 
• 1905 31st, Santa Rosa, Dec. 5-: ("See 32nd report in Horticultural Report 1905-1906")
• 1907 (other) 33rd, Marysville, CA, Dec. 3-7:
• 1908, 34th, Riverside, CA, Apr. 28-May 1: 
• 1908 (Other), 35th, Sacramento, CA, Dec 1-4: 
• 1909  (other) 36th, Watsonville, CA, Dec 7-10: 
• 1910 (other, and), 37th, Pomona, CA, Sept 13-14:
• 1910 (other) 38th, Stockton, Dec. 6-9:
• 1911 (other) 40th, Santa Rosa, CA, Dec. 19-21: Roeding (pests, berries), Burbank (cactus, "wizard"), Chinese/Japanese/pear blight, 
• 1912 41st, Santa Barbara, June 12-14: 
• 1915 (other, and) 47th, Visalia, Nov. 18-20: 
• 1916 48th, San Bernardino in conjunction with National Orange Show, Feb. 18-19:
• 1917 50th, Sacramento, Nov. 21-23:
• 1918 51st, Riverside, May 28-29:
• 1919 52nd, Chico, CA, Nov 10-15: 
• 1920 53rd, Fresno, CA, Nov. 9-12:
• 1921 54th, Los Angeles, Oct. 24-26:

Other interesting publications

California Fruit Growers' Recipes: Culinary and Toilet, Lemons

National Convention of Fruit Growers

• 1848 New York City
• 1849 2nd, 

Fig Mysteries

Painting by Mrs. Henry W. Kruckeberg (Jennie?) 1902?
from The Smyra Fig at Home and Abroad
Henry Kruckeberg published stuff like
the Proceedings of the California Association of Nurserymen.
Here he is next to George C. Roeding in 1911.
Perhaps Mrs. Kruckeberg turns up
in some of these CAN photos as well.
Original painting is in the Roeding Archives.
Letter in the archives at library with letter from April 7, 1903.

John Rock, George Roeding, Gustav Eisen, James Shinn: These are names that are part of our local fig stories.

Quotes are intriguing: "Rock (according to Eisen) was the “owner of the largest assortment of fig varieties collected in one place."

Where did those figs go?

Other local mysteries are "Who was first to solve the mystery of caprification of the Smyrna fig?" Apparently there is a hand-written unpublished 75-page document written by George Roeding that will answer this question (BR).

When Gustav Eisen mentions the people who he has worked with, why does he leave out George C. Roeding? We know they worked together closely on the mystery of caprification. And he's mentioned many times in his book, This Fig. But no thanks? What's the scoop on that? The Roeding family says that Eisen was the first orchard manager for Fancher Creek. They were next door neighbors in Fresno. (BR)

At one time, John Rock had 18 different varieties of the Caprifig, the largest number collected in one place in 1901. (p. 122, in the Proceedings of the 26th Fruit Growers Convention in SF., December 1901).

Early California Horticulture Publications

California Horticulture

Just ran into this really lovely illustration on the cover of California Horticulture by George C. Roeding.

Starting a page to collect all of these early horticultural books and booklets.

The Island of Rare Fruits and Trees

A Pleasure Island for Plant Nuts

Today we discovered a garden treasure in Fremont in a place that was so very unexpected. This garden is only a few miles from home.  It is on a peninsula, almost an island, in our local quarry lakes.  The garden, even in January, was full of bright colors, odd shapes, strange flowers, exotic plants, fruits, and a promise of free samples. Just the list of conifers takes up 8 pages. Wow.

I was as excited as Pinocchio when he first saw Pleasure Island, without the dire consequences (donkey ears) that Pinocchio's friends suffered.

The Quincunx, mystically considered

Huge fan, I am, of reading old gardening books.

While looking for some good pictures of roses for the current Días de los Muertos art project, I ran across this odd word - Quincunx. Odd and old, not to mention hard to pronounce.

Wikipedia has an entry for it. Merriam Webster has a definition. Visually it is the five spot on a domino - four dots on the corner and one in the middle.  The origin is thus: "Latin quincunc-, quincunx, literally, five twelfths, from quinque five + uncia twelfth part". According to MW, first known use was 1485. Now I'm still thinking how does 5/12 relate to planting.

Both the California Nursery and Fancher Creek Nursery talked about orchard planting and the Quincunx. Roeding's Fruit Growers Guide (1919) probably helped disseminate the information.

Blooming in December! Chinese plum, Japanese apricot, Prunus mume

The show stopper

The Prunus mume that is blooming now.
I think this one is Matsubara Red.
I will keep looking to make sure.

Last night I found two neighbors looking at the flowers of our street-side Prunus mume and taking pictures. One neighbor said that they are Chinese plums and they are called mei. She said that they are early blooming and in China they sometimes get snowed on. The other neighbor was wondering if she could plant one and what kind of care do they need and what do they look like when not in bloom.

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 

Even Famous Architects build Fruit and Vegetable Gardens

I was looking through the Bernard Maybeck archives in the UC Berkeley Environmental Design Archives and ran across this plan for a fruit tree and vegetable garden. The garden is for the Leon L. Roos House in San Francisco.

Look! A vegetable garden designed by Bernard Maybeck!

The Horticultural Wishbooks

Catalogs, a window to the past

I love to look at old catalogs.  You get to see the ordinary or the fleeting or exactly what you got for Christmas back in 1965.  It was a big deal to get that Christmas Sears Roebuck catalog  each year. We called it the wishbook.  Indeed, the old catalogs give us a view into the lives of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. What were some of those things used for?  You could buy anything in there. I always wish I could still order out of the catalog. Maybe there is a Sears Hazelton house kit languishing in some warehouse waiting for me.

Old seed catalogs are great wishbooks, too.  You see varieties that are hard or impossible to find now. You see trees that must have been just introduced to California.  All kinds of wondrous stuff.
I found several places online that have scanned in old catalogs and looked for the California Nursery Company catalogs.