Native plants and the California Nursery Company

From a scrapbook, 1918, a picture of Carpenteria californica.
At the time the nursery was under the management of W.V. Eberly,
after John Rock died in 1904.
W.V. Eberly was manager during the PPIE.
W.V. Eberly was the first president of
the California Association of Nurserymen in 1911.

We visited Scott and Jenny Fleming's native plant garden in Berkeley on a garden tour many years back.

It was a wonderful garden with a rocky slope behind and a flat area for a meadow and a swimming pool that fit in to its surroundings. Their front drive was planted with plants from shady canyons. They had a sunny meadow. They had a hillside of plants suited for the slope.

The Flemings were on the founding committee of the California Native Plant Society in 1965 and so this was almost like visiting a sacred site!

I think that I ran into the HALS report on their garden on a search for George Roeding. 

Now why would the Roeding family be in this report, I wondered.

The HALS report mentions both George C. Roeding and his son, George C. Roeding, Jr. as early proponents of native plants. Father, and then later son, wrote articles on native plants in the Oakland Tribune. George C. Roeding wrote columns in the 1920s and mentioned native plants along with non-natives. George C. Roeding Jr. wrote in the 1930s and later.

An excerpt from the HALS Report:

"In the early 1900s, Sunset and the Oakland Tribune piqued the public's interest in native plants through reverential articles – some by Purdy and Rice – describing native plants in the wild, but wrote little about gardening with them. In 1917, Sunset published a favorable review of Payne's public garden in Exposition Park. The Oakland Tribune had several articles about (World War I) War Gardens, and a series of articles, by Roy Harrison Danforth, recommending a handful of native plants for the garden, amongst non-natives. Oakland Tribune garden columnists, such as George Roeding, President of the California Nursery Company in Niles, continued to sprinkle mentions of native plants amongst nonnatives in the 1920s."

"In 1929, Sunset redefined itself as a western lifestyle magazine, and promptly published articles on how to collect rock garden plants, bulbs, and holiday greens from the wild, by Florence Hunt, Purdy, and Rowntree, respectively. Nursery advertisements in the Oakland Tribune began to use the word "native‟ as a selling point, including one in 1931 for an all native nursery in Berkeley. In the 1930s, (Great Depression) Subsistence Gardens were in the news, but natives and non-natives were in garden columns by George Roeding, Jr., then President of the California Nursery Company, and others. The Oakland Tribune enthusiastically recommended Rowntree's Flowering Shrubs in a 1939 book review." 

"In 1940 – the year Roof started all-native RPBG – Sunset instructed readers on how to sow wild flower seeds, and Roeding in the Oakland Tribune recommended natives for garden problem areas – the first articles for both with native plant gardening as the sole subject. Oakland Tribune home and garden columnist Rolland “Rolly” Langley assured gardeners that neighbors would not be offended by natives in the garden, because everyone was doing it! In 1942-43, (World War II) Victory Gardens supplanted native plants in the garden articles. In 1944, Langley exhorted gardeners to go native, because native plants have their own merits, not just to preserve them. In 1945-48, Sunset published progressively longer articles on native plant gardening. All-native gardens were few, though – even Rowntree's home gray garden was a mix of natives and non-natives."

Even earlier I had found that in 1913, the California Association of Nurserymen talked about using natives after Theodore Payne gave a paper. George C. Roeding was at that meeting and his comments and others were recorded.

In fact, it was native plantsman, Theodore Payne, who drew up GCRs plans for a Gentlemen's Estate at the nursery property in Niles (find this). Were there native plants on the plan that was never implemented? I'll have to see. 

Here is one article, written by George C. Roeding, Jr. for the June 2, 1940 Oakland Tribune.

The California Nursery Company grew what people asked for, but we have to give the Roeding family credit for trying to sell native plants.

Now 100+ years later, we are still waiting for people to want to plant natives. 

At the park, I've planted natives here and there. I like to think that the two Georges would approve of my choices and that their good voices from the past confirm the wisdom of their use.

References

• Full HALS report CA-43 "Fleming Garden" with pictures etc. and written report
• Scott and Jenny Fleming's Garden, Pacific Horticulture
• June 2, 1940, p. S-10, Oakland Tribune (Newspaper Archive, subscription needed)
• 2020 - Ecologist Doug Tallamy gave a very inspiring talk “Restoring the Little Things that Run the World: Why insects matter and what we can do to save them”. Plant some natives for insects and birds. 
• Doug Tallamy's resource list: 
• 2020 - Bringing Back the Natives sponsors put together this list of high value plants for butterflies and moths 
• Ralph Cornell and Theodore Payne