Shinn's Lamarque rose

"La Marque Rose, 
thirteen years old, 
budded on Cherokee stock, 
on the Shinn farm house at Niles California"
From Vick's Illustrated Magazine,
February 1891
So it was planted in 1878.

The Shinn house once had a very large rose bush climbing up its walls. No longer. A yellow rose clambers up the trellis.

Charles Howard Shinn wrote about "California Rose Cottages" in Vick's Illustrated Magazine in 1891. He used a photograph of the farm home in Niles where he grew up. The La Marque rose is approaching the size of a house-eating rose.

Charles says "Then when people ask still further, what roses to plant, I have told them to begin almost any where, but that a Lamarque was good to start with, for one could plant it on a hillside with a crowbar, and it would come out ahead."

The La Marque rose is listed in the Shinn's Nurseries catalog.

Chilean Bellota, are the nuts edible?

There are a lot of red flags here:

1. Nuts rain down during the "nut-raining season", but are not scooped up by squirrels or park visitors to eat. They are swept up and thrown out by the city gardeners.
2. There is hardly anything written about this tree. The tree label says it is Cryptocarya rubra and the PlantList says that is an accepted name.
3. A common name for the tree is "Chilean Soap Tree". :OP

"An Early Winter Garden in California" November 7, 1889

A garden that sounds like Shinn Ranch

American Garden, January 1890

Unshiu citrus? Won Shu? Oonshiu? Satsuma?

In February 1986, at the Kato Memorial Garden, Don Dillon,  Four Winds Citrus nurseryman and Fremont city councilman, gave a dedication. His prepared notes said that "James Shinn, a prominent nurseryman, lived here and began a relationship with Japan by importing Japanese plums, persimmons and Unshiu oranges, some of which can still be found behind the Ozumia [azumaya]. He also brought in the beautiful Japanese maple located in the front of the garden. This happened in the period 1860 and 1890."

The maple died in 1994, but there are there are still two trees in the garden behind the azumaya, of unknown age. Are they Unshiu?

Napoleon's Willow

Shinn barn in Niles before it burned down
taking the willow with it

Was this the famous willow from Napoleon's tomb?

When the Shinn barn burned, the willow apparently burned as well. So says the note on the back of the picture.

What is the famous willow?

Probably Salix babylonica is the Napoleon's willow. Was it a particular cultivar? Or can we just buy one and get something close enough?

Apparently it was a good way to make money off of tourists, to tell them that this little willow came from the willow next to Napoleon's grave.

In 1883, Gardener's Monthly reports:

"Early Horticulture in California" Charles Howard Shinn

C.H. Shinn wrote of early horticulture starting from the mission period.

Flying Dragon

Looking very Smaug-like

Visitors at Shinn Park often ask about one particular plant - the flying dragon hedge (Poncirus trifoliata). The hedge that surrounds the Japanese garden is quite eyecatching. "What IS it?" they ask. "Can I eat the fruit?"

Poncirus trifoliata (aka trifoliate orange) is from Northern China and Korea. The original plan by Mai Arbegast specified a "solid hedge of plant such as Poncirus trifoliata to enclose garden...." to discourage dogs and trespassing. This unusual pointy feature of the garden really does encourage the use of the three gates into the garden. You only get stuck in it, or by it, once and then you avoid it.

The flying dragon fruit can apparently be eaten (or it might be poisonous according to one source), but the recipes given make it sound fairly unpalatable. My favorite recipe for a flying dragon citrus drink is "One fruit, five barrels of sugar, and five barrels of water".  A "barrel" is a somewhat loose measurement and can be somewhere between 26 and 53 gallons. But you get the idea. Needs dilution.

A good review of its uses are here. (Always double check your sources when trying something new!)

Big Sigh...Poncirus trifoliata is now Citrus trifoliata.