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.

Teasing out the Peace Rose History and Weaving in the California Nursery Company

The Roeding family history says that the California Nursery Company was the official West Coast propagator of the Peace rose. Or were they one of several? What about Armstrong?

It is also said that George Roeding, Jr. arranged to have Peace roses delivered to some number of delegates for the United Nations meeting in San Francisco.

Yet there is never any mention of this in the official Peace rose history. Why?

What happened to our Peace Rose?

From the 1948 California Nursery Catalog

These colors? Did the Peace Rose ever have these colors? Was this a colorized photo by someone who didn't know the true colors?

The California Nursery Company was one of the propagators of the Peace Rose on the West Coast in the mid 1940's. This was the color shown in their catalog. But the Roedings remember a different color than the color sold today.

'Black Dragon' wisteria

My favorite wisteria at our local park was a mystery.

I asked the pruning community for a good wisteria book for identifying the wisteria in the park and was recommended Peter Valder's Wisterias, A Comprehensive Guide.

However, once I posted a photo, two people knew exactly what it was: 'Black Dragon'!

It is the only double flowered wisteria, from what I understand, so there is no need to key it out.

Some interesting connections with the park is that W.B. Clarke was the west coast distributor of this Japanese wisteria. W.B. Clarke was, apparently, an employee of the California Nursery who opened his own nursery in San Jose. The CNCo sold W.B. Clarke's low-chill lilacs, so the Dragon might be in the CNCo catalog as well. I will check.

Rose Garden Before Time

The "Lost Rose Garden"

Our local historic nursery park has a hidden neglected rose garden with about twenty rose bushes.

We recently found out that this garden was an old AARS rose test garden, suspended in time from the 1970's when the nursery went out of business.

The neighbor, Bill, who lived behind the garden watered the roses for 48 years. He moved in 2017 and could no longer take care of it. We scrambled and with the help of volunteers and neighbors, the garden was watered that summer. Then we decided that no one would be able to continue this, so in 2017-2018 we moved the roses up to the front of the park in a temporary location, our "Rose Hospital".

What roses are in this garden? There are no labels. What was the AARS rose selection program? Do we have roses that are now lost to the nursery trade? How do we find out?

Some of the roses are quite pretty and have a wonderful fragrance.

The Prœparturiens Burn

PRP, February, 25, 1882

The Prœparturiens Burn

John Rock, with 30 years of the American experience under his belt, was very capable of publicly throwing shade on his fellow nurserymen, as expertly as any twitterati today. 

The Man who put the "Blast" in Blastophaga

That would be George C. Roeding!
...who is also the man who put wasp eggs
in your fig newton!

This is a story of persistance, confidence, and finally being able to tell your critics that they are all wrong after 20 years of ridicule. All of this to make California the center of fig culture.

Figs trees are pretty common in the bay area. But the kind that we generally grow are not Calimynra figs (or Symrna figs). These are the beefier figs usually used for drying. You will probably have to go to the Central Valley to find them. Look for the trees with the brown paper bags hanging on them in June.

Back in 1800's, no one knew how the Smyrna fig was pollinated. When the fig was brought to America, it was brought without its pollinator.  For years, the fruit fell off the tree without ripening. It took many years of study and travel and finally understanding the science behind the process.

It took a group of persistent people, George Roeding being one of the main movers. There does seem to be a bit of elbowing and competition in getting the claim for solving this mystery.