events

California Nursery Historical Park

CALIFORNIA NURSERY HISTORICAL TOUR
sponsored by
Math Science Nucleus

June 12, Sunday 1-2:30 pm

The California Nursery Historical Park is an important historical sites in California and helps tell the story of the transformation of our state into the agricultural powerhouse it is today. It was also important in development of horticultural varieties still found in gardens throughout California. Did you know by the late 1800s the California Nursery was world famous and that fruits and trees developed at the Nursery were shipped all over the North and South America? Did you know that the innovative entrepreneurs of the Nursery did meticulous research that provided us with many of the fruit, nuts and decorative plants we enjoy today?

The Math Science Nucleus (MSN), a local non profit, devoted to science education, over the last 10 years, has been instrumental in protecting these precious archives and buildings and developing programming for students and the public .\

The tour will include the museum as well as the show gardens. Because of construction we might be limited to certain areas. but will provide an insight to the workings of agriscience in Fremont during the late 1800s to early 1900's.

BACKGROUND
The Niles district in Fremont was known for its agricultural contributions to the newly formed State of California. It was home to many orchards and nurseries but one of the most successful in North America was the California Nursery Company which started in San Jose in 1865 and moved to Niles in 1884. The California Nursery Company story in Fremont starts with John Rock, a German immigrant who served in the Civil War. He developed new methods of plant propagation which was an evolving science in the late 1800's. He worked with the renowned plant breeder, Luther Burbank.

This overview will follow the growth of the nursery and horticultural business in Niles from Rock to three generations of the famous Roeding Family from Fresno. The exotic Bulb Festivals with local "tulip girls" brought hundreds of thousands of people to take a tour of the nursery's 500 acres. Trees from this nursery were used to landscape the 1915 Panama International Exposition in San Francisco as well as the 1939-40 Golden Gate Internation Exposition on Treasure Island.

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