CARL SONDEREGGER 
1856—Founder—1934 
For 50 years the picture of Mr. 
Carl Sonderegger has been before 
the American home maker and 
farmer, first as a young man, and 
then gradually the years stamped 
their marks on the face of the 
West’s great pioneer nurseryman. 
Those final years—“his late 70’s”— 
were unmistakably written on Mr. 
Carl Sondereger’s picture. 
Born in 1856 in Heiden, near 
Lake Constance (Switzerland), Carl 
Sonderegger left his home at the 
age of 19. Perhaps no one told 
him, “Go West Young Man,” nev¬ 
ertheless he went West. The West 
was young then—homes, farms and 
lowns were few and far apart. To 
Carl Sonderegger and Mother Son¬ 
deregger the Plains of Nebraska 
looked like the morning of a great 
day. He became a citizen, settled 
down and raised a family. He saw 
the country timberless, without a 
f* uit tree or a hedge. He felt that 
someone should build up tree-life 
in the West. But who, and how? 
Mr. Carl Sonderegger did not lack 
the courage, and the knowledge to 
take over this great task. 
Today a tree is a common sight, 
fruit is for sale everywhere. There 
are beautiful homes in the country 
and in the city—beautiful owing to 
their surroundings. Few people 
realize that the West was not like 
this when the white man firsi 
came. It was the great American 
Pioneer Spirit that turned the 
prairie into a pleasant land. No 
man has done more for the distri¬ 
bution and the plant¬ 
ing of trees in the 
Middle West than 
Mr. Carl Sondereg¬ 
ger. 
Mr. Carl Sondereg¬ 
ger did not live to 
see his business pass 
the fifty-year mile¬ 
stone. He passed 
away in the summer 
elebrating our 50th Anniversary 
50th GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 
SPECIAL OFFERS 
SAVE YOU MONEY 
)E ARE celebrating and we are anxious that you celebrate with us 
iVJ The treat is on us, friends. The very special 50th Anniversary offers 
scattered throughout this book include great values at unusually low 
prices. In these offers—something for everybody—you find wonderful values, 
a real treat. 
YESTERDAY 
The first crop of trees the Sonderegger Nurseries 
grew was sold in a quite simple way. Carl Sonderegger 
climbed on his wagon and started off to see farmers 
and home-makers; he traveled as far as he could and 
continued driving until he had his crop sold among the 
settlers. Mr. Carl Sonderegger told them what he had, 
how it should be planted, and he encouraged his pros¬ 
pects to plant something every year in order to get wind 
protection, fruit, wood, and game covers. In fact, sales 
talk at that time consisted of nothing else but good, honest advice. Honest deal 
ings never fail to bring results. Carl Sonderegger’s business grew. 
The mail order business was something almost new in the ’80’s. Carl Sondereg 
ger was one of the very first to sell trees through the mail. It worked. A catalog 
■ ould travel cheaply, it could be written so as to contain all that could be told in 
advice to a planter. With this idea in mind, Carl Sonderegger mailed out what 
was perhaps the first tree catalog. It was small, but it contained everything the 
West needed—good, hardy fruit, forest trees, hedge plants. From year to year 
as more customers made their purchases from the Sonderegger Nursery, new va 
rieties were added. We tried new fruit varieties, new flowers, and those that stood 
the weather well and proved satisfactory were described properly in the following 
catalog. The catalog gained in variety and in the information it contained. It also 
gained steadily in number and found friends everywhere. 
From the beginning, Carl Sonderegger followed these simple principles: 
SELL DIRECT 
Cut out the profits of middlemen. This has saved our customers many a dollar 
LET THE PRODUCT BE OUR CHIEF ADVERTISER 
Quality first. Poor quality is too high at any price. 
AN ABSOLUTELY DEPENDABLE, DESCRIPTIVE CATALOC- 
OUR SALESMAN 
You order only what you like, not what someone else wants to sell you. Fol 
lowing these principles did not make Carl Sonderegger a wealthy man, yet he 
gained much more for his business than wealth—a solid chain of stanch patrons 
in every state of the Union who prefer our stock and service. 
A Section of SONDEREGGER’S UPLAND NURSERY 
*s 
of 1934. When his 
death was made 
known on this page 
in the last garden- 
book, thousands of 
his friends and pa¬ 
trons expressed their 
regrets. The Sonde¬ 
regger family wishes 
to thank every one 
of their friends for 
the thousands o f 
kind letters of sym¬ 
pathy. To the sons 
who carry on the 
Sonderegger Nurser¬ 
ies and Seedhouse. 
the words from their 
customers were a 
great help, an en¬ 
couragement to con¬ 
tinue in the same 
honest and friendly 
way the work Mr 
Car) Sonderegger ha« 
begun. 
