FOREWORD 
“If you want the maximum of pleasure with the minimum of effort there is no better 
way of carrying out your intention than by having a shrub garden, including, of 
course, the flowering trees. . . . The smaller the garden the more important it is to 
select the very best forms; only in a large garden can you afford to grow the second 
best.’ Lord Aberconway, President, Royal Horticultural Society. (From opening 
address to the Conference on Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs, London, 
April 1938.) 
Those who have read any previous volumes understand that this is by no means a catalog. 
Our idea is to describe as accurately as possible in each issue a limited number of the finer trees 
and shrubs, both new and old, to avoid customary exaggeration and make the booklets worth 
saving for reference. We judge from the general tone of comments received that our efforts in 
this direction are appreciated. We welcome suggestions for improvement except to illustrate 
it freely—that we cannot do. 
Our Nursery is limited almost entirely to plants that make wood—trees, shrubs, climbers, 
etc. As rapidly as possible we are discarding all ‘second best’ items so that we may limit our 
production to novelties and certain specialties that do particularly well here. Both our importing 
and breeding programs are now fairly well advanced. Propagation of some things is slow and 
may require four or five years to work up sufficient stock to justify offering for sale. 
A few years back when we asked for suggestions the one that exceeded all others was to 
rate plants for hardiness. We have done this for the last three years and now improve the 
system very greatly due to the courtesy of Dr. Donald Wyman of the Arnold Arboretum and 
McGraw-Hill Book Co. who have given us permission to use the Hardiness Map on opposite 
page. This enables us to indicate hardiness very simply: for example (5) after name shows that 
that item is considered safe in Zone 5, etc. Our only deviation is to sub-divide Zone 9 so that 
(9) indicates probably safe to 20° (Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, etc.) 
(914) indicates probably safe to 25° or 26° (San Francisco Bay Region, etc.) 
(10) indicates will stand only very light frost. (per map.) 
As far. as possible we have taken ratings from the new Second Edition of Rehder’s ‘“‘Man- 
ual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs” which stops with Zone 8. For 9, 9144 and 10 we have 
given our honest opinion but can’t guarantee its correctness. 
To save space we have also used the following abbreviations: 
*Indicates that the item so marked has not been mentioned in any previous issue of Garden 
Aristocrats and is probably but not necessarily new. 
**Indicates that item so marked is an entire novelty which has not been offered hitherto 
by anyone. 
A.M.R.H.S. or A.M.C.H.S. indicates that item so marked has received an Award of Merit 
from The Royal Horticultural Society or the California Horticultural Society respectively. 
F.C.C.R.H.S. refers to the rarely awarded First Class Certificate of the R.H.S. 
Part II contains a condensed price list of our principal stock. We suggest you look through 
it carefully as it contains quite a number of comparatively new and scarce items which could 
not be included in Part I for lack of space. Some were offered for the first time last year. 
It will be a pleasure for us to have you visit our nursery which is located on the Oakland- 
San Jose Highway, a mile north of the city limits of San Jose. Coming down the Peninsula take 
the Bayshore Highway. About one mile after going through the underpass near Santa Clara, the 
first paved road that crosses is well marked by a row of magnificent old Elm trees. This is the 
Brokaw road. Turn to the left there. This road ends at the Oakland-San Jose highway directly 
in front of our nursery. 
Nursery and office is closed Sundays throughout the year with the sole exception of Lilac 
Sunday (see back cover). 
If you belong to a Garden Club and think some of its members would like a copy of this 
booklet we will mail it if a list of their names and addresses is sent us. 
Please note that if you receive any volume of “Garden Aristocrats” by mail it will be 
sent to you regularly in future years as long as we decide to publish it, but please do not get 
impatient as it usually is not ready for mailing until about February 1st. 
ARRANGEMENT. In both Parts I and II all items are grouped into general divisions 
which appear in the following order: Conifers, Broad Leaved Evergreens, Flowering Fruit 
Trees, Deciduous Trees, Lilacs, Magnolias, Quinces, Other Deciduous Shrubs, Climbers, Mis- 
cellaneous Items. This plan seems to make an index unnecessary. 
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