A BIT OF HISTORY 
BOUT 15 or 16 years ago, mainly as a result of reading English garden literature, we 
came to realize that even in our restricted field of effort (the woody plants) there were 
many very fine things abroad which were not available to the garden lovers of this 
country, although in some cases specimens were in the gardens of enthusiastic amateurs 
who guarded them with both zealous and jealous care. 
Although the great depression of the late twenties had begun we had faith in the 
future and commenced importing new and rare woody plants from England and other 
countries. By 1933 propagation of these items had progressed sufficiently so that we 
could offer the resulting plants for sale but soon found that they were utterly unknown in 
this country and under the severe business conditions nurserymen couldn’t risk buying. 
The only way out seemed to be to approach the garden people directly so “Garden 
Aristrocrats” was started in 1934. Gradually it commenced to circulate all over the 
U.S.A. and to produce the desired results. 
Importation and propagation were continued and in 1938 the writer was able to go 
to England to participate in a conference held by Royal Horticultural Society on “Orna- 
mental Flowering Trees and Shrubs.” This enabled him to attend the great Chelsea flower 
show that year and also to visit some of the more important nurseries in Holland and 
France in addition of course to those in England. Fortunately it was possible to import 
many of the rare and beautiful plants so found before the outbreak of the recent war. 
The above is a general outline of our efforts and naturally it has been gratifying to 
have work of this sort receive appreciation and recognition. The most outstanding 
example is that in Dec. 1945 our senior partner was awarded the Jackson Dawson Mem- 
orial Gold Medal by Massachusetts Horticultural Society “for making many valuable new 
woody plants available for American Gardens.” | 
We expect to continue importing from foreign woody plant specialists and in fact 
have brought in 25 or 30 new items this season. 

About 1931 we started work on breeding flowering trees and shrubs beginning with 
flowering peaches and apricots and continuing with mainly lilacs and flowering quinces 
as well as a few miscellaneous items. Out of the 12 Awards of Merit conferred to date 
by California Horticultural Society on items exhibited by us three have been given to 
our own originations: flowering quinces Fire and Stanford Red; flowering apricot Rose- 
mary Clarke. The Royal Horticultural Society has given the same award to our flowering 
quince Enchantress. 
A definite portion of our nursery has been reserved for our breeding program which 
we intend to continue indefinitely. 
