Luther Burbank's Farm: The roses (and more) in bloom!

I had about an hour before the first meeting of the year of the Cemetery Walk Committee was to start yesterday afternoon, so, as usual, I made a quick stop at Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experiment Farm (National Register of Historic Places) in Sebastopol here in Sonoma County (Northern California) to snap a few photos.

The "Cottage Garden" was going strong with beautiful "coral bells":

And columbine:

in bloom...

A huge vine of Burbank's rose, "blushing beauty" grows over the entire front of the Cottage and it was in bloom -- adding to the Cottage's quaint, picturesque look:

Here's a bloom of the blushing beauty up close:

Isn't that just delicious?

One of my favorite flowering plants at the Farm is a huge bush of "mock orange" (or "philadelphus"):

 Its stark-white blossoms smell wonderfully citrus-y! About the turn of the last century or so, these were often used for wedding bouquets.

Burbank didn't just breed plants for human consumption, though -- he was  also working on alternative feeds for livestock so he was interested in any shrub or tree that has a "beanlike" seedpod because they contain high amounts of protein.

That's why there are several catalpa trees at the Farm:

But I like them just because they're great shade trees and have beautiful flowers this time of year...

There are several varieties of roses at the Farm that have yet to be identified. The reason for this is mostly because scrub oaks have been shading them for the last 50 some-odd years and they haven't bloomed very much. The scrub oaks were removed couple of years ago and, each year that passes, we see more and more rose blossoms.

There is some debate about whether the roses -- any of them -- actually date from Burbank's time (1880s to 1920s) or if they are varieties that were transplanted here after Burbank's death by representatives from Stark Brothers Nursery out of Missouri which was the firm that sent people out to catalog the plants that were on the Farm at the time Burbank died.

My own personal opinion is that at least a couple of them DO date back to Burbank especially these two:

They are both a South American type called "Chilean" and it's a pretty well-known fact that Burbank developed hybrids of Chilean roses. There's even an old photo of him standing beside a bush of one of his hybrids of this type of rose (although you can't tell from the background of the photo where it was taken). I think these two might even be a couple of the "parent plants" that he used to create his hybrids...

I think a case could also be made for this rose (which is near the Chilean roses at the Farm) dating back to Burbank's time, too:

It has some of the delicate yellow in it of his "blushing beauty" and the flowers are just about the same size as blushing beauty's but that's not the main reason why I think Burbank might have used it -- it's the scent. Blushing beauty smells just like it!

But I'm in the minority of local Burbank plant-experts in my opinion about these roses at the Farm... Most of the other horticultural historians think these rose bushes are newer than I do. However, I don't think any of the other historians have really seen these roses in the height of their bloom, either, as I have, to know exactly what all is there... 

I could be right. Who knows?  ;o)

While I was walking around the Farm, I kept hearing a hawk calling nearby. Then I saw it fly from one tree to another. Here's the only photo I was able to get of it:

I'm pretty sure it's a red-shouldered hawk (it's definitely NOT a "red-tail"). There are many red-shoulders down in the Sebastopol area. We had a mated pair where we lived for 14 years in an area called "The Laguna de Santa Rosa", just south of downtown.

I also noticed that the "Apple Fence", consisting of "espaliered", or "flattened" as to grow against a wall or fence, apple trees of different varieties has grown considerably since the last photo that I took of it:

Each of the small apple trees you see along the fence is a different variety of apple (grafted to rootstock) all of which were either known to have been used by Luther Burbank in his grafting and/or hybridizing experiments OR were well-known during Burbank's time that we're certain Burbank would've been familiar with.

When mature, each of these trees will bear fruit that ripens at a different time of the year -- starting with the earliest ripening apple in May right on through the year to the latest ripening variety in January ("Winterstein").

The Apple Fence is a cooperative feature on Farm property installed and periodically repaired/pruned by "The Northern California Rare Fruit Growers" Association.

I also couldn't help but notice that the "Monarch berries" near the Farm Barn are starting to ripen:

The Monarchs are rather like Logan berries and were extensively, commercially grown in the area many years ago. They're somewhat of a rarity now but we have Farm volunteers who actually worked picking and packing the Monarchs when they were youngsters!

I can't resist tossing in a photo of a blossom of one of the small pomegranate trees planted within the last few years at the Farm because the color is simply stunning!

One last photo -- not a flowering plant -- but the largest chestnut hybrid tree on the Farm; the tree I call "Grandpa".

It sits on the top of the hill, looking out over the entire Farm and it is HUGE! Here's  a shot looking up into Grandpa's branches wearing his late spring foliage:

Now THAT'S a tree with a lot of character! :o)

Hope you enjoyed this look at some of the roses and other plants at Burbank's Farm in Sebastopol. For more information and updates on the latest events having to do with the Farm and the Western Sonoma County Historical Society that administrates the Farm, see our website HERE .

'Til next time, my wonderful Gather friends!

From the ole singlewide out here in the wild hinterlands of Northern California --

luv,

jean :o)