John Rock's Mother Orchard

What is a Mother Orchard?

In the days when every fruit tree was a rare fruit, people did not know what kinds of trees to plant in California. It was a very different place than the East Coast with no summer rain and no snow. Horticulturalists and nurserymen tested fruits out to see if a tree would be successful.

You sometimes hear this term today - used to describe an orchard that contains many different varieties of fruits and cultivars. You will also hear "Specimen Orchard" and "Test Orchard". New fruit tree varieties were introduced into the orchard and if the varieties were successful, they were propagated and sold. The trees provided the scion wood for new trees. These desirable varieties were grafted onto sturdy rootstock. John Rock brought varieties from all over the world to be tested in California. At one time, he had the most varieties of figs than anyone else - 71 varieties!

The Mother Orchard is a different kind of orchard than a production orchard. The production orchard has many trees with a few varieties. The Test Orchard contains many varieties and fewer trees of each variety. There might be one or two trees of a single variety. Or even trees with multiple varieties grafted onto them.

The Mother Orchard was a favorite place for school children to sneak some fruit on their way home. Young Joshua Fong and his sister Rose remember gathering fruit and nuts and getting in trouble at school.

The History of Fruit at the California Nursery Company

John Rock came to the United States in 1857. He worked on the East Coast for various nurseries.

Rock came to California after fighting in the Civil War. He established the first of his nurseries, "Rock's Nurseries", along Coyote Creek in San Jose in 1865. John Rock's neighbor was the famous pioneer nurseryman, B.S. Fox. Around 1880, he moved his nursery further north near Wayne Station. Rock grew fruit trees in San Jose, so perhaps this is where his first Mother Orchard was located.

The California Nursery Company was established in Niles in 1884 by John Rock, R.D. Fox, and partners. Rock continued operating his nursery in San Jose along Coyote Creek, Rock's Nurseries, for some years after 1884. Orchard records show that some fruit varieties came from his San Jose nursery. Records show where he obtained his fruit varieties - Some came from France, the USDA, Britain, even from Mrs. so-and-so.

John Rock's Mother Orchard was spread across the 463 acre nursery after it was established in 1884.

The Museum of Local History has several of John Rock's orchard books. The California Revealed program scanned in one orchard book from 1887. They have another later book, not scanned, but available upon request. The Roeding Archives holds an unscanned book with the original nursery map, that shows where upon the nursery property the various trees are planted by block and row.

A veritable treasure map!

Some trees still grow in the neighborhoods, such as chestnuts on Montecito near Rancho Arroyo Park. This is also where the Eberly spur is located and where the palms were sent to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Possibly these are the trees that can be seen in this photo in Horace thesis of the two expositions of 1915, San Diego and San Francisco. Scan to the bottom where the photos of the Tennessee Hollow Nursery is pictured. Look for the "Moving Big Palms, A Carload" picture. That is the Eberly Spur that was located on the Western Pacific Railroad, now the BART tracks. The trees behind are probably the chestnuts. Rose Fong remembered gathering chestnuts on her 3-mile walk home from Niles Elementary to her family's farm in today's north Fremont. These varieties could be propagated and brought to the park.

Well, there's lots more history than that. But we are talking about the Roeding Experimental Orchard.