Nursery Garden Volunteers

New Volunteers

WHEN: Thursdays 10-12 (depending on weather and holiday time). Bring sharp by-pass pruners if you have them, long sleeves, and sturdy gloves. Bring water and sun-protection.

We welcome high school students, young adults, new retirees, and corporate teams.

Would you like to learn to prune roses so you can better prune your own roses?

We need help managing our weeds, so our gardens can be pesticide and herbicide free.

Are you looking for a team-building experience for your company?

Do you like hanging out with gardeners?

Whatever reason you have, we can use your help.

Please see Volunteer Match for additional work days.

Volunteer forms are located at the bottom of this page.

Please bring plenty of water with you to the park. There are bottle refilling stations around the parking lot. Read about heat illnesses.

There is a bathroom next to the parking lot.

We Garden History

The historic nursery gardens grew around the "new" office building, built in 1907. The Nursery went out of business in 1970 and the last 20 acres became a park in the City of Fremont.

There are several different gardens within the original Nursery square.

The 1934 nursery display gardens which held flowering bulbs, shrubs, trees, and roses
The shade garden adjacent to the nursery office
The historic lawn with its shady picnic and sitting areas. Barbeques were held here.
The Specimen Tree area that is bordered by a fragment of the original driveway from 1884.

Building the 'Peace' rose garden in 2017.

We Garden for You

You may already know our park as your favorite place to take photos for birthdays, prom, graduations, and other special events. Or you may come here to walk your dog or enjoy a lunch.
The park is also a great place to volunteer your time to create spaces for the public to enjoy, to meet others who enjoy gardening, and to give back to the community.

Create your own work day for groups

For groups of 8 or more people (church, corporate, scouts, school, or other), we can arrange for a work day during the week or on the weekend.

Student volunteers

High School students can get credit for service hours during vacation time on Thursdays and occasional Mondays. For groups of 8 or more, we can arrange for a weekend day. Must sign a waiver if <18 years old. Must be older than 14 years old.

What will you learn in the Rose Garden?

Rose pruning is done in the winter and dead-heading is done during the growing season.

How to take care of your tools.
How to prune modern roses, like hybrid teas.
How to make proper cuts to encourage healthy growth.

Why prune?

The modern roses benefit from our winter care:

The three D's: remove diseased, damaged, and dead wood.
Open the center of the rose and remove crossing branches

How do you make a proper cut?

Sometimes the cut is obvious.

Sometimes it is not so easy.

Experts will be on hand to help you decide what is the proper cut.

Volunteer Form

Please print and fill in the form before coming to the park, if possible.

Volunteers must be 14 or older. Younger volunteers must be accompanied by an adult.

An adult signature is required for those who are under 18 years of age.

Volunteer Release Waiver of Liability Form CaNursery.docx.pdf

The California Nursery Garden Club

Volunteer gardeners have worked in the nursery gardens for 30 years in 2024, since 1994. Eva Ricciarielli of the "California Nursery Garden Club" made an agreement with the city on March 9, 1994 to maintain the California Nursery gardens.

The garden club was soon renamed. When the club started volunteering at Shinn Park as well, a new name was created - the Friends of Heirloom Flowers.

The Friends of Heirloom Flowers tackled weeds, restored the old nursery office gardens, created a butterfly garden, and rebuilt the windmill.

The Friends of Heirloom Flowers "left the windmill" on August 19, 2010 and focussed on Shinn Park. Two of the volunteers, Denise and Judy, were left at the California Nursery. Others joined them over time.

The gardeners worked under LEAF's contract for a few years. Now we work under the contract of the Math Science Nucleus.

For a time we were called the Friends of the California Nursery Historical Park, but that was far too long and much hard to remember. After much discussion, we decided against several funny punny names or the more local "Niles Nursery" name.

We decided that we needed a serious name that reflected our serious role as guardians of the California Nursery Company's historical gardens and history - The California Nursery Garden Club. After that was decided, we discovered that this was the original name of the garden club.

Today, you can see many of the same people at both parks. We all share a love for these historical parks.

Shinn Park volunteers enjoy a pleasant social hour at noon in the comfort of the Shinn family's original cottage. The California Nursery volunteers have a much more rustic set-up and informally share snacks at a picnic table next to the tool shed that the Candlelighters graciously bought for them in 2017.

Our Logo

1921-1922 nursery catalog logo. This logo was used perhaps for 12 years. The Stark Bros. objected to this logo as being too close to their logo. It is based on the California State flag for gosh sake. How could they have objected? Today, there are many people who use the California bear logo as inspiration for their new logo.

From the Township Register, August 24, 1918. It was designed by Mr. C.M. Green of the nursery staff!

The first seriously proposed logo for the Garden Club. (you should have seen the others!) The California grizzly evokes California in a way that no other logo does. The last grizzly bear in Alameda disappeared in 18xx. According to Milicent Shinn, the town of Vallejo Mills was known as Gopherville. Perhaps this was a side effect of the lack of predators. Now we have to rely on raptors and gopher baskets to keep these root chewers at bay. Three roses in the 'Peace' rose garden had fallen in late 2021.

It will no doubt change over time.

Love this Bear that might have been used for a nursery tag or something like that. This one is official, but colored for the the Museum Signage and the California Revealed website. The original is seen in catalogs of the 1920s era before the "Old Adobe" trademark took hold.

Another silly idea! Look at that arm!From a Dutch cleanser sign.

Volunteer History

Dedication of the new windmill, May 2, 1999.This windmill replaced the old windmill.Many members of the Roeding Family were present. Frances Roeding and George Roeding, Jr. passed in 1995 and were not here to see the new windmill.

When will a mayor grace the windmill again? (Note: In 2017! Mayors Lily Mei and Gus Morrison visited during the Roeding Centennial)

Note: After the nursery became property of the city of Fremont, the nursery office became an animal control building, ROP classes, a place for police operations?

Errol Wills, park employee took care of the rose garden. He unearthed the shade garden from a bed of ivy and built the little bridge.

Read about the Rose Garden History.

References

Photos from the collection of the Friends of Heirloom Flowers
City of Fremont memo to Eva Ricciarielli from Fred Matsumoto, March 9, 1994. (_2883)
Then in one hot second, a name change. Mission Peak Reporter May 1994 - "A new garden club, Friends of Heirloom Flowers held its first meeting in March with 30 people attending. Plans were discussed for civic beautifucation of Fremont; some of which has started with pruning and care of the roses in the Niles Rose Garden. The planters in front of the old garden center were filled with plants and they are blooming nicely. More planting in the rose garden areas and in the beds around the Adobe are in the plans. Shinn Park is another area where the club could work in the gardens if desired."
"The Niles Rose Garden" by Kate Lipman-Fiene, Friends of Heirloom Flowers Scrapbook.
"Friends of Heirloom Flowers", Tri-City Voice, July 19, 2005 talks about the time when the FoHF took care of both Shinn and the nursery park.
"Garden Club Thrives After 20 Years", Tri-City Voice, Nov. 1, 2014.
"Friends of Heirloom Flowers", Tri-City Voice, Nov. 11, 2014.