Trees
Trees at the Park
The area that we call "The Apricot Orchard" is actually a portion of the historic Roeding Experimental Orchard. There are three remaining trees from the 1930s.
This is where about 50 hybrids of Albert Etter's were tested: mostly apples and some chestnuts, and one fig.
It is not easy to look up the trees in the park. Here's the recommended order of looking up the trees while in the park:
The new Tree Inventory for the city of Fremont
The Boy Scouts did a nice map a long while back, but no one has updated this nice interactive map. And I've been told that not all of the IDs are quite right. Plus many of the trees are gone. And the mini-maps don't work any longer.
HortScience has done a recent 2017 inventory, but it is not easy to look up on your phone at the park. So you could print off the latest Urban Forestry Master Plan and carry that with you. Appendix 4 has the maps with the numbers that you can look up on the trees. However, they only have the common name which is sometimes a problem.
Here are all the ways to look up a tree.
The (previous) current survey of trees from HortScience in 2014 is here. The list is by common name and many of the trees have died. Trees are numbered, but the labels have been chewed, sometimes removing the number. Easier to look up than the UFMP.
A mildly out-of-date google map tour, written as a class project, with trees, buildings, restaurants, coffee, etc. as well as Shinn Park. If you are making a trip to Niles, be sure to check out downtown Niles.
A walking tour with notable trees from PGA Design, the Master Planners for the park.
The Urban Tree Key from Cal Poly San Luis Obisbo. This simple tree key ID'd some oddities in the park. It probably doesn't have all of them for our park, but it is an interesting key. And it figured out the odd Chionanthus tree in the front garden.
CalNurCo walking tour: Paper map and online. This is old and many signs are missing. Some signs have QR codes to get you to the online tour.
And of course, the Roadside Arboretum which is old but good, covering the cities of the Washington Township: Alvarado, Centerville, Decoto, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Newark, Niles, Warm Springs
Kauri Pine, 107 years old in 2014 (with Bill and Nelson)
More interesting books and websites about Trees of the San Francisco Bay Area
Fruit Trees
Apples
The California Nursery Company and Albert Etter had a marketing agreement. The CNCo tested several varieties of apples and selected six to market.
The CNCo published a holiday flier of recipes using the Etter apples. See attached.
Figs
At one time, the California Nursery Company was a fig hotspot.
"Among California importers John Rock stands most prominent. He has imported figs at various times from foreign countries and possesses now the most extensive collection on the Pacific coast. The trees are at Niles, Cal. not far from San Francisco. Of the earlier importations there is no record but in the spring of 1883 he received from Thomas Rivers & Son the following figs Barnissotte Grise, Angelique, Col di Signora Bianca, De Constantino, Negro Largo, Early Violet, Lardaro, Black Marseilles, Drap d'Or, White Genoa, Bondance Precoce, Brown Ischia, Prolific, Monaco Bianco, Brunswick, Bourjassotte Grise, Rocardi, Col di Signora Nera, Grosse Grise Bifère, Royal Vineyard, Hirta, Brown Turkey, Ronde Violette Hative, White Marseilles, Bourjassotte Blanche, White Ischia, Du Roi (fig. 8), Agen, Dorè Norbus, Pasteliere, Raby Castle, Bourjassotte Noire, Grassale, Black Ischia, Ronde Noire. In 1889 he received the following figs from a house in Provence, France: Salette, Martale, Rosso di Mensigila, Grosse Violette, Des Dames, Biànca Morcati, Angelique, Avarcugo, Crovere, De Calabria, À Feuilles Trilobes, Courcourelle, Giallo Verde, Giallo Rotondo, Negrondo, Madalena, Aubique Leroy, Ronde Rouge de Provence, Imperial, Rolandina, Turco di Constantinople, Mascula. In the fall of 1890 the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C, sent to Mr. Rock the Trojano, Dottato, Brizanzola, and Guigliana; and from a local nurseryman were received in 1891 the Capri, Smyrna, Verdale Longue, Cernica, Zemitza, etc.
From the The fig: its history, culture, and curing, with a descriptive catalogue of the known varieties of figs by Gustav Eisen.