Oregon
Gardens - An Historical Vignette
Oregon has many fascinating
horticultural stories. Here are just two.
It is reported that in 1840, the wife of Reverend Alvin
F. Waller was preparing dried apples for cooking and tossed
the seeds tossed into her garden. From these seeds, the
first apple trees in Oregon grew in Oregon City.
Henderson Luelling was Oregon's first horticulturist and
founder of the Oregon Horticultural Society. Originally
from Salem, Iowa, Luelling arrived in the Willamette Valley
in 1847, with a traveling nursery in his covered wagon
caravan. He bought with him apples, pears, peaches, plums,
cherries, and hickory nuts.
In 1885, Luelling grew a two-cheeked dark blood cherry.
Bing, his oriental foreman had found this cherry in one
of the rows of cherry trees that he cultivated. Luelling
named delicious dark red blood cherry, Bing. Unfortunately,
the original Bing cherry tree was cut down in 1912 when
the Main Street in Milwaukee, Oregon was created.
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Oregon Grape ( Berberis
aquifolium )
