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December Arboretum Library E-News

December 12, 2009

News from the Library

Hello all:

     I've been having so much fun scanning the magazines, I've been neglecting the books.  The new magazine articles in the Arboretum Library catalog are here.  This link has books too.  If you are interested in any of these articles or books just let me know at Susan.Eubank@Arboretum. org.

     My magazine scan has also added to the Arboretum Library wishlists at Amazon.  You can give a gift that we all can enjoy when you buy a book for the Library off our wishlists.  There is one for children's books and one for the main collection.

Library volunteer, Pam Wolken reviewed the following book.  The Arboretum Library call number is: SB63 .P39 2004.

Cover of Theodore Payne in his own words

     "Theodore Payne (1872 – 1963) is an iconic figure in the Southern California landscape.  Born in England and arriving in the California in 1893, Theodore Payne in His Own Words; A Voice for California Native Plants (Theodore Payne Foundation, Many Moons Press; 2004) provides Payne’s own recollections of snapshots of life in Southern California about 100 years ago.  The memoir includes a new edition of Payne‘s 1962 Life on the Modjeska Ranch in the Gay Nineties, Adventures Among the Southern California Plants, and Brief History of a Life in Horticulture.  Fortunately there is additional biographical information from the Theodore Payne Foundation to fill in the continuum of an extraordinary life.

     Payne’s snapshots are clearly black and white with an economy of verbiage belying his education, leaving school at 16 to apprentice in a rigorous course of nursery and seed business training, and the times when information came slowly and travel was difficult at best.  Soon after his arrival in Southern California, his admiration for the native flora grew and he recognized that they were disappearing.  As a seedsman, he was determined to turn the tide; collecting native seeds, creating a desire to propagate them in cultivated gardens, and linking native plants to patriotism with his writings: Be a good Californian: be loyal to your own state and keep your landscape California, by planting the trees, shrubs and flowers native to California. 

    Payne was very clear about his role in the world “..I was not a gardener but a nurseryman. The latter’s work was to propagate young plants and trees, while the former’s was to grow these plants on to maturity..” Yet the role of gardener was the one most often open to him as he sought employment before starting his own seed business.

     By the 1920’s, Payne was a recognized seed expert called to testify in a number of court cases using plant material as evidence.  One in particular held that pressed flowers in a woman’s possession were the gift of Lucky Baldwin and her suit claimed that she had been married to Baldwin, that the flowers were from the Baldwin Ranch, and that the woman’s daughter was heir to Baldwin’s estate.  Payne was unable to substantiate the woman’s claim.  Such vignettes punctuating his tales make this collection well worth a look.  It’s a trip down memory lane with a favorite elder."

Happy holidays and reading!  The Arboretum Library will be closed, December 25, 2009.