Celebrating Balboa Park Part I: The Garden Faire
— Nan Sterman
One of my favorite things about putting together new episodes is what I discover along the way. Our first episode of Season Three is about the history of Balboa Park and how it became the iconic destination it is today.
Nan reads from the handwritten ledger that tracked every plant that came into and went out of
of the Balboa Park
Nursery between 1912 and 1921
Many people assume that Kate Sessions designed Balboa Park. Sessions arrived in San Diego in 1883, shortly after graduating from UC Berkeley. Originally, Sessions worked as a school teacher but soon became San Diego’s best known horticulturist, florist, and plantswoman.
Sessions was a huge promoter of the park and responsible for promoting many of the plants we use today. From 1892 to 1903, she had a nursery in the northwest corner of today’s Balboa Park. As part of her “rent,” Sessions grew and planted hundreds of trees throughout the city- some in Balboa Park,
Balboa Park’s gardens are one of the main features the 1915 Panama-California Exposition
Panama California Exposition that celebrated the opening of
the Panama Canal
some in other parks, and some in schools.
While Sessions is widely known as “The Mother of Balboa Park,” only one remote Balboa Park canyon has trees that we know Sessions planted,
according to San Diego historian Nancy Carol Carter. Instead, the framework of the gardens we see today along the Prado and throughout the park are remnants of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. The plantings we see today, however, are mostly from the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition, onward.
In fact, if Sessions and the early park planners had their way, Balboa Park would look entirely different today.…
Celebrating Balboa Park – Part I: The Garden Faire is the first in a five part series about the history of the gardens in San Diego’s Balboa Park, written by Nan Sterman, garden writer, designer, and host of A Growing Passion. This series accompanies the episode “Balboa Park – The Garden Faire.” To watch the show, follow this link.
