I was driving to Filoli with some very important scions as a passenger earlier this week. These cuttings were from our Mission Pear Tree. The Mission Pear is important to our community and to many people, not to mention some history of Marin County. The connections created by this tree began to resonate as I made my way south.
As I passed by the Presidio another connection was being made by way of Haley O’Conner, a gardener at Filoli. She and I were coworkers and friends during my time there. She sparked the grafting effort. The spark she provided was coordinating a field trip of Filoli gardeners to MAGC last year.
While giving them a tour of our campus we came upon the Mission Pear and I told the story of the tree. Jim Salyard, the Garden Director at Filoli, understanding the importance of this tree, offered to make graftings with us. John Chau would be my grafting guide. During that same field trip, Tom Perry happened by and shared that his Great Aunt Bella Worn helped design parts of the garden at Filoli. Connections deepened.
The deepest connection comes from the origin story of this tree when in 1817 Father Gil Taboado planted an orchard at Mission San Rafael. Our Mission Pear is from a cutting taken from the last tree of that orchard in 1930. The genetic identity of the original tree lives in the existing tree, which is in a slow state of decline.
The collective effort and care that we all are making is very meaningful. In the process of continuing the tree’s story we connected our gardens, our histories and our humanity. when the time comes to plant this small grafted miracle, we will do so here and at Filoli. Thank you dear gardener friends at Filoli.
I am humbled.
