Katherine Olivia Sessions (November 8, 1857 – March 24, 1940) was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

horticulturalist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

, and

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

closely associated with

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California. She is known as the "Mother of Balboa Park". Sessions biography
(San Diego Historical Society).

Early life and education

Sessions was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California, and educated in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

. At the age of six, she moved with her family to a farm next to

Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a lake located in a large tidal lagoon basin in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is named after Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor in 1867–1869, who had the lagoon dammed turning the varying tidal lag ...

. She attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1881, earning a degree in

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

. While attending a San Francisco business school, at the request of a friend, she moved to San Diego in 1883 to work as an eighth-grade teacher and vice principal at Russ School (now

San Diego High School San Diego High School (SDHS) is an urban public high school located on the southern edge of Balboa Park, San Diego, California, Balboa Park in San Diego, California, United States. It is the oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School Dist ...

). She worked at the school for over a year before leaving due to health problems.

Career

In San Diego, Sessions quickly developed an interest in the cultivation of plants. In 1885, she purchased a nursery; within a few years she was the owner of a flower shop as well as growing fields and nurseries in

Coronado Coronado may refer to: People * Coronado (surname) Coronado is a Spanish surname derived from the village of Cornado, near A Coruña, Galicia. People with the name * Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (1510–1554), Spanish explorer often referred t ...

, Pacific Beach, and Mission Hills.Christman (1985), p. 18.Pourade (1965), p. 32. The Mission Hills Nursery, which she founded in 1910 and sold to her employees the Antonicelli brothers in 1926, is still in operation. In 1892, Sessions leased of land in Balboa Park (then called City Park) from the City of San Diego to use as growing fields. In return, she agreed to plant 100 trees a year in the mostly barren park, as well as 300 trees a year in other parts of San Diego. This arrangement left the park with an array of

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

, pepper trees and

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

grown in her gardens from seeds imported from around the world; virtually all of the older trees still seen in the park were planted by her. Among many other plant introductions, she is credited with importing and popularizing the

jacaranda ''Jacaranda'' is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas while cultivated around the world. The generic name is also used as the common name. The species ' ...

, now very familiar in the city. She also collected, propagated, and introduced many

California native plants California native plants are plants that existed in California prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists in the late 18th century. California includes parts of at least three phytochoria. The largest is the California Floristic ...

to the

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

trade and into gardens. In 1900, Sessions travelled to

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

to find a

palm tree The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...

not native to San Diego to be planted at the park. She would also later take a seven-month trip through Europe where she collected multiple plant varieties that she eventually helped plant in the park. Together with Alfred D. Robinson, she co-founded the San Diego Floral Association in 1907; it is now the oldest garden club in Southern California. The garden club was influential in teaching San Diegans how to grow ornamental and edible plants, at a time when most San Diego landscaping consisted of dirt and sagebrush. Sessions collaborated with architect Hazel Wood Waterman on the garden design of a single-family home near Balboa Park built by San Diego socialite Alice Lee.

Personal life

Sessions never married,Christman (1985), p. 16. but maintained a close and lifelong friendship with

Alice Eastwood __NOTOC__ Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She published over 310 scient ...

and some people speculate that she may have been a member of the

LGBTQ+ community The LGBTQ community (also known as the LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, or queer community) comprises LGBTQ individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individua ...

. Sessions died in San Diego on March 24, 1940, at the age of 82. She is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego. Kate's family followed her from the Bay Area to San Diego. She took on relatives as partners in business. Her father, Josiah, was a helper to her until his death in 1903 after her mother, Harriett, passed away in 1895. Frank, her only sibling, helped to start the first poinsettia nursery in Mission Hills. All three are buried next to her in Mt. Hope Cemetery. Despite 60 years of 12- and 14-hour work days, she gave herself only two vacations, and both included some horticultural work. Kate had no heirs except Milton, the son of her brother Frank.

Legacy

Sessions' work with plant introduction, as well as her extensive writing on the subject, won her international recognition. At the

California Pacific International Exposition The California Pacific International Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California, during May 29, 1935–November 11, 1935 and February 12, 1936–September 9, 1936. The exposition was held in Balboa Park, San Diego's large ...

on September 22, 1935, the day was dedicated to Sessions, where she was named the "Mother of Balboa Park". In 1939, she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Frank N. Meyer medal of the

American Genetic Association The American Genetic Association (AGA) is a US-based professional scientific organization dedicated to the study of genetics and genomics which was founded as the American Breeders Association in 1903. The association has published the '' Journ ...

.Christman (1985), p. 20. Kate Sessions statue

In the San Diego area, th
Kate Sessions Elementary school
in Pacific Beach bears her name, as does Kate Sessions Memorial Park on

Mount Soledad Mount Soledad, also known as Soledad Mountain, is a prominent landmark in San Diego, California, United States. The mountaintop is the site of the Mount Soledad Cross. Geography The mountain lies between Interstate 5 to the east and the Pac ...

, located less than a mile from the school and constructed only a few years later. A bronze statue of Sessions, dedicated in 1998, is situated in a prominent location in Balboa Park, in the southwest corner of Sefton Plaza, near the Sixth Avenue entrance to the park. In 2006, the

Women's Museum of California The Women's Museum of California (WMC) is a nonprofit museum in Balboa Park (San Diego), Balboa Park in San Diego, California, dedicated to women's history. It was founded in 1983. It was first organized under the names the Women's History Reclam ...

inducted Sessions into the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame, under the title of Trailblazer.

In popular culture

A 2013 children's picture book, ''The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever'', tells the story of Kate's life, education, and contribution to San Diego civic life.

Selected works

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Kate O. Sessions Collection 1891-1940, San Diego City Clerk's Archives

Kate Sessions Collection 1876-1940, San Diego History Center

Finding aid to the Kate Sessions Collection, Online Archive of California.

The San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library
houses a significant collection of Kate Sessions' papers.
San Diego Women's Hall of Fame

KatesTrees.org

The Tree Lady, The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever
written about Sessions by H. Joseph Hopkins, illustrated by Jill McElmurry {{DEFAULTSORT:Sessions, Kate 1857 births 1940 deaths American horticulturists American landscape and garden designers American landscape architects American designers Scientists from California American women botanists American women landscape architects Women horticulturists and gardeners California people in design Landscape design history of the United States Botanists active in California History of San Diego San Diego High School alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Balboa Park (San Diego) People from Pacific Beach, San Diego People from San Francisco Burials at Mount Hope Cemetery (San Diego) 19th-century American architects 20th-century American architects 19th-century American botanists 20th-century American botanists 19th-century American women scientists 20th-century American women scientists Women environmentalists