![]() ![]() The jacaranda was designated as the official tree of the City of San Diego in 2000.Ĭiting this year as their best yet, the club received almost 300 trees from May 2013 to April 2014. Because they flower in May, June and July, jacaranda trees were selected by club members to help brighten up the “May gray” and “June gloom” in San Diego. The two most recent plantings are at Kate Sessions Park and had their first blooms just in time for the ceremony. The club presented a certificate of appreciation to City of San Diego grounds maintenance worker Angelo Sardina, who plants and maintains the trees. The person for whom the money was donated was also acknowledged. Those recognized donated money in someone’s memory or in honor of an anniversary, graduation or birthday. On June 4, 2014, members of the Village Garden Club of La Jolla gathered at Kate Sessions Park to publicly recognize the donors who make it possible for the club to purchase, plant and care for the trees. And in 2006, the Women’s Museum of California inducted Sessions into the San Diego County Hall of Fame under the title of a Trailblazer.Button above to see 10 photos from the Village Garden Club of La Jolla’s jacaranda-trees dedication.īy Ashley MackinIf you’ve ever driven past a jacaranda tree blooming with purple flowers throughout La Jolla and San Diego, odds are it was one of the 2,200 planted by the Village Garden Club of La Jolla since its inception in 1986. So much so that in the 1990s, a bronze statue was erected in Balboa Park to pay homage to Sessions, and she is often credited with being the “Mother of Balboa Park”. Sessions worked her whole career doing something she was passionate about and in turn, left an everlasting imprint on a city. ![]() ![]() Meyer medal for plant introduction from the American Genetic Association – the first woman to win the award. This aided in changing the landscape of the city from dirt and sagebrush to the beautiful, plant filled city it has become. Through the club, Sessions was able to teach people how to grow ornamental and edible plants in the desert-esque landscape of San Diego. In 1907, she co-founded the San Diego Floral Association, which is the oldest garden club in southern California. It’s argued t hat Sessions largest and most notable contribution is the use and popularization of jacaranda (a purple flowering tree), for which San Diego is now known. Sessions planted a wide variety of trees, plants and bushes throughout the city and park. She would leave her mark on the California landscape for years to come. By agreeing, Sessions career truly blossomed. Her knowledge and expertise led the city of San Diego to offer Sessions a 30-acre parcel of land to use as a nursery in the newly established 1,200 acre Balboa Park, under the conditions that Sessions would plant at least 100 trees in the park and 300 trees and plants all across San Diego. The Mission Hills nursery still operates to this day. She would later open a flower shop, and three other nurseries in Coronado, Pacific Beach, and Mission Hills. She stayed on top of the latest developments in botany and horticulture, and would very often fly to other parts of the world to study plants.Īfter bouncing around in the field of education administration for a while, Sessions opened a nursery in the city. Sessions quickly established herself as one of the elites of her field. Her work as a botanist, landscape architect, and horticulturist, truly began when she moved south to San Diego in 1883. The essay she wrote for graduation was titled, “The Natural Sciences as a Field for Women’s Labor.” She entered the university seeking a business major but changed over to natural sciences a year later. When it came time for Sessions to attend college, she enrolled at the University of California Berkeley. She grew up around the Bay Area for most of her young life. Sessions was born in 1857 in San Francisco, California. ![]() One of these women is Katherine “Kate” Olivia Sessions. But there have been trailblazing women involved in STEM fields for centuries. In the United States, that number is even fewer at just about 14%. However, less than one-third of people employed globally in STEM fields today are women, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Women in science, technology, engineering, and math has become a hot topic in recent years at many schools and colleges. ![]()
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