Thanks to Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply (originally started by our founder Amigo Bob Cantisano), a collection of some of our favorite species and varieties  are available for pre-sale through their website for the 2024/25 Bare Root Season 

Felix Gillet Collector Trees

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Cluster Walnut
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Cluster Walnut

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SKU 00144
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Cluster Walnut (Juglans Racemosa)

Drawing from Felix Gillet's Barren Hill Nursery Catalog - 1885

This unique walnut variety has been known to bear clusters of wonderful walnuts of up to fifteen nuts, unlike other walnuts, which bear at most 3-4 in a group. Here is what Felix had to say in 1885: “This remarkable walnut, also introduced into California and the United States by us, is a worthy rival of the Praeparturiens, and whose planting is warmly urged in France by the leading horticulturists of that country. The Juglans Racemosa derives its name from the Latin word racemosus, meaning abundant in clusters, full of clusters, which is the main characteristic of the Cluster Walnut, whose nuts grow on the tree in clusters of eight to fifteen, and even twenty to twenty-eight. Otherwise in habit, size, form and foliage, the Cluster Walnut does not differ from the Juglans Regis (English Walnut). When getting to bearing, the nuts are first found in bunches of two or three, which number is increased every year, when finally the tree gets to bearing those astonishing clusters of nuts form twelve to fifteen. We have seen one of these trees bear as many as 75 to 100 gallons of nuts; and in a good year 150 gallons.”
We owe the finding of this almost extinct variety to our friend Alex Suchan of Suchan Nursery in Upper Lake, Lake County, CA. Alex, 88, is the dean of walnut growers and propagators in California. He is a wealth of knowledge, propagating walnuts since he was 14 years old. His nursery now produces more than 200,000 modern walnut trees each year, yet Alex has an appreciation for the heirlooms. When we asked Alex about the Cluster he remembered a single tree that he harvested more than 50 years earlier on a parcel in Lake County. He took us to the grandmother tree, still standing but in a very precarious state of health and neglect. The neglect has caused the tree to reduce the number of nuts in a cluster to 5-7, but we are hoping with your care we will see the Cluster walnut again rise to its justified place in history. THANK YOU Alex!
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Cluster Walnut
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