Felix Gillet’s Legacy
In the history of Fruit and Nut Growing in California and the Pacific Northwest, Felix Gillet holds an honorable and unique place. He is recognized by many as the father of most of the perennial crop agriculture in California and the Western U.S.
Gillet, born in Rocheford, France in 1835, was a sailor who made at least 7 trans Atlantic voyages and then immigrated to Boston, MA in 1852. He arrived in San Jose, California in 1858, and settled in Nevada City, CA in 1859. Initially the owner of a barber shop, he took a year sabbatical about 1862 and learned more of the nursery trade in his homeland. He came back to Nevada City, became a nurseryman and established his “Barren Hill Nursery” in 1866, one of the first fruit and nut nurseries on the west coast of the United States. He began importing hundreds of select fruit, nut and grape varieties initially from France, eventually introducing plants from more than 30 nations. He ran the nursery until his death in 1908., publishing detailed annual catalogs featuring hundreds of varieties, many of which formed the foundation the most important agricultural industries of the West.
Today Felix Gillet is recognized as the most important California nurseryman of his generation. His introductions provided the primary varieties for the almond, walnut, hazelnut (filbert), chestnut, prune, cherry, pear, apricot, wine and table grape, fig, rose and strawberry industries of the West. In addition he grew and provided virtually every common temperate climate perennial edible species including peaches, nectarines, apples, raspberries, blackberries, pecans, mulberries, asparagus, artichoke, citrus, olives, gooseberries, currants and more. He also propagated numerous species of perennial ornamental and forest trees. The famed horticultural beauty of Nevada City and Grass Valley is in good part a testament to the decades of Gillet’s efforts. Gillet provided many thousands of plants to gardeners, homesteaders and farmers throughout the United States, and shipped plants as far as Russia!
Charles E. Parsons bought the nursery from Gillet’s widow after Gillet died in 1908, renaming it the Felix Gillet Nursery, and introduced seedling and grafted chestnuts from the original ‘Colossal’ tree, which now stands at 70 feet tall with a trunk circumference of 14 feet. When Parson’s son retired in 1968, it was the oldest continuously operating nursery in California. Gillet imported and bred hundreds of varieties of plants that are commonly grown in agriculture and horticulture to this day. Many of his original introductions are still thriving in foothill towns, mining camps and homesteads throughout California, where we discover them today. Gillet wrote extensively on the cultivation of a wide variety of crops, and was considered an authority on many crops during his lifetime of work. Although he provided important plant materials and much knowledge to growers all over the world, he is not well known today, something our Felix Gillet Institute is endeavoring to correct.
An important pioneer grower and breeder, Gillet was interested primarily in deciduous fruit and nut trees. He personally brought many perennials never before seen to California and was pivotal in the founding of the State’s agricultural industry. Gillet is also credited with providing the nursery stock that established the hazelnut, walnut, prune and wine grape industries in the Northwest. He introduced hard-shelled walnuts from his native France to Northern California, where the softer shelled varieties proved too delicate for the colder winters, thus establishing the California and Oregon walnut industry. He provided the plant material that established these industries in California and the Pacific Northwest: Almonds, Walnuts, Filberts, Chestnuts, Cherries, Apples, Pears, Prunes, Wine Grapes, Table Grapes, Raspberries, Strawberries and others. His stock was initially introduced from French sources, which he imported by the thousands, propagating them at his nursery in Nevada City for sale to the infant ag industries of the West. Eventually he introduced plants from more than 30 countries. In addition to 70 other strawberry varieties he grew Bonne Bouche strawberries that measured from 4 to 6 inches in diameter, and provided many varieties to Albert Etter of Humboldt County, who bred them with the native California beach strawberry and a Chilean strawberry species, thus creating the basis for the entire West Coast strawberry industry. The FGI has documented many important plant introductions from Gillet’s work including the “French” prune, the “Bing” Cherry, the “Thompson” seedless grape, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, Petite Syrah, Merlot and most of the European wine grape varieties.
Along with his many agriculture accomplishments, Gillet was a two term City Councilman of Nevada City, is responsible for creating Nevada City’s first water system, moved the City Hall to it’s present location, was a prime mover in the Workingman’s Party, a founder and member of the board of what is now the State of California Department of Food and Agriculture, and a prolific author whose work appeared in numerous agricultural publications of the day.
More information on Gillet’s legacy can be found at Wikipedia.
This article was researched and written by David Kupfer and Amigo Bob Cantisano