Binhelm, Max, compiler and editor. Women of the West: A Series of Biographical Sketches of Living Eminent Women in the Eleven Western States of the United States of America, 1928 ed. (Los Angeles: Publishers Press, 1928), 82.
ESSIONS, Kate O. (Miss). Born 1857, in San Francisco, Calif., daughter of Josiah and Harriet S. Sessions, lived and was educated in Oakland Calif., class of 1881, University of California, and a resident of San Diego, Calif., for past 40 years. Nursery business and planner of gardens. Has been associated with the Horticultural work in the public schools; for twenty-one years a member of the San Diego Floral Association; was one of the committee of five who started and cared for Balboa Park for three years. Has maintained a nursery for growing ornamental shrubbery and cut flowers. An active member of the City Tree Planting Committee; formerly a member of the Cemetery Commission. Office: 4016 Randolph St., San Diego, Calif.
The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century, v. 2, ed. Marilyn Ogilivie and Joy Harvey (New York: Rutledge, 2000).
KATE OLIVIA SESSIONS. “Session’s greatest importance to science is to be found in the new plants that she introduced into the horticultural trade as she constantly searched for better cultivars.” She owned a flower shop in 1919 and owned and operated nurseries. From 1915-1918 she was supervisor of agriculture for San Diego Schools.
Fuller, Theodore W. “Kate Sessions: San Diego’s Exterior Decorator.” In San Diego Originals: Profiles of the Movers and Shakers of California’s First Community (Pleasant Hill, CA: California Profiles Publications, 1987), 137-141.
This profile is a popularized amalgam of previously published anecdotes and legends about Sessions.
Pioneers of American Landscape Design: An Annotated Bibliography, ed. Charles A. Birnbaum and Lisa E. Crowder (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1993), 104-107. Online at:
https://npshistory.com/publications/landscapes/pioneers-am-landscape-design.pdf
Sessions, Kate Olivia, b. 1857, d. 1940. Kate Sessions was born in San Francisco, CA in 1857 and raised in Oakland, CA. While in high school, Sessions developed an interest in collecting and pressing plants. She enrolled in the science program of the University of California at Berkeley, where she focused on chemistry and was, reportedly, the first woman to graduate from Berkeley with a degree in science (1881). Sessions worked briefly as a school teacher in San Diego, CA before becoming a co-owner of that city's oldest nursery. Her 55-year horticulture career began with a small flower shop in the downtown district and some growing fields across the bay in Coronado. As the city grew, Sessions operated a succession of nurseries at the edges of prime urban development. Her second nursery was at the then-barren northeastern comer of the City Park (later named Balboa Park). Here she received free water and the title of City Gardener in return for providing free trees for parks and streets. [When the city commissioned Samuel Parsons, Jr. in 1902 to develop a landscape plan for City Park], Sessions moved her nursery to a nearby future suburb, Mission Hills. Then, as that neighborhood became settled, she began yet another nursery in the more-distant suburb of Pacific Beach. She also co-owned a palm-growing tract of land in Lemon Grove, to supply the increasing demand for the queen palm (Arecastrum rornanwffianum), which she popularized as a street tree throughout the region. In these various enterprises, Sessions sometimes worked with her father Josiah and her brother, Frank and, for a short time, she hired Frank's son, Milton, as a partner. It was Sessions herself, however, who guided her business, developed civic contacts and maintained the intellectual integrity that ultimately led to her 1939 award of the Frank N. Meyer Medal from the American Genetic Association, the first woman to be so honored. As the central figure of San Diego's horticultural circles, Sessions played numerous roles in an ever-widening community of serious gardeners in southern California. She introduced many plants, including the now-ubiquitous twisted juniper, a host of drought-tolerant plants and several native specimens from the nearby chaparral. She also advised local home gardeners –many of whom were new to the coastal desert climate—and wrote articles for newspapers and regional garden magazines. Sessions corresponded with botanists, plant pathologists, experimental growers and naturalists, such as Alice Eastwood, David Fairchild, Francesco Franceschi, Hugh Evans, Bill Hertrich, Lester Rowntree, and others. She planned and installed landscapes, using informal methods and rarely committing her designs to paper. She taught classes for children and adults and led botanical walks. She also helped establish a cut-flower trade in poinsettias and statice. She tested the performance of plants new to San Diego's many microclimates, encouraging her garden friends to do the same. Sessions co-founded the San Diego Floral Association with Alfred D. Robinson and his friends and contributed often to the organization's still-published magazine, California Garden. She was also active and outspoken citizen who was named "Mother of Balboa Park," for her years of garden-making at the site of two San Diego expositions. Contributed by Carol Greentree. [Full page 1938 photograph of Sessions.] REFERENCES: California Garden. Autumn 1953; 44(3). Special issue devoted to Sessions. Cockerill, T. D. A. "Kate Olivia Sessions and California Floriculture. " Bios. December 1943; XIV(4). Jerabek, Cbauncy. "Some Plants in Miss Sessions' Gardens." California Garden. Autumn 1959; 50(3): 15-17. Written by a long-time Balboa Park gardener who knew Sessions well; article describes some of Sessions' personal plant favorites. La Pointe, George. "Kate Sessions Memorial Park." California Garden. Autumn, 1960; 51(3): 6-7. Written in anticipation of new development of an old park to be named in honor of Sessions. Anecdotes about Sessions. Minshall, Jane. "A Landscape for Kate Sessions." California Garden. Autumn 1956; 47(3): 3-4. Written by San Diego's first formally trained and licensed female landscape architect, this article describes a landscape designed for a school named in honor of Kate Sessions and planted as a living, educational tribute to her horticultural illlroductions. Notable American Women, 1607-1950 (Vol. Ill). Cambridge, MA: 1971. "Kate O. Sessions" by Mildred Mathias (p. 262). Padilla, Victoria. Southern California Gardens. Berkley, CA: University of California Press; 1961. An illustrated history of pioneer "plantsmen" in CA. Includes biographical sketch of Sessions with photo (pp. 167-173). Rainford, Alice. "I Remember Kate Sessions. " California Garden. Autumn 1959; 50(3): 18, 20. Brief reminiscence by protege of Sessions. Rainford Alice. "Candidates for Planting in the Park." California Garden. Autumn, 1960; 51(3): 8-9. Written by a protege of Sessions, a list and description of Sessions' plant introductions, including California natives. Robinson, Alfred D. "Kate Olivia Sessions -- An Appreciation, Not an Obituary." California Garden. May 1940; 31(10): 1-2. A tribute to Sessions written by a co-founder of the San Diego Floral Association on the occasion of Sessions death, beautification efforts and became known as the Rowntree, Lester. 'California's Mother of Gardens.' California Garden. August 1941; 33(2): 1-3, 8. An anecdotal biography of Sessions. Sessions, Milton Paine. An Interview with Milton Paine Sessions: San Diego Historical Society Oral History Program. San Diego, CA: San Diego Historical Society; 1 November 1990. Unpublished interview with nephew of Kate Sessions, who worked for his aunt and then established his own career as a nurseryman, landscape contractor and garden designer. 22 pp. White, Goddard M. 'Where the Garden is the Center of the House: Development of a Picturesque Architecture in Southern California. ' The Craftsman. March 1914; 25(6): 567-573. Article about Mead & Requa house (Windsor House) that was planted by Kate Sessions. Photos; scattered references to landscape; plant list. Wimmer, Harriet. "Portrait of Kate Sessions.' California Garden. Summer, 1949; 40(2): 6-7. Brief biography of Sessions; photo of portrait. 'McPhail, Elizabeth. Kate Sessions Pioneer Horticulturist. San Diego, CA: San Diego Historical Society; 1976. Definitive biography of Sessions. Photos, notes, plant list, index. Crane, Clare. San Diego Families: Our Heritage and Legacy. San Diego, CA: County of San Diego, CA; Spring 1981. Includes a brief one-page biography of Sessions. • • • • • See entry on Roland Stewart Hoyt for information concerning San Diego archives containing materials on Sessions and other local practitioners.
Pioneers of American Landscape Design, ed. Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000), 343-44.
“Sessions, Kate Olivia (1857-1940).” Carol Greentree’s 1993 profile of Sessions is included in this newer edition of Pioneers. Sessions is included among 160 “visionary practitioners who have had a significant impact on the designed American landscape.”
Notable Women in the Life Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Benjamin F. Shearer and Barbara S. Shearer (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997), 351-54.
“Kate Olivia Sessions (1857-1940) Horticulturist.” A generous account of Sessions’ life, business endeavors, botanical introductions, influence and honors. Contributed by Carol W. Cubberley.
Notable American Women, 1607-1950, vol. III (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), 262-63.
“Kate Sessions.” An excellent short bibliography mentioning plant introductions. Contributed by Mildred Mathias, a professor of botany at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Schwartz, Henry. “The Green Thumb” in Madam Ida & Other Gaslamp Tales (San Diego: Rand Editions, 1989), 136-145.
A popular account of Sessions’ life and career based on secondary sources.
McGrew, Clarence Alan. The City of San Diego and San Diego County: Birthplace of California, vol. 2 (Chicago & N.Y.: American Historical Society, 1922), 82.
Standard biographical sketch of Sessions includes the information that she chose “a very unusual profession for a woman in 1885" she took up “the propagation of plants as a commercial nurseryman.” Sessions is credited for bringing new and beautiful plants to San Diego and her various business locations are mentioned [but with some inaccuracies of dates]. “She planned for and personally planted the twenty-eight Cocus plumosa palms in the park in front of the U.S. Grant Hotel on January 28, 1897.”
“San Diego Biographies: Kate Sessions,” San Diego History Center. Online at:
https://sandiegohistory.org/archives/biographysubject/sessions/
A basic biographical statement illustrated with a photograph.
Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia, v. 14, ed. Ann Commire (Waterford, Conn.: Yorkin Publications, 2002).
“Sessions, Kate O. American Horticulturist.” The standard biographical run-down is recounted in an entry authored by Gloria Cooksey. A large late-in-life photograph is included.