San Diego Floral Association
From the Archives of California Garden
© SAN DIEGO FLORAL ASSOCIATION and © Nancy Carol Carter.
These stories may not be published in any form or copied onto another media without written permission from San Diego Floral Association.
July 1915
The Annual Meeting [at the Panama-California Exhibition]
Reprinted From: July/August 2011, Volume 102 No. 4
At its annual meeting in Balboa Park on June 21, 2011, the San Diego Floral Association elected new officers. The first Balboa Park gathering of the Association for an annual meeting was a festive affair on the grounds of the Panama-California Exposition in 1915. Kate O. Sessions provided a tour of the “Garden Fair” landscape and plantings and was one of the directors elected that evening. – Nancy Carol Carter
July 1915
The Annual Meeting [at the Panama-California Exhibition]
By Dorothy Marx
The annual meeting of the San Diego Floral Association, held June 15 at the Exposition Grounds, was a decided departure from those of former years.
In order to get a rate of twenty-five cents admission at five o’clock, it was necessary to guarantee a hundred tickets. [T]o have a dinner served, fifty places must be guaranteed.
More than a hundred members and friends gathered at the Southern Counties Building shortly after five o’clock and followed Miss Kate Sessions on her tour of the grounds, listening to her able and interesting talks on the many plants, trees and flowers gathered from all parts of the world.
At 6:30 the “procession” arrived at the Alhambra Café. Seventy reservations for supper had been phoned to the Secretary, but 103 presented themselves to be fed. The Café management . . . handled the extra crowd on short notice very satisfactorily; the whole south end of the building being occupied by the Association. [The] dinner was finished just in time to get over to the Southern Counties Building for the business meeting at 8 o’clock, where a crowd of other members had gathered.
The auditorium had been decorated by setting some huge baskets of flowers here and there, another departure from former years, when easy access had made it possible to do much more elaborate floral decorating.
President A. D. Robinson called the meeting to order and gave a resume of the Association’s labors during the year, which seemed to thoroughly justify its existence. . . . The main business feature of the annual meeting is the election of a board of seven directors for the ensuing year, and for which nominations are asked in advance, and ballots prepared.
The following were elected: Miss K. O. Sessions, Miss [Alice] Rainford, Miss Alice Lee, Mrs. Thos. Kneale, Messrs. A. D. Robinson, L. A. Blochman and G. T. Keene.
A general discussion of Floral Association and California Garden affairs followed, following which Harold A. Taylor showed a wonderfully beautiful collection of auto-chrome lantern slides of flowers and floral scenes in and around San Diego.
Thus ended the 1915 annual meeting and it was pronounced a real success by all who were present.
© SAN DIEGO FLORAL ASSOCIATION and © Nancy Carol Carter.
These stories may not be published in any form or copied onto another media without written permission from San Diego Floral Association.
Mission: To promote the knowledge and appreciation of horticulture and floriculture in the San Diego region.