Kate Sessions and Balboa Park

Notes researched by Richard Amero

September 7, 1889, San Diego Weekly Union, 5. Suggestions from Miss Sessions to beautify the park.

August 24, 1891, San Diego Union, 2:2. Notes on Planting, by Miss K. O. Sessions . . . the ficus or fig family.

July 29, 1892, San Diego Union, 5:3. For Tree Planting: suggestions made by Miss K. O. Sessions.

July 30, 1892, San Diego Union, 2:1-4. For Tree Planting: paper by Miss Kate Sessions read at the annual meeting of the Pomological Society of Southern California, May 4, 1892.

September 1, 1899, San Diego Union, 9:1-2. Paper read by Miss Kate Sessions at Chamber of Commerce meeting to discuss park improvement.

September 4, 1899, San Diego Union, 7:1-3. Beautifying the park – suggestions from Miss Sessions.

May 29, 1905, San Diego Union, 5:2. Speaks with authority; proposed changes at Date Street park entrance would destroy value; Miss K. O. Sessions hopes they will not be made; plans were carefully thought out.

January 30, 1906, San Diego Union, 3:3. Shrubs must be removed; such is provision of resolution of Council relative to south side of park; Miss Kate Sessions ably defends the Park Board’s plans.

October 27, 1910, San Diego Union, 8:4-5. The People’s Forum: Miss Sessions writes on culture of plants; takes exception to statement made in Union by “Yorick.”

March 27, 1932, San Diego Union, II, 1:5, 2:3-5. As her floral friends have grown so have her admirers; garden to honor Kate Sessions, San Diego’s pioneer beautifier; beloved plant authority will supervise work, by Irene M. Clark.

August 29, 1932, San Diego Union, 7:1. Horticulture called chief charm of park, letter by K. O. Sessions.

June 10, 1934, San Diego Union, II, 5:3. Sessions Agave, Aloe plot new park attraction, by Ada Perry.

August 5, 1934, San Diego Union, II, 1:3, 2:3. Start plants to give city bloom for Exposition; quickest flowering shrubs and most effective plan of ornamental settings told by Kate Sessions, by Ada Perry.

November 25, 1934, San Diego Union, 13. Cactus garden, plant displays Exposition features.

January, 1935, California Garden, 4. Hakeas . . . varieties grown in Southern California, by K. O. Sessions.

February-March, 1935. California Garden. Our native Ceanothus . . . recent rains benefit these native beauties, by K. O. Sessions.

June, 1935, California Garden, Ceanothus Cyaneus . . . finest species of native wild lilacs, by K. O. Sessions.

September, 1935. California Garden, 4. Tree planting for Pacific Beach . . . planting made of Metrosideros tomentosa, by K. O. Sessions.

September 15, 1935, San Diego Union, Development, 3:5-6. Vine planting on Kate Sessions Day suggested as ideal way to honor noted San Diego gardener, by Ada Perry.

January-February 1936, California Garden, 2. Hakea Laurina, by K. O. Sessions.

April, 1936, California Garden, My Garden, by K. O. Sessions.

March 7, 1993, San Diego Union-Tribune, D-2. Hindsight: great women did much to build San Diego of today, by Roger Showley.

March 7, 1993, San Diego Union-Tribune. A-2, It’s Arbor Day and San Diego needs trees/Milton P. Sessions, by Neil Morgan.

August 25, 1994, San Diego Union-Tribune, B-11, B-13. Balboa Park needs a statue of its “mother,” Kate Sessions, letter from Jane Field Alexander, Carlsbad.

September 26, 1995, San Diego Union-Tribune, E-3. Hindsight: (Monumental) Pond (across from the San Diego Convention Center) seems fitting place to start a local historic memorial garden.

June 21, 1996, Letter, Jack Krasovich, Deputy Director, Park & Recreation Central Division, to Balboa Park Committee, Agenda of July 1, 1996; Subject: Proposed Kate Sessions statue, Balboa Park.

No date: Projected budget for Kate Sessions statue including installation, landscaping and maintenance.

July 10, 1996, Design Review Committee. Action Items 2. Kate Sessions statue – Balboa Park: Motion by F. Blecksmith, seconded by E. Yamada, to approve the concept of a statue itself, but restudy the appropriateness of pedestal and rock setting, and return to the Committee with at least three (3) alternative setting concepts. Unanimous approval.

August 7, 1996, Letter, Richard W. Amero to Council Member Byron Wear regarding Kate Session statue proposal in Balboa Park . . . no response.

September 3, 1996, Letter, Council Member Christine Kehoe to Richard Amero regarding Kate Session statue proposal in Balboa Park.

September 11, 1996, Design Review Committee. Action Items 1. Kate Sessions statue alternative/setting Balboa Park – Jack Krasovich, Deputy Director, Central Division, Park & Recreation; Ruth Ann Hageman, statue committee chair.

September 18, 1996, San Diego Union-Tribune. No Kate Sessions statue in Balboa Park, by Richard W. Amero.

September 24, 1996, San Diego Union-Tribune, B-1. Panel wants a statue in Balboa Park to honor horticulturist Kate Sessions, by James Steinberg.

September 27, 1996, San Diego Union-Tribune, B-9. Letters from Sue E. Young, La Jolla, and Frederic S. Allen, El Cajon, in opposition to Richard Amero’s opinion regarding statue of Kate Sessions in Balboa Park.

November, 1996, Uptown, 6. Kate Sessions sculpture committee proposes sculpture in Balboa Park.

November, 1996, Uptown, 14. Eight reasons not to put a statue in Balboa Park, by Richard W. Amero.

February 19, 1997, Natural Resources & Cultural Committee voted 5-0 to recommend that the City Council approve “with enthusiasm” the City Manger’s recommendation to accept the gift of the statue of Kate O. Sessions and approve its placement in Balboa Park.

March 4, 1997, San Diego City Council meeting. Item-150: Kate Sessions statue in Balboa Park.

March 7, 1997, San Diego Union-Tribune, B-2. San Diego City Council OKs Kate O. Sessions statue.

October 11, 1997, San Diego Union-Tribune, B-1, B-3. Statue of visionary Sessions is shaping up; it’s for Balboa Park she helped create, by James Steinberg.

March 26, 1998, San Diego Union-Tribune, Night & Day-46. Mother of all floral celebrations honors “mother of Balboa Park,” by Kelly Terry.

April 2, 1998, San Diego Union-Tribune, B-2. Kate O. Sessions gets monument befitting “mother of Balboa Park,” by James Steinberg.

March 29, 1998, San Diego Union-Tribune, H-1. Remembering Kate Sessions – Rooted in legend/sculptor forges lasting tribute to a creator of Balboa Park, by James Steinberg.

March 29, 1998, San Diego Union-Tribune, H-1. Remembering Kate Sessions – Rooted in legend/brushing away the myths of time gives clearer look at horticulturist, by Karen C. Wilson.

March 29, 1998, San Diego Union-Tribune, H-6. Remembering Kate Sessions – April will be a bloomin’ month in Balboa Park, by Karen C. Wilson.

March 29, 1998, San Diego Union-Tribune, H-11. Homescape/Remembering Kate Sessions/Gardening/ Spadework/ Landscape historian unearths solution to garden mystery created by Kate Sessions, by Vonn Marie May.

No date: Sessions sojourn . . . self-guided tour created by San Diego Park & Recreation Dept. identifying Kate O. Sessions planting sites in Balboa Park.


Return to Amero Collection.