The Plaza
The triangular area in the center of Palm Haven was originally called a "Plaza", hence the naming of Plaza Drive. It was originally surveyed at 27,000 square feet.
The original plantings in the Plaza were positioned to emphasize the design of Palm Haven. In August of 2004, the city council of the City of San Jose voted to adopt a list of the original trees of Palm Haven into the city charter as "Heritage Trees". Those in the Plaza designated as such include the large Deodara Cedars, the Canary Island Date Palms, and the two remaining Weeping Mulberry trees. (More info below.)
In the graphic at right the primary plantings from 1913 are highlighted.
Click on the dots to view pictures of the trees:
The blue dots represent Cedrus deodara trees. These are one of the "true"
cedars. Native to the Himalayas, they grow well in California's mediterranean
climate. They can age 200 years or more to 80 feet or so and are identified by
their nodding tops.
The orange dots represent Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island Date Palm)
trees. Native to their namesake, they have reached their mature size in Palm
Haven - 60 feet or more in height and 50 foot crown.
The green dots represent Morus
alba (White Mulberry, Silkworm Mulberry) trees. Actually the two smaller
mulberry trees appear to be a special variety that grew popular during the
Victorian era and are from the original 1913 plantings.
They were a combination of two varieties:
Morus alba Pendula, or "Weeping Mulberry" trees tend to not have much upright
and limb strength so they generally remain small and ramble on the ground.
The Weeping Mulberry was grafted onto the trunk of a regular tree mulberry so
that it would stand up from the ground but retain its weeping habit in the
foliage as it cascaded downward.
The larger mulberry is a fruitless variety that grew popular in the 1960s. Ralph Mize, San Jose City Arborist, believes the younger, fruitless mulberry was planted in place of where a weeping mulberry used to be. Since the grafted weeping mulberry trees were no longer available, someone planted a regular mulberry in its place. An original grafted weeping mulberry tree today has become a prized tree specimen.
Perhaps one of the most significant trees to point out is the Torreya californica (California Nutmeg). Ralph Mize believes that tree to be a very rare specimen of the family and a distant relative to the Yew. It is also the only one that is known to exist in San Jose at this time. This is not a tree found in the nursery trade at all and grows in limited areas of California mountain regions. The one in Palm Haven is very large as a result of regular irrigation, some protection from the other trees around it, and being one of the original plantings in 1913.
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