My navel orange tree costed $5 in the 1870's

Did you know that all the Washington Navel Trees in California came from two mother plants (of which only one survives to this date)?

In 1873, Eliza Tibbets has convinced William Saunders at The Department of Agriculture to give her the two navel trees that originated from Brazil’s Bahia Province. Saunders hoped the foreign trees would thrive in Riverside, and indeed they did. The oranges produced by the parent navel trees were not only sweet tasting, but were seedless as well. Rumors about the seedless oranges, later named “Riverside Navel,” spread like wildfire amongst local area residents. Demand was so robust that Eliza Tibbets selling budstock for $5 a bud, a fortune for that time in history.

I offer my humble obeissances to this mother plant as I get ready to pull out my own Washington Navel Oranges from my baby plant. My plant is about three and half feet tall, a foot taller than what it was when I brought it home some eighteen months ago. As you may know it takes a few months for an orange to mature on a plant, so it has been several months of graciously contained eagerness. Boy, doesn't gardening moderate that incessant pursuit of instant gratification in the world!