Charles G. Davis

Charles G. Davis operated Chageda Gardens, a nursery business in San Leandro, California, during the expanding American dahlia trade of the 1920s. New and Rare Dahlias From Chageda Gardens, 1928 is a fifteen-page illustrated commercial catalogue issued under his name and the firm’s identity. The booklet presents named varieties and nursery stock for growers, placing Davis within a network of breeders who circulated new flowers through seasonal catalogues and exhibitions. Records from the National Agricultural Library identify Chageda Gardens and the Charles G. Davis firm as corporate contributors, while contemporary American Dahlia Society material records Davis among exhibitors of formal and informal decorative varieties. New and Rare Dahlias From Chageda Gardens, 1928 is therefore best understood as a working nursery document rather than a general gardening treatise. Its descriptions, images, and ordering context preserve evidence of how a specialist grower introduced cultivars to customers and participated in the competitive culture surrounding dahlias between the world wars.