Felix Gillet

Felix Gillet (1835 to 1908) was a French-born California nurseryman, horticulturist, sericulturist and writer who brought superior European fruit and nut varieties to California and the Pacific Northwest. After working as a barber in Nevada City he bought 16 acres of exhausted mining land around 1870 and founded the Barren Hill Nursery, importing walnut, filbert, chestnut, mulberry, prune and fig stock from France. From 1871 he sold trees through a catalog he published for 37 years, including the soft-shelled Franquette and Mayette walnuts, and he experimented with grafting and hybridizing while writing widely on horticulture and urging the planting of mulberries for silk. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1866, and the commercial walnut variety Felix Gillet is named for him.