Emilio Orazio Fenzi (a.k.a. Francesco Franceschi) (March 12, 1843 Firenze, Italy - November 5, 1924 Tripoli, Libya)
Born in Firenze, Italia in 1843, as Emanuele Orazio Fenzi, Francesco Franceschi arrived in the Los Angeles in 1891. His background included a law degree from the University of Pisa and the family bank inherited from his uncle, but his passion was horticulture. He spoke six languages and was active in Tuscan horticulture, where he established a botanical garden. When the family bank failed in an economic crisis in 1889-90, he left town and changed his name. In 1893 he moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he was to became a noted American horticulturalist. He introduced numerous tropical and exotic plants through his greenhouses and nurseries near Santa Barbara, although his first business venture failed and resulted in litigation. He started a new venture called Montarioso, in an area near Santa Barbara known as Montecito. He reportedly imported seed of Rosa gigantea from Indian in 1904. In 1913 Franceschi returned briefly to Italy and assumed his real name. At the invitation of the Italian government, he moved to its colony in Tripoli, Libya, where he died in 1924.
The Francesco Franceschi Papers are reposed in the Bancroft Library of University of California, Berkeley.
[From The American Rose Annual, 1932, p. 92:] The honor of bringing R. gigantea into the United States belongs to the late Dr. Franchesci Fenzi , a native of Florence , who died a few years ago in Tripoli. Dr. Franchesci, as he was known to his friends, maintained a garden in Santa Barbara for more than a quarter of a century....
[From Madroño, Vol. 7, 1943, pp. 18ff.:] Emanuele Orazio Fenzi was born March 12, 1843, in Florence, Italy. His grandfather was a very wealthy banker of that city and a senator ....After leaving the university, he turned to botanical and horticultural pursuits, despite the fact that his grandfather wanted him to start upon a business career. Endowed with a large estate which made him financially independent, he was able to indulge his tastes as he chose in the years that followed. At his country place near Florence, he formed an arboretum of rare trees, and on the estate of a relative near Rome, he assembled a large collection of plants from countries all over the world.....His ambition was to gather together in one area plants from countries all around the globe. He decided to go to southern California because the climate was well suited to his purpose. So, in 1893, he came to Los Angeles, his wife and family remaining in Italy. He was in California six years before they joined him. ...
[From The Way It Was by Hattie Beresford, April 19, 2007, Montecito Journal; The obituary of his grand-daughter, Ernestina Charlotte Franceschi Fenzi, by Susan Chamberlin, June 14, 2007, The Independent.]
