About CRFG

The Fullerton Arboretum - CSUF
P.O. Box 6850
Fullerton, CA 92834-6850

Founders:

John Riley and Paul Thomson founded CRFG in 1968 with 29 charter members. (Brief history of CRFG.)

Incorporated:

December 4, 1979 in the State of California as a non-profit (public benefit) corporation.

Purpose:

To encourage and foster public and scientific interest, research, education in and the preservation of rare fruit plants that have edible seeds, fruits, leaves, stems or roots and are not commonly grown commercially. The furtherance and encouragement of these activities shall be for the benefit of the public rather than commercial interests.

Membership:

CRFG has over 3000 individual and family members including hobbyists, backyard growers, government and university researchers, nurserymen and commercial growers. Currently, there are eighteen CRFG chapters in California, one chapter in Texas, and two in Arizona. Aditionally, there are members in 47 other states and U.S. territories, and 29 foreign countries.

Annual Dues:

See the membership application

Activities:

CRFG members share information; exchange seeds, plants and scion wood; give garden tours; exhibit displays and staff information booths at fairs and shows; hold plant sales; and give classes on propagation, pruning and grafting for members. The annual Festival of Fruit, and many chapter meetings, feature speakers who are experts in rare fruit culture. Meetings and activities are open to the public as well as members.

Publications:

The Fruit Gardener magazine is a bimonthly publication distributed to current members and contains articles about fruits and vegetables that are of general interest. Features include articles on tips for beginners, desert gardening, recipes, book reviews and books for sale, a question-and-answer column, a calendar of events and reports on the latest seed acquisitions available to members. Advertisements offer rare, hardy and tropical fruit trees, as well as equipment and materials needed in and around the garden.

Fruit Facts are a series of publications that contain information on individual fruits, including botanical identification, description and culture notes based on California research, and characteristics of cultivars. These fact sheets are available on-line at this web site. Printed copies are available at nominal cost from CRFG.

CRFG Fruit List is a new and enlarged listing of fruit cultural data, arranged by scientific name, containing temperature limits and information on soil conditions for over 700 individual fruits. There is also a listing of over 1,000 fruits by their common names. The Fruit List is available on-line at this web site. Printed copies are available at nominal cost from CRFG.

Services:

Fruit Specialists are volunteers who make themselves available to answer specific questions relative to individual fruits. While this is essentially a service for members, CRFG will also accept questions from the general public as time permits.

The Seed Bank collects exotic seeds and distributes them at nominal cost. Seeds are often supplied by members from their plantings or gathered in their travels. (Currently, Seed Bank orders are limited to CRFG members only.)

The Book Service offers selected books on fruit and vegetable growing, gardening and other related topics. Open to all.

Further Information:

To contact CRFG on-line use our contacts page. Or you can use regular postal mail to:

California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc.
The Fullerton Arboretum - CSUF
P.O. Box 6850
Fullerton, CA 92834-6850

The Fullerton Arboretum - CSUF P.O. Box 6850 Fullerton, CA 92834-6850