Living with flowers

the long version

Founded by Japanese immigrant flower growers at the turn of the century, the story of the California Flower Market, Inc. spans nearly the entire history of Japanese in America. Through depressions, earthquakes, racial hostility, restrictive legislation and internment during World War II, the members of the California Flower Market have overcome adversity to serve the growers who built a thriving industry from the ground up. One of the oldest and most successful Japanese-American-owned corporations in the United States, the California Flower Market has been the center of the wholesale flower industry in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly a century. It is one of the few wholesale markets in the United States owned and run for and by flower growers. This book tells the history of the California Flower Market from its very beginnings, when growers hawked their flowers openly on the streets, to the present, from 640 Brannan Street in downtown San Francisco, where it serves as the heartbeat of the local flower industry. This is also the story of the Japanese growers who began with a few greenhouses which they built themselves and who eventually came to dominate the flower industry in the Bay Area. With many interviews, historical photographs, and colorful flower photos, Living with Flowers: The History of the California Flower Market provides a glimpse into the world of the Japanese-American flower grower, past, present and future.