Horticultural Heritage

Nurseryman Michael Lynch bought the property that is now the Stanford Redwood City campus in 1898.

Lynch was best known for growing violets and sweet peas for sale as cut flowers and in seed packets. In 1901, he was hired by Jane Stanford to supervise gardeners at Stanford University’s campus and at her home. Lynch’s nurseries in Menlo Park and Redwood City supplied plants to the Stanford campus in this early period, including at least 10 palm trees.

Flower growing boomed as a local industry in the early decades of the 20th century. Brothers Eikichi and Sadakusu Enomoto built a thriving chrysanthemum-growing enterprise in Redwood City. By 1926, chrysanthemum sales nearly equaled in value California’s entire wheat crop. Redwood City boosters launched an annual Kiku Matsuri, or chrysanthemum festival, to promote the city and its climate.

Flowers were also grown by Japanese American and Chinese American tenants on Stanford lands, including the future Escondido Village and Stanford Research Park sites.