City Gardens, aSan Pedro Street nursery.

In the early days in Los Angeles, that is, after statehood in 1850, the climate and fond memories of “back home” quickly fostered the growth of the nursery and flower industry. City leaders wanted to beautify the streets. New residents wanted to enhance their sparse, dusty yards - even if it meant watering with dirty bath water from the house or toting buckets of water from a nearby canal. Southern California was a blank canvas eager to have color and texture applied.

Getting seeds from the East could take weeks or months, so the arrival of nurserymen and plantsmen, who established the garden centers and nurseries in what is now the Fashion District of Los Angeles, was a welcome happening.

Both Main Street and South San Pedro Street became settings for large garden centers that became popular among the area’s residents as they designed their gardens and planted shrubs and trees. Ozro W. Childs’ success with his nursery just east of Main Street encouraged him in 1857 to partner with W. Huber in the Los Angeles Nursery and Fruit Garden. There, Childs introduced new fruits, nuts, flowering shrubs and cut flowers from Europe and South America. The center quickly became a tourist attraction, with many residents making their way in horse-drawn wagons to the city’s central business district every weekend.

Research tells us there were numerous plantsmen in the area very early on. In 1855, William B. Osborne advertised his new shipment of roses and lilacs from the East. In the 1880s-1890s, South San Pedro Street was home to Thomas A. Garey’s 72-acre nursery and Mrs. H. Shaw’s 35 acres of fields and nursery. (Our photo above shows the entrance to the City Gardens, started in 1874 at the corner of Eighth and San Pedro streets.) The nursery operations of horticulturists Jacob Dieterich, Louis Stengel and Eugene Germain all continued into the twentieth century.

What a wonderful opportunity the area offered for anyone with business or plant knowledge, a few resources and an enterprising spirit!

Source: Sending Flowers to America, http://flowermarkethistory.com/