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VY: Well, maybe this is a good time to talk a little bit about the Hayashi nursery. Can you tell me how it began and who started it?

NH: It started... my grandfather went into, he had two younger brothers or older brothers, I'm not sure, they came over and they started selling horticulture (supplies), like fertilizer and things in the store in Alameda. There's a picture of it in there.

VY: When was this?

NH: 1906. And then it's sort of like a flower shop, what we call a flower shop now, and they had a few acres in Alameda and they grew plants. And they would take that over into flower, some kind of wholesale flower market in San Francisco on a ferry, horse and buggy, I believe, at that time. And then later they purchased eleven acres in Oakland on 73rd Avenue, and started just the wholesale nursery, built greenhouses and started a wholesale nursery.

VY: Do you know how much later that was, how many years between when they opened the flower shop and purchased...

NH: My understanding it was maybe 1911.

VY: 1911, so before the alien land laws in California?

NH: Yes, right. And that's where I grew up, on that property, through the sixth grade, I grew up.

VY: So the nursery was run by your grandfather and his brothers?

NH: Right.

VY: How many brothers?

NH: Two brothers. And apparently there was a bit of a falling out, so my grandfather had forty percent share, and I think he bought out the two brothers, and it became just his nursery, my grandfather's nursery.

VY: Okay. Do you know when that happened?

NH: No, I don't.

VY: Okay. Backing up a little bit, when did your grandfather come to America?

NH: 1887 as a schoolboy, probably at the age of seventeen, eighteen. And he worked as a... is that what they call a schoolboy or something? For a fairly wealthy guy in Danville, California. And fortunately the lady was an English teacher, so was able to teach my grandfather English. And he also attended some kind of high school, graduated maybe at the age of nineteen or twenty, tallest guy in the class. Had a picture somewhere.

VY: He was tall, your grandfather was tall?

NH: No, he just had...

VY: Oh, okay, you're joking. [Laughs]

NH: But to his credit, he tried to learn English first. Apparently he was considered well-educated before he came to the United States, so that helped. And I don't know why he started the nursery business. I would imagine because of the ease of entering that profession, I'm not sure about the level of prejudice in those days.

VY: Okay, so you don't know if he knew other people at that time who had nurseries or in the business?

NH: There's supposed to be somebody at Domoto Nursery who started around the same time. But they would either work for him and gain some propagating (knowledge), how to start plants, and (growing methods) through him. And eventually a lot of the people working for him branched out into the nursery, respective nurseries.

VY: I see. So it sounds like he was one of the early nursery pioneers.

NH: I would say so, yes.

VY: Okay, so then the nursery was owned by... your grandfather started it with his brothers, but then he bought them out later. Did they have any other siblings that maybe were not part of the nursery? Did they have any other brothers or sisters?

NH: Sister.

VY: Sister? This was your grandfather had a sister?

NH: Oh, my grandfather's part? I'm not sure. As far as growing up, I never, I just knew one of his brothers, but others, no.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.