Nurseryman Michael Lynch bought the property that is now the Stanford Redwood City campus in 1898 and became known for growing violets and sweet peas for sale as cut flowers and in seed packets. In 1901, Jane Stanford hired him to supervise gardeners at Stanford University’s campus and at her home, and his nurseries in Menlo Park and Redwood City supplied plants to the campus during this early period, including at least 10 palm trees. Flower-growing later boomed as a local industry in the early decades of the 20th century. Brothers Eikichi and Sadakusu Enomoto built a thriving chrysanthemum business in Redwood City in the 1930s, when the city’s cut flower 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 Escondido Village and Stanford Research Park sites.