Shibata’s Memoirs

By Greenhouse Grower staff|June 13, 2008

Yoshimi Shibata’s memoirs are now in print. Across Two Worlds, Memoirs of a Nisei Flower Grower traces a lifetime of challenges faced by a man who not only triumphed over personal adversity, including forced internment during WWII, but rose to become an international leader in the California floriculture industry.

Founder and former president of the Wholesale Florist & Florist Suppliers of America, Shibata helped launch its first trade show and innovated many standard practices employed by the floral industry today. He also won a landmark victory in propagation rights that went all the way to the Supreme Court and resulted in a revolutionary new business model for proprietary plant varieties.

He and his immediate family own and operate the Mt. Eden Floral Company, Mountain View, Calif., (www.mteden.com), which distributes floral products through various channels nationally and internationally. His other businesses include the Mt. Eden Nursery in Hayward, Calif., and the California Florida Plant Company in Salinas, Calif. (www.cfpc.com).

In recognition of his service promoting good relations between the United States and Japan, Shibata was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Fourth Class, from the Japanese government.

Across Two Worlds, Memoirs of a Nisei Flower Grower is published by Mt. Eden Floral Company of Mountain View, Calif., and Midori Books of Pasadena, Calif.