The records of the California Flower Market, Inc. include photographs, photograph albums, manuscript materials, books, articles, ephemera, and audiovisual materials from the late 1890s to 2014, with the bulk covering the period 1910 to 1990.

The California Flower Market, Inc. was founded in 1912 by Japanese American flower growers in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1923, Italian American flower growers established the San Francisco Flower Growers Association, and in 1924, the two groups opened a 22,000 square foot covered flower market at 5th Street and Howard Street in San Francisco. Soon after, the Peninsula Flower Growers Association, established by Chinese American flower growers, moved into the building. Although all three associations are represented in the collection, the bulk of material covers the California Flower Market, Inc.

Manuscripts and ephemera document the purchase and move to various buildings occupied by the California Flower Market, as well as the San Francisco Flower Growers Association and the Peninsula Flower Growers Association. These spaces include a wholesale market at 5th and Howard streets in San Francisco, established in 1924, and buildings at 6th and Brannan streets where the San Francisco Flower Market, as it is now officially known, currently exists. The photographs consist of gelatin silver prints, negatives, slides, albums and duplicate images of photographs used in the publication of the book Living with flowers: The California Flower Market history. Many of the photographs are of growers in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, including Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro, San Mateo, Petaluma, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, and San Jose, and show multiple generations of flower growers along with their families and crops. Other photographs are of the Flower Market and span its time at different locations. Audiovisual materials include two 16mm prints and several VHS copies of a documentary on the San Francisco Flower Mart produced in 1977, and an assortment of advertisements, promotional materials, and conference procedings from flower industry gatherings.