The flower industry in San Francisco and the extended Bay Area dates back to the late 1800s when flower sellers would gather at an outdoor flower market at the corner of Kearney Street and Market Street in San Francisco. Conveniently located, it enabled growers to transport their produce to the market using the Southern Pacific and Key System ferry lines and trains. From its inception, the flower market served growers primarily represented by three ethnic communities: Chinese Americans, Italian Americans, and Japanese Americans.

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.

During World War II, the United States Army ordered the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans living on the west coast of the United States. Many Japanese American flower growers and florists lost their land and businesses, while some were able to lease their properties to non-Japanese American growers. The California Flower Market, Inc. board president Sam Sakai continued managing the business of the Flower Market by mail while he and his family were incarcerated, first at the Stockton Assembly Center and later at Rowher incarceration camp in Arkansas. Sam Sakai returned to the Bay Area in 1945 where he re-established the California Flower Market, Inc. board of directors and successfully negotiated the return of leases in the Flower Market.

In 1956, all three flower grower associations moved from 5th and Howard to a new location at 6th Street and Brannan Street in San Francisco, under the name San Francisco Flower Terminal. The building covered 135,000 square feet and could accommodate 100 growers. In the 1990s, the joint market committee, consisting of the California Flower Market, Inc. and the San Francisco Flower Growers Association, re-branded under the name San Francisco Flower Mart. Today, the market is known as the San Francisco Flower Market, and is one of only five wholesale flower markets existing in the United States.