Interviewee: Steven Kikuchi

Relationship to Nikkei gardeners: His parents, Takashige and Kimiko Kikuchi, owned a retail nursery called TK Garden Supply. His father also was a full-time gardener.

Date: July 17, 2007

Location: Japanese American National Museum

Brief Description: Steven explains how his mother was just as hard of a worker in the family gardening business as his father was.

Transcription
She, when my father was out gardening, five to six days a week and doing landscaping sometimes, my mother would run the business, and would interact with all the customers and became very knowledgeable in the nursery business. And, although I would never say this to them, she probably knew more about plants and the nursery business than my father. But, when I was going to school of landscape architecture, I would come home on the weekends and help out a little bit at the nursery and talk to my mother about plants and plant types.

See part 1, part 2 and part 3 of this interview.
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This interview was conducted as part of the Opening Day activities for the exhibition Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden.