Yamagami’s Nursery

This small nursery on De Anza Blvd was once one of many in the area when it was founded in 1948 by Taro Yamagami and his family. But as time went on, the other nurseries closed up shop or moved elsewhere, along with the orchards that once carpeted the majority of Cupertino and the rest of Silicon Valley.

Now, Brittany Sheade — whose stepfather owned the business before r etiring — and her husband take care of Yamagami’s Nursery. Sheade, who graduated from MVHS in 2005, worked at Yamagami’s throughout high school and returned to Cupertino after college to continue working at the nursery.

Sheade’s favorite part of managing Yamagami’s is the tight-knit community that the nursery fosters between its employees and returning customers. This close relationship is one that Sheade and her employees — some who have worked there for 20 years — work hard to maintain, through both the goods sold and the services offered.

“A lot of the Christmas trees, we do deliveries. There’s some families that we’ve been delivering their trees for
over thirty, forty years,” Sheade said. “We’ll even pick out their trees. So we’ll do a lot of customer service. We’re really into doing all we can to fulfill the needs of our customers.”

Sheade says that the independence that small businesses give managers is what makes them unique and
efficient, but also makes them more difficult to handle. That’s why she and her husband go out of their way to support small businesses whenever possible.

“For us, there’s no layout or any handbook that gives you direction on what you’re supposed to do, so with myself and my husband, we just run with it, and build on it,” Sheade said. “Whenever my husband and I travel, we try to look for more independent or small businesses. It’s important for us to support those types of business…you get just a personal touch.”