Norwegian immigrant Charles Malmo (1862-1938) established the Malmo Seed and Nursery Company in Seattle in 1893. Malmo propagated nursery stock of ornamental shrubs, which previously had to be imported from Japan, Holland, and England. In the 1920s, Malmo sold seeds and nursery stock from a store at 6th Avenue and Stewart Street at Westlake, and at his Georgetown rhododendron fields and greenhouses. Malmo opened a full-service garden center at Westlake and 6th in 1930, with gardens at ground as well as roof levels in addition to his 25 acres of greenhouses and fields in Georgetown. In 1937, Charles Malmo’s son Clark purchased 30 acres of land on 25th Avenue near 47th Street (the site of present-day University Village), where the family business flourished until it was purchased in 1962 by Ernst Hardware and Pay ’n’ Save stores.

This 1922 planting guide, with full-color illustrations of flowers and produce on its covers, is a sales catalog with planting and plant care information included for each section.