HISTORY of Brown Ranch After retiring from the car and buggy business, due to health issues and economic devastation from the 1906 earthquake, James A. Brown founded the Brown Ranch in 1911. Initially Mr. Brown planted several acres of different types of berries. He eventually became interested in the culture of various flower bulbs. By 1916, James was growing more than 40 acres of freesias, gladiolas, montbretias, tulips, and tuberose on newly acquired ground in the Capitola area. The Brown Ranch also decided to start a dairy and purchased a registered herd of Guernsey cattle in 1917. The Guernsey dairy flourished, and Moo Cow ice cream, candy, and milk were distributed in their own regional retail stores. Through contracts with the Southern Pacific Railroad, Dollar Line Cruise Ships, Panama Pacific, Matson Australian Lines and others, the reputation of Moo Cow milk and ice cream grew to even reach distribution in the Republic of Panama. At the peak of the dairy’s popularity in 1931, more than 9,000 visitors came to the company’s annual October Open House in Capitola. Always aware of advertising opportunities, the first Miss California was also photographed at the Brown Ranch alongside the dairy’s prize milk cow. Expanding the bulb business, James built 24,000 sq. ft. of glass house and seven acres of lath house in 1924 for the propagation of tuberous begonias and gloxinias. Obtaining Begonia bulbs from Germany, who bragged of ‘the best flowers’, and Begonia tubers from
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Belgium, who claimed ‘the strongest tubers’, the Browns crossbred the two varieties, and developed the Rancho Hybrid, now known as AmeriHybrid® Begonias. From the 1930’s to the 1970’s, approximately 90% of the world’s Begonias came from the Brown Bulb Ranch in Capitola.
In 1932, James Brown died at the age of 49 and Alan and Worth Brown, James’ sons, took over operations. By the 1950s the dairy had been completely closed and the third generation, Barclay, Todd, and Joel Brown, joined the family business. The firm was now the recognized world leader in the production of tuberous begonia bulbs. In 1951, Peggy Matthews, a local swim teacher noticed that all the begonias at Brown Bulb Ranch were going to waste. She was not aware that the growers had no interest whatsoever in the flowers; they were only interested in the bulbs for propogating. The death of the flowers signified that it was time to dig up the bulbs and send them to market. That year the Capitola Water Follies featured paddleboards decorated with Begonias, and that is how the Capitola Begonia Festival got its start. Even though the Begonia Festival was truly started in 1952, in 1954 the Capitola Businessmen’s Association