Paul Corner Ranch
| Paul Corner Ranch
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|---|---|
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| legal form | |
| founding | 1906 |
| Seat | Encinitas , California , United States |
| management | Paul Corner III |
| Number of employees | 1,050 (group) |
| Branch | horticulture |
| Website | www.ecke.com |
The Paul Ecke Ranch is an American horticultural company with German roots. Headquartered in Encinitas in Southern California San Diego County and production mainly in Guatemala is the world's largest grower of poinsettias ( Euphorbia pulcherrima , commercially called poinsettia) and established these plants than the current global "Christmas plant" par excellence.
history
Emigration to America, start of cut flower cultivation
The Magdeburg teacher Albert Ecke († 1919), a supporter of the ideas of the life reform movement , who later owned a sanatorium for vegetarians in Baden-Baden , was with his family in 1902 - consisting of his wife Henrietta, née Moehring, and their four children, Hans, Margarete , Paul and Frieda - emigrated to America. They actually only wanted to make a short stopover on the way to the Fiji Islands (according to other information, Samoa ) in order to reopen a sanatorium. After initial economic problems, the Eckes returned to Germany for a short time, but settled again in 1906 on Hayworth Avenue in Hollywood , northeast of Los Angeles in what was then the suburb of Eagle Rock (now incorporated into Los Angeles). Around 1911, Albert Ecke decided to set up a ranch there for the production of milk and the cultivation of fruit, vegetables and other crops.
Since Albert Eckes was more interested in plants, he tried growing a wide variety of crops. Among other things, he and his son Paul noticed the poinsettias growing as wild plants several meters high in the area. The plant actually comes from the tropical deciduous forests of Central and South America and was brought to the USA as an ornamental plant by the first US ambassador to Mexico, the doctor and botanist Joel Roberts Poinsett , as early as 1828 , where it often overgrown in favorable locations. The Eckes observed how the large bracts of the short-day plant turned red like flowers at Christmas time. They came up with the idea of growing the plants in the fields of the farm and selling the long branches as fresh cut flowers at street stalls in the run-up to Christmas . In 1915 Albert Ecke acquired 5 acres of land in the neighboring town of El Monte .
Especially Albert Ecke's son Paul (Paul Ecke I; born 1895 in today's Magdeburg district Cracau , married on December 31, 1924 to Magdalena Maurer (1905–1981) from Kurzrickenbach in Switzerland, with whom he had three children; died 1991 in Encinitas), who took over the business after his father's death in 1919, had the idea of promoting the plant as a Christmas symbol in North America, as it was in Mexico (there the plant is called “Flor de Nochebuena” - “Flower of the Holy Night ”). To promote sales he gave her the name "Christmas Star" - "Poinsettia" (previously the botanical generic name " Euphorbia " and from 1836 "Poinsettia" was in use). The success of the idea was resounding, newspapers and magazines began to report on the poinsettie and the demand was soon so great that Paul Eckes son (Paul Ecke II) set up sales to nurseries across California and his own stores on Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard was able to open, which further increased its popularity.
The building on Hollywood Boulevard, in which Ecke once had its packing department for shipping, later became a grocery store, in the 1960s the revue theater Largo, then the striptease club Phone Booth and in 1973 the famous rock club The Roxy Theater , in numerous great musicians performed and Bruce Springsteen's career began.
Moved from Hollywood to Encinitas
As Hollywood became more and more important as the center of the film industry, the urban area of the city expanded more and more into the surrounding area and the property tax rose accordingly . In 1923, Paul Ecke moved the ranch to Encinitas . Until the mid-1960s, the main business of the Paul Ecke Ranch was the field cultivation of complete poinsettia mother plants , which were harvested in the fall and marketed by railroad cars to nurseries throughout the country.
On the side, Paul Ecke traveled to the United States to teach other nurseries the cultivation method and to convince them of his idea of marketing the poinsettia as a Christmas symbol.
Start of breeding work
Paul Ecke senior began breeding work. Although he first tried to grow poinsettia in pots in 1920, the first varieties were not yet suitable for this culture. The shoots were extremely long, hardly branched, very easily broke off, easily lost their colorful bracts and quickly faded outside the greenhouse climate. It was only through further breeding work, in which German breeders were also involved, that Paul Ecke achieved at the end of the 1950s that the plants were also suitable for the indoor culture that is predominant today. By grafting branch- friendly varieties onto an unbranched trunk, it achieved a much more attractive, bushier and more compact growth pattern than the wild form. He achieved the reliable branching by artificially stimulating the bud formation in the leaf axils - the prerequisite for the formation of side shoots - by means of infection with certain phytoplasms (bacteria that are otherwise responsible for plant diseases with dwarfism and broom growth symptoms).
Conversion to greenhouse cultivation of potted plants
In the early 1960s, Paul Ecke junior (Paul Ecke II; * December 14, 1925, † 1992), who had studied horticulture at Ohio State University , joined the company. He convinced his father to switch to growing in the greenhouse. In 1963, Ecke junior assumed sole responsibility for the business, subsequently established the poinsettia as a potted plant and bred around 30 varieties. The Hungarian German Franz Frühwirth played a key role in this. The greenhouse culture gave the business a great boost, and the cultivation of cut flowers was largely stopped in the mid-1960s. The advantage was that it was no longer the whole mother plants, but only the much smaller cuttings that had to be sent to the nurseries, which made it possible to use fast air freight , which also made international sales easier. Efforts to promote poinsettia in the media as a quasi-elementary part of Christmas have been intensified. Among other things, corner sent free plants to television stations, which were perceived by millions of households between Thanksgiving and Christmas as a decorative model on the screen. Since the Christmas editions of women's magazines were already being developed in the summer, Ecke controlled some cultures by artificial darkening so that the red color began at this early stage, and sent free copies of them to the editorial offices. Corner even appeared on national television shows, such as the Tonight Show and the Bob Hope Christmas Specials.
Since the conversion to cuttings and greenhouse cultivation had made large open fields superfluous, the Ecke family founded the Carltas Company in the early 1980s to market and develop them for cultivation . Among other things, Carltas gave the land for the Legoland California amusement park in Carlsbad . Legoland did not have to pay anything directly for the property, but the surrounding property experienced a significant increase in value as a result of the Legoland settlement and the associated development measures, from which Carltas benefited.
Diversification, relocation and internationalization, licensing
In 1991 Paul Ecke III (* 1955) took over the management. He diversified the company and added spring plants to its product range under the brand name The Flower Fields , a marketing cooperation with the company Yoder Brothers (now Aris Horticulture ). Cooperations have also been agreed with other companies. In 2006 the Paul Ecke Ranch took over one of the leading geranium producers in the USA, Oglevee . Since then, Ecke has been the only company in the USA that actively breeds in two of the most important greenhouse crops in the ornamental plant sector. Several hundred varieties of bedding and balcony plants are now marketed under the umbrella brand The Flower Fields .
In addition, he founded a center for biotechnology in Encinitas , where, with the help of genetic engineering , plants with lower light, water, nutrient and care requirements, higher pest resistance and longer flowering times are to be developed. In order to develop new varieties more quickly, at Ecke, genetic mutations are artificially created by means of X-ray irradiation and treatment with various chemical substances . In addition, experiments are being carried out with crossing plants of different genera (for example poinsettias with hardworking lisies ).
When scientists published the Eckes' cultivation method in the 1990s, the Ecke family lost their quasi-monopoly on poinsettias in the USA. Competitors began to produce more cheaply in Central America. As a result, in 1997, Ecke began to set up breeding operations in the Guatemalan jungle and to relocate production entirely there. Today, Guatemala is the largest poinsettia exporter in the world with around 300 million seedlings per year, and Paul Ecke De Guatemala is the market leader in this regard. In addition to its own farms in Guatemala, Ecke also has cultivation contracts with external partners in Mexico and Costa Rica. In the USA itself there is practically no production at Paul Ecke, in Encinitas only cultivation is made for the regional market in the Los Angeles / Southern California area.
Corner Europe , the European branch of the company based in Hillerød , Denmark, markets the licenses for corner poinsettia varieties worldwide. The so-called elite cuttings (the best material tested as disease-free) are exclusively delivered to licensees who are grouped together in the corner of the Poinsettia Group . Other cuttings are also sold to young and finished plant producers worldwide through the licensing agency PLA International, which works for several plant breeding companies . In cooperation with the Italian Lazzeri Agricultural Group , Ecke Europe also produces its own elite cuttings and mother plants .
Responsible for the poinsettia breeding at corner is now Dr. Ruth Kobayashi. Among other things, 'Prestige Red', one of the currently best-selling poinsettia varieties in the world, emerged under her leadership, and within a few years it ousted the 'Freedom Red' variety from its leading position. Every year, at Ecke, 5000 to over 7000 different poinsettia seedlings are assessed for their suitability for commercial breeding, of which only five are ultimately selected on average.
Takeover by Agribio, merger of Agribio with Dümmen
In August 2012, the Dutch Agribio Group announced the takeover of the Ecke Group . The regional Leichtag Foundation received a purchase option for the Encinitas site in California , which was implemented in May 2013. The Agribio Group, which was formerly part of the Mitsubishi subsidiary Kirin Holding (known from the Kirin Beer brewery ), has been owned by the Dutch private equity company H2 Capital Partners since 2010 . Paul Ecke III withdrew from the company after it was sold, but it continues to operate under the Ecke brand.
In February 2013, H2 announced the intention to merge Agribio with the internationally active German young plant producer Dümmen Group (Holding: Capital Green Europe GmbH, headquarters in Rheinberg-Eversael ). The family-run Dümmen Group is the European market leader for poinsettia cuttings and young plants as well as one of the most important in the field of bedding and balcony plants. The merger was completed by April 2013, the entire company now operated as the DNA Green Group with headquarters in De Lier (Westland) in the Netherlands . In 2015, the name was changed and the brand was standardized to Dümmen Orange .
Current market position
The company, managed by Paul Ecke III in the third generation until it was sold to Agribio, is today the world market leader and the world's largest patent holder on poinsettia varieties. The Paul Ecke Ranch now markets around 60 poinsettia varieties in many colors. The main business is rooted and unrooted cuttings, as well as cuttings with callus tissue . Only in the run-up to Christmas are around 400,000 finished poinsettias sold to wholesalers in the vicinity of the company's headquarters in Encinitas. Eckes' share of the world market for poinsettia cuttings is around 80 to 90%. The share of finished poinsettias that come from corner cuttings is over 50% on the world market, and over 70% in the USA. The corner ranch produces in California and Guatemala on a total area of over 43 hectares and employs up to 1000 people in the high season, of which 700 in Guatemala alone. In the financial year 2000/2001, corner marketed a total of over 100 million cuttings (poinsettias and flower fields Total assortment) at nurseries in over 50 countries. The poinsettia has become the best-selling potted plant in the United States, although the plant can only be sold for a few weeks during the holiday season. This development has had a major impact on the Ecke family.
Honors (selection)
A street in the Brückfeld district of Magdeburg is named after Paul Corner I today . Paul Corner II and Paul Corner III are immortalized as representatives of the corner ranch in Disneyland , Anaheim, California in the section "California Farmers, Outstanding in their Field". In Encinitas, the Paul Ecke Central Elementary School (a primary school) and the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA (the first YMCA in the world to be named after a woman) bear the names of members of the Ecke family. On April 22, 2002, the House of Representatives of the United States passed a resolution to introduce a national Poinsettia Day in memory of the Eckes' merits , which is celebrated annually on December 12.
literature
- Paul Corner III et al .: The Corner Poinsettia Manual . Ball Publ., Batavia (Illinois) 2004, ISBN 1-883052-41-6 (English).
Web links
- Site of the Paul Corner Ranch
- Website about Paul Corner Poinsettias
- Corner Europe website
- Hollywood star with German roots , net-tribune, December 12, 2008
- From Germany to Encinitas: Ecke family poinsettias , Diane Welch, San Diego Union-Tribune, December 10, 2006 (English)
- The poinsettia - biography of a Hollywood star , poinsettia.de (with historical pictures)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Diane Welch: From Germany to Encinitas: Ecke family poinsettias , San Diego Union-Tribune, December 10, 2006
- ^ Corner family's generosity goes well beyond namesake , UTSanDiego.com, December 23, 2007
- ^ A b Mr. Poinsettia dead ( Memento from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Hamburger Abendblatt , June 26, 1991
- ↑ Family Nurtures to Enduring Holiday Symbol , Los Angeles Times , December 19, 2004
- ↑ Sunset strip tease! (A Photo Tour) ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Rock Cellar Magazine, April 2013
- ↑ Obituary for Paul Ecke, Jr. at findagrave.com (English)
- ↑ Obituary at www.allbusiness.com ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ^ Website Franz Frühwirth ( Memento of the original dated February 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ the Carltas Company Website
- ↑ Poinsettia farming dynasty provides lasting lessons , p. 2, UTSanDiego.com , April 27, 2013
- ↑ Destiny Irons: Poinsettia Powerhouse. The Paul Corner Ranch plots to dominate the poinsettia industry. ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Encinitas Magazine, Holiday 2007 Feature Story
- ↑ Lee et al. (1997): Phytoplasma induced free branching in commercial poinsettia cultivars. In: Nature Biotechnology , 15, pp. 178-182.
- ^ Portrait of Ing-Ming Lee , American Phytopathological Society
- ^ The bloom is off the poinsettia . Los Angeles Times , December 23, 2008 (English)
- ^ Website of the corner Poinsettia Group ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Agribio website ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Company acquisition: Corner Ranch now at Agribio , taspo.de , August 26, 2012
- ↑ Leichtag Foundation to Purchase Property corner Ranch , Encinitas, CA Patch, April 6, 2012
- ↑ H2-Portfolio: Agribio Holding BV ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Paul Ecke: Selling Corner Ranch “Hardest Decision I Ever Made” ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Encinitas, CA Patch, August 17, 2012
- ↑ Dümmen and Agribio Group announce merger , taspo.de, February 21, 2013
- ↑ Poinsettias : Cheap Blossoms , Wirtschaftswoche , November 26, 2011
- ↑ Agribio and Dümmen: Merger Complete , GABOT, May 2, 2013
- ↑ Website of the Paul Ecke Ranch (English)
- ↑ Christina Wyss: World leader when it comes to poinsettia cuttings ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Der Gartenbau, Issue 36/2001, pp. 6-8.
- ↑ The poinsettia - origin and care (PDF; 89 kB), Jeanette Schweikert / Garden Academy Baden-Württemberg
- ↑ United States Department Of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (English)
- ↑ Christina Wyss: World Leader in Poinsettia Cuttings , in: Der Gartenbau, Issue 36/2001, p. 8.
- ↑ PEC website ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Website of the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Paul Ecke Jr., 76: Made poinsettia a holiday fixture , Chicago Tribune obituary , May 15, 2002
- ↑ Poinsettia Day website
