Paul Ecke III

Today’s number one issue to solve is retail performance of the poinsettia. One of my biggest dreams is to see every poinsettia that is offered in the market looking as fresh as possible – not suffering shipping damage or warehouse stress – and at the same time have consumer appeal. It is interesting that this vision is not unique to today and was a vision of both my father, Paul Ecke Jr. and of my grandfather, Paul Ecke Sr. Twenty-five years can produce a lot of advancements that will help the grower be more efficient and reduce costs to produce, like having varieties that can grow at lower temperatures. Twenty-five years will provide the consumer with further exciting varieties just as we see today in ‘Ice Punch,’ ‘Jester’ and ‘Strawberries N Cream.’ As a breeder, we can already envision these products, but we hold before release, while we perfect conceptual […]

With the exception of mums and a few other classes of plants, most vegetative genera, like spring annuals, cut flowers, perennials and tropicals, are produced outside the United States today. The trend started in the early 1970s, when rising energy costs forced many domestic cut flower growers offshore, with cutting producers following. For poinsettias, the offshore movement has allowed for more competitive prices, increasing availability and substantially more volume to satisfy increasing consumer demand. After adjusting for inflation, the price of an unrooted poinsettia cutting has declined by more than 70 percent over the past 25 years. Contrary to the belief that labor is the biggest savings component, energy and infrastructure costs were the factors that were most positive when Ecke Ranch moved offshore. Additionally, the offshore movement allows Ecke to produce more than five times the volume of cuttings that were produced domestically in 1983. This has allowed us […]