Wilhelm Pfitzer
Wilhelm Pfitzer (21 January 1821 - 31 July 1905) was a German horticulturist.
Wilhelm II Pfitzer in 1844, founded a nursery on a property at Militärstraße, Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, where his father, Wilhelm I Pfitzer, owned a property for his private gardenining interest. Wilhelm II founded a family firm that exists to this day and which has been a major influence on the development of many flower types, especially Dahlias, Gladioli, and Canna.
With his wife, Friederike, née Schickler (married 12 Juli 1849, died 27 December 1892), he extended the nursery around the vegetable and flower seed trades.
His son, Wilhelm III Pfitzer (11 August 1854 - 4 April 1921), for a period of seven years, worked for the famous Louis Van Houtte nursery in Ghent, Belgium, and others in the Netherlands, France and northern Germany, acquiring a rich experience he was able to bring with him when he returned to the family business along with many specimens of exotic plants. He joined the business in 1876 and served an apprenticeship with his father. In 1880, he became the head of the firm.
Through reliability and industry, the business acquired loyal buyers and market traders for their products. A first seed and bulb catalogue was published, thus increasing business.
During the 1870s he acquired Canna material from Herr Ehmann, also a Stuttgart nurseryman and for whom the much-favoured Canna ‘Ehmanni’ is named. That was the start of the involvement of the house of Pfitzer with the Canna genus.
By 1880, the breeding of gladioli in pure colours succeeded for the first time. The new cultivars were introduced on World Fairs. In the long list of the prizes and honours the most notable were Dahlias (230), Gladioli (650), Canna (270), Petunien (400), Geraniums (630), Verbenen (850) and Phlox (500), appearing in Canada, USA, London, Paris, Brussels, Petersburg, Moscow, Hamburg, Dortmund, Bonn, and others.
In 1909, the original property was sold for building as the city expanded and the company looked for new land outside Stuttgart. In 1910, they acquired 5 acres (20,000 m2) of rural land near the railway station at Fellbach, about six miles (10 km) outside Stuttgart. Offices, warehouse, greenhouse, and nursery beds rapidly emerged.
The land at Fellbach proved to be suitable for the cultivation of tender garden varieties and the business prospered. Above all other lines, the Gladiolus business grew to be larger than the Dahlias, Roses, Phlox, Delphiniums, Begonias, Cannas, and flowering shrubs. The company grew all of these lines and bred new cultivars ceaselessly.
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