The History of Dreisbachs


Dreisbach Wholesale Florist, a family owned business, is one of the leaders in the floral industry and takes a great deal of pride in both its history and heritage.

1911:

August Dreisbach founded what was then known as the Jefferson County Greenhouse Company located in Louisville, Kentucky. In the early years, he grew tomatoes and cucumbers. Gus was a pioneer in hothouse tomatoes and was the first commercial grower of Bibb lettuce in the world.

1950’s:

Dreisbach’s became one of the first growers of chrysanthemums using artificial light and black cloth to control and promote flowering year round.

1964:

The Company took a new direction. Gus’ son, Carl Dreisbach purchased the Louisville operation and the name was changed to Carl Dreisbach, Inc. Two acres of ”Razorback” greenhouses were built at the Louisville range and shortly thereafter another acre of greenhouses were built at Simpsonville, Kentucky. Carl specialized in the cut flower production of roses, standard mums, pomps, and flowering holiday crops.
arrangement

1970:

Dreisbachs added an acre of glass greenhouses at the Simpsonville range for cut flower production making Carl Dreisbach, Inc. one of the largest chrysanthemum growers in the world.

1972:

The addition of a wholesale florist was established. The O’Malley Building, honoring Carl’s mother, was built to house the wholesale division in Louisville.

1984:

Carl’s sons Chris, Steve, and Glen Dreisbach purchased the company and by 1986 opened the wholesale florist in Lexington, Kentucky. The company then began closing their growing operations and concentrated on the expansion of the wholesale operations, thus adding a branch in Cincinnati, OH by 1995.

1996:

Brought the fourth generation of Dreisbachs into the business with the addition of O’Malley, Chris’ son. He started in the business as the manager of the Lexington branch and is currently operating the Louisville branch.

1998:

Steve’s son, Brantley, became the Cincinnati branch manager. In the same year, the Louisville operation moved into a state-of-the-art 22,000 square foot wholesale facility and corporate offices. In 1999, we expanded our Lexington store by 30%, adding more space with better lighting, a bigger cooler, and a warehouse.

2001:

The Cincinnati wholesale operation store moved to its current location adding 6000 square feet to its operation. Louisville added 10,000 square feet to its existing building for centralizing hard goods inventories for all branches.

2005:

In March the company opened its newest branch in Charleston, WV. In May Steve & Chris Dreisbach retire. O’Malley and Brantley Dreisbach succeed their fathers as the owners of Dreisbach Wholesale Florists.

2006:

The growing Charleston branch relocates to Nitro, WV taking on an additional 7000 square feet in time for the Valentines Day holiday. The Lexington branch takes on the remaining 4300 square feet of the Over Drive building and starts a full service plant and dishgarden department.

2007:

The Company expands business to Columbus, OH, obtaining temporary office space, with plans to move into a permanent facility in 2008.

2008:

The Columbus branch moves into a17,000 sq ft newly remodeled facility centrally located on Morse Road.

2011:

Dreisbachs celebrates its 100th year of operations!

We are dedicated to the success of the floral industry!
We are proudly serving our professional floral retailers in our 4th generation