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.
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.
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 retired. 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 a 17,000 sq ft newly remodeled facility centrally located on Morse Road.
2011:
Dreisbachs celebrates its 100th year of operations!