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.
[1] With his wife, Friederike, née Schickler (married 12 July 1849, died 27 December 1892), he extended the nursery around the vegetable and flower seed trades.
[1] 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.
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.
[1] In the 1890's the Wilhelm Pfitzer by Späth nursery in Germany introduced J. chinensis ‘Pfitzeriana’, a male clone that became one of the most widely plant conifers in the world.
Above all other lines, the Gladiolus business grew to be larger than the Dahlias, Roses, Phlox, Delphiniums, Begonias, Cannas, and flowering shrubs.
1883), Wilhelm IV (11.5.1896) and Rudolf Pfitzer (11.6.1897) took on the responsibility to construct the new nursery, supported by their mother Anna née Koch (married 11 July 1878, died 14 January 1937).
When financial order was restored in Germany, the firm re-organised and opened new outlets in Göppingen, Ulm, and Heilbronn, selling not only seed and plants but also the latest horticultural equipment, fertilisers and fungicides.
In addition, a multitude of young apprentices and sons of others in the trade enjoyed training at Fellbach, at what was recognised as one of the leading places of horticultural education in the world at that time.
Hostility to German goods existed for a while in both Europe and the USA, but more important, the neighbouring countries with favourable climates started to predominate.
In order to publicise its products to potential customers, many of whom had never heard of the companies’ world-leading reputation, they involved themselves in numberless local and foreign gardening shows, fairs and exhibitions, competing successfully and with distinction.