Encinitas: Our History and People

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Above: Elisabeth “Jinx” Ecke,
Magdalena Ecke, and Lizbeth Ecke,
c. 1975.
Bottom, left: An outdoor field of
blooming poinsettias along Saxony
Road, c. 1976.
Bottom, right: A greenhouse full of
blooming poinsettias at the Paul Ecke
Ranch in Encinitas, California.
Opposite, top: Paul Ecke III at Farm
1 in Guatemala in the early 2000s.
Opposite, middle: Paul Ecke III in
poinsettia trials greenhouse at Paul
Ecke Ranch, Encinitas, California.
and then after moving the operation to
Encinitas, it remained an outdoor enterprise
until the early 1960s. In the wild, poinsettias
are large, spindly shrubs. But once in a while,
you’ll find one that’s full of branches. Paul Ecke
Sr., figured out that when you graft one with
branches to another regular poinsettia, you
can create a plant that lends itself to potted
plant production.
In the 1960s, Paul Ecke, Jr., who was now at
the helm, transformed the business from
outdoors to indoors. Greenhouses started being
built at the Ranch. He began marketing the
poinsettia in the national media and started the
breeding program. Instead of selling big,
dormant stock plants, he sold cuttings,
eliminating the need for so much land to grow
their products. By the 1980s, poinsettias were
the best-selling potted flower in America.
Paul Ecke III bought the business in 1992 just
as more competition, much of it from Europe, was
entering the marketplace. In 1997, Ecke Ranch
moved its operations to Guatemala in an effort to
cut costs. The headquarters remained in Encinitas,
where R&D and administration took place.
With the move from field production to
greenhouse production, which required much
less land, the Eckes started the planning process
that eventually converted their Encinitas Ranch
into housing, the Encinitas Ranch Town Center,
the Encinitas Ranch Golf Course, preserving
over 300 acres of open space, and 126 acres of
agriculture, while extending Leucadia Boulevard
through to El Camino Real.
By 2012, Paul Ecke III knew it was time to
sell the flower business.
“Like so many products, the poinsettia had
become a commodity,” he said. “When Home
Bottom: The children of Jinx and
Paul Ecke, Jr., c. 2015—Sara Ecke
May, Paul Ecke III, and Lizbeth Ecke.
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