Texas Agriculture Daily

By Shelby Shank
Field Editor

Between rows and rows of color lies a family business deeply rooted in agriculture.

Jimmy Klepac is the third generation to run Klepac Greenhouses, where the plants they grow are sold to wholesalers and retailers across Texas.

The greenhouse began in the early 1950s with Klepac’s grandparents. They retired from their meat market in Corpus Christi and moved to Blanco. Klepac’s grandmother began growing a cut flower garden and from there, her love for the fresh blooms began.

“She began selling her flowers to local people, and her business grew. It got to the point where my uncle and my dad were helping sell flowers,” Klepac said. “They would cut flowers and put them in buckets, haul them to San Antonio and Austin to sell them to retail flower shops, wholesalers, and it got bigger and bigger.”

Klepac Greenhouses has flourished, adding more greenhouses as the years progressed.

What started as a small outdoor garden has now expanded to 15 acres of greenhouses. Some of the original greenhouses Klepac’s grandparents built are still in use today.

“We’ve taken on a lot more grocery store chains, which has been a big shift for us,” Klepac said. “That was a big change in our industry to go to the grocery store mass market to get more houseplants to more people that way.”

Colorful blooms
Klepac Greenhouses specializes in many seasonal flowers, including poinsettias for Christmas, tulips for Valentine’s Day and Easter lilies and hydrangeas for Mother’s Day, along with many other plants annually. They also grow gerbera daisies, Rieger begonias, potted mums, calla lilies, succulents, hanging baskets and tropical foliage.

One of their advantages to selling local to Texas is delivering fresh plants to stores after they are harvested for customers to enjoy sooner.

They plant and harvest flowers 52 weeks out of the year and grow about 2 million plants annually.

The Klepacs custom blend the soil for each plant and harvest them by hand.

“Our harvest team doesn’t just go through and pick out the first few hundred ready to go. They hand pick the nicest plants each day for our customers,” he said.

Although it is more labor intensive to hand pick each plant, this process ensures retailers receive the best plant for customers to take home.

“We have a group of people who do all the harvesting, and they know exactly what specs each customer likes,” Klepac said. “Whether they want the plant or the flower more open or closed, what height each customer likes, and they have to measure the size of the bud to know how far until the flower opens up.”

Blossoming dreams
Klepac has always had a passion for growing things.

As soon as he was old enough, he began to work in the greenhouses alongside his grandmother and father.

“All I ever wanted to do was work in the greenhouse. I grew up on one of the farms and would come up to the greenhouse as a kid and play around,” Klepac said. “I went to Texas A&M University, got my degree in agronomy, minor in horticulture, and came back to the family business full time and have been here ever since. I love working with the plants, love the people I work with and seeing the joy that our plants bring to people.”

And it’s the smell of the hydrangeas, his favorite flower, that takes him back to his childhood and walking through the greenhouse with his grandmother.

“I remember when I was a little kid, walking through the greenhouse with my grandmother, and we walked into one full of hydrangeas,” Klepac said. “The aroma of a hydrangea hit me. And now to this day, 50 years later, I walk into the greenhouse of hydrangeas, and it takes me back to walking through the greenhouse with my grandmother as a little kid.”

Those are memories Klepac hopes to cultivate for Texans when they purchase a plant.

Multi-generational business
Not only has Klepac Greenhouses been passed down for three generations, but there are also multi-generational families who have worked for the business.

“One of our drivers who works for us, his dad was our family’s business’ first employee and now his son works here alongside my son,” Klepac said. “It’s been neat to see the loyalty that a lot of families have to work here with us and have their children work with us.”

For over 70 years, Klepac Greenhouses has been one of the largest private employers in Blanco County and helps support 80 families in the community through their business.

“I look at myself as a steward of our family business and the legacy my grandparents, my dad and other members of our family have fostered over the years,” Klepac said. “Knowing it is important for my family and our business to keep going, because it has helped support our small community, other businesses and helps a lot of families stay.”

Passing the business down to the fourth generation also motivates Klepac.

Klepac’s son works with him full time as the distribution manager. He is responsible for handling and scheduling the truck routes to ensure the plants are delivered to stores.

One of Klepac’s daughters has also taken an interest in the family business, overseeing marketing and social media.

“It motivates me to keep going, keep working hard every day to make sure I hand off something to my children that is good or better than when I received it,” Klepac said.