History After having worked in many different areas within the horticulture industry the idea sprouted in the Fall of 1998 to start a perennial distributing business. Holtex Enterprises officially opened for business on January 1st 1999. As with any new business the goal was to survive the 1st year. We were fortunate to have several nurseries give us a chance that spring. We did more things right than wrong and the business has grown beyond our expectations. We value the business of those same nurseries today that took a chance on us back in 1999. The first year we managed to get thru the spring without cold storage. We quickly realized that operating without proper cold storage would greatly limit our ability to supply fresh plant material to our customers. An existing building was converted into a freezer cooler that first summer. We went from no cold storage to being able to store a tractor trailer load at just below freezing temperature. This worked great for about a year and a half. By that time we had outgrown the space. An expansion project was started in late spring 2001 to increase cold storage capacity four fold. We built a new warehouse adding just over 2400 square feet of freezer space in addition to the 600 we already had. We are now able to store 5 trailer loads at any given time. In the spring of 2005 we reached capacity in terms of  the volume we could handle. The inevitable happened. We hired our first fulltime employee, Donna Quelly (in the office) and later that same year we hired Kevin Diehl to help with shipping and receiving. Thanks to our customers, employees and suppliers we are continuing to increase our business. Products and Services Holtex Enterprises primarily caters to the medium sized wholesale perennial growers. All plants are shipped in full case lots. We have found that by packing them in bulk the quality stays better since there is less handling of the plants. All plants are shipped in the deep plastic crates. These crates are all clearly labeled inside and on the outside. These crates can easily be stacked and will not crush or collapse when they get wet. We first and foremost are a bare root supplier. We offer a huge line of quality field grown herbaceous perennials. These plants are produced in many different countries around the world. We receive plants from growers in the US, Europe, Asia and South America. We strive to supply you with the specific plant size/grade you need for your specific need. One size generally does not fit all. Specific plants in a specific size are ordered for a specific customer. Because of this all shipments can be traced to the originating nursery. We have and continue to work with a limited number of growers who supply us with plants direct. There is no middleman or broker involved. The last seven years have proven that it is far more beneficial to stick with reputable growers for the long haul. We are enjoying having more happy customers and very few problems. We can only be as good as our suppliers and therefore a closer cooperation with them is better than shopping around playing one grower against the other. Consistency is more important than a cheap price. We can guarantee same lot, same size and same grower from year to year. All the plants we supply are nursery grown and propagated. We do not sell wild collected plants. We are a USDA licensed distributor of plant material protected by CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Our wholesale plant list includes more that 1000 species and cultivars of perennials and bulbs. Many other varieties might be obtained simply by asking about availability. We also contract with a number of local growers who custom grow for us hard to get or difficult to ship varieties in liner form. Many of these varieties are plants produced by tissue culture. This eliminates the disease problems commonly found in field grown counterparts. Almost all of these liners are shipped dormant. These can be easily substituted for bare root divisions. The finished result will be the same, often even at a lower cost. The traditional shipping season runs from January thru early May. Custom cold storage can be arranged for shipping dormant plants outside of the traditional season. Plants like Astilbe, Hosta and Hemerocallis are excellent candidates for planting thru the spring and summer. This provides for a more efficient use of  nursery space. An added benefit is that fresh crops will bloom at later than normal times of the year to take advantage of a longer selling season. Cold storage kept plants perform much better when planted in July or August that fresh dug plants at that time of year.