Ludwig Kientzler passed away on Jan. 4, 2026 in Costa Rica, his chosen and beloved domicile. "He leaves us with a global legacy of innovation and transformation in the international horticulture industry," shares Garry Grüber in a tribute to the life of Ludwig.
© Kientzler
"Born in post-WWII Germany as the eldest son of Ludwig und Else Kientzler, he experienced the world of horticulture first-hand by working in the family's typical, medium-sized nursery in Bad Kreuznach. The sudden death of Ludwig's father galvanized the will of his widow to preserve and expand the family nursery for her three still very young children and set up a new location in nearby Gensingen. This difficult period also nurtured Ludwig Kientzler's independent nature and his striving for perpetual change; even at a young age, he was very much involved in the expansion of the Kientzler company in Gensingen.
The biggest change for the company came in the 1980s with the introduction of the first, unique New Guinea Impatiens varieties from the USA. Ludwig Kientzler quickly recognized the potential of this truly novel crop but was dissatisfied with the very heterogeneous growth and flowering habit of the first hybrids. Hence, he took a hands-on approach and started breeding with this attractive new crop. His PARADISE® series took the market by storm, both at the grower and consumer levels – and after all these years, the series is still very successful in the marketplace. Ludwig Kientzler recognized that the market for totally new crops was ripe and commenced to upset the hitherto stagnant bedding plant assortment with new crops and new varieties, which eventually led to major changes in the international floriculture market.
Towards the end of the 1980s, new plant diseases from abroad appeared – a major challenge for young-plant suppliers such as Kientzler. Ludwig Kientzler set the groundwork for a testing program for phytopathogenic diseases – beginning with the 'hot' new crops, but then expanding the program to include all crops in production. Such an elaborate elite-stock system for bedding plant crops had to date only been applied to Pelargonium – hence, it was absolutely ground-breaking that such a stringent clean-stock program with virus indexing and tissue culture techniques was implemented for such a wide range of crops, with thousands of elite cultures in the lab and in insect-proof greenhouses. Consequently, the Kientzler subsidiary InnovaPlant GmbH & Co. KG was founded in the early 1990s specifically for the elite program, for license management, breeding and product development.
At this point in time, Kientzler was not yet in a position to actively explore overseas markets – but Kientzler/InnovaPlant had some really interesting new crops with clean starter material to offer. Thus began the search for distribution partners; the „big players" of the industry showed no interest, given their focus on their own core crops. Hence, Ludwig Kientzler and his team developed an alternative plan – a network of like-minded young plant nurseries that cover their respective markets and jointly introduce these new crops from clean stock and with solid marketing in place, which culminated in the founding of the Proven Winners® network – so to speak the 'outstretched arm' of Kientzler/InnovaPlant in North America, Europe and Japan. Over the years, Proven Winners has become the most important plant brand in the US marketplace, 'the number one plant brand®'.
The ever-increasing demand from the US market, but also in Europe, exposed the urgent need for a large-scale mother stock facility, and resulted in the formation of InnovaPlant de Costa Rica s.a. and later TicoPlant s.a. in order to supply the international Proven Winners network with high-quality unrooted cuttings and tissue-cultured plantlets. Under Ludwig Kientzler's supervision, coffee fields were transformed into 12 hectares of modern greenhouse facilities and a state-of-the-art tissue-culture laboratory.
Ludwig Kientzler was especially proud of the conception and realization of the beautiful Jardín Botanico Else Kientzler in Costa Rica – initially conceived as a gene bank for the rich indigenous flora, now a lush magnet for visitors in Sarchi/Central Valley of this tropical country.
Ludwig Kientzler explored and successfully developed new markets, fundamentally changed the horticulture industry with totally new crops, intensive breeding programs and solid marketing concepts, set up networks all around the globe – much to the benefit of the entire horticulture industry. Throughout his life, Ludwig Kientzler was a driving force that inherently disdained stagnation and complacency – he always had new projects and ideas in mind, which he implemented hands-on and very successfully. It comes as little surprise that he was awarded the title 'Entrepreneur of the Year' at the TASPO Awards in Berlin in 2013. He always spoke his mind and was usually mischievously giddy about new projects –some of which he completed clandestinely.
He loved life and lived his life to the fullest. His laughter, his entrepreneurial spirit and his charisma will be sorely missed indeed."
