Office Hours
7:30am-4:30pm -Pacific Time
by phone: 503-678-1279 or 800-460-7806
Contact us by email at:
David Niklas, President
david.niklas@clackamasgreenhouses.com
503-209-2276
In 1900 the small town of Clackamas Oregon was just that, small. Located about 25 miles southeast of Portland it was a farm and logging community.
It had a train depot, a school, and a few shops serving the local citizens and nearby farmers and loggers. It also had a greenhouse. We know this because in 1976 the 7th and 8th grade of Clackamas Elementary School conducted and published a oral history of the town and a number of old time residents recalled the "greenhouse that was there"at the turn of the century. ( 1900 in 1976.)
In 1911 that Greenhouse enters the record books when it was incorporated as the Rahn and Herbert Company Inc. Rahn and Herbert were the managers and their stockholder minutes are still preserved at Clackamas Greenhouses. In 1922 Mr Rahn and Mr Herbert moved on and the company was reincorporated as Clackamas Greenhouses Inc. Two of the Investors in 1922 were Fritz Niklas and Hans Niklas. (The check for the purchase of stock shares still hangs in the office of Clackamas Greenhouses Inc.)
Fritz and Hans were the owners of Niklas and Son Floral of Portland Oregon. In a world without Fed Ex and air cargo they were assuring their flower shop of a continuous supply of flowers.
Fritz and Hans were the great grandfather and grandfather of the current owner David Niklas of Aurora Oregon. His son Richard is in charge of sales. That's five generations and 98 years of single family ownership and employment.
By the end of the great depression Fritz and Hans had moved from Minority to Majority stockholders controlling 50% of the stock shares. The other 50% was held by Paul Peters the greenhouse manager. In 1946 after returning from a stint as an officer in the US Marines in the South Pacific Ed Niklas, the son of Hans, went to work for the greenhouse. A business graduate of the University of Oregon Ed bought the Paul Peters shares in 1955 and Clackamas Greenhouses was 100% Niklas Family owned.
In the 50's, 60's, and 70's Clackamas concentrated on the flowering plant market. In 1974 Ed's son David joined the firm fresh from graduating with a BA from Whitman College.
By 1979 the town of Clackamas was not really small anymore. Suburban sprawl had arrived and a developer wanted the greenhouse's 14 acres for a strip mall. We enabled his ambition and moved south to 26 acres just south of Wilsonville and west of Aurora. Since we had moved to Marion county our address is now in Aurora Oregon. After 80 years Clackamas no longer had a greenhouse in town, but the tradition is reflected in "Greenhouse Square" the strip mall on our old land.
In the 1980's the company expanded it's offerings to include garden plants as well as flowering house plants. Garden plants are now the main focus of the company although we remain a major player in the Oregon and Washington flowering plant market.
In 2007 David's son Richard joined the firm after graduating in Business from the University of Montana and holding a number of sales positions with national firms in horticulture.
The company sells predominately to Independent Garden Centers and Flower Shops in Washington and Oregon, as well at high quality, regionally owned and focused merchants from the food, hardware and ranch supply sectors.
In 2008 Clackamas Greenhouse, tired of explaining that despite the name they did not sell greenhouses, took on the "does business as" ,(Dba) moniker of Clackamas Horticultural.
Please feel free to contact us at one of the email addresses to the left. We would love to serve you.