Founder Klaus R. Jelitto
was born August 19th in Essen/Germany in 1930 and grew up in Stuttgart (1937) and Thüringen (1940/41). After finishing school in 1949 an apprenticeship with the company "Wilhelm Pfitzer" in Fellbach near Stuttgart followed. (Pfitzer was an internationally known wholesale nursery and seed breeding company at that time).
After further training in German, Danish, Swedish and South African firms Klaus Jelitto became self-employed in 1957 with the "Deutscher Züchterfirmen" Agency in Sweden.
Since his hobby, perennial seeds was thriving, he amicably terminated his agency contracts with 10 companies during 1975 to 1980.
After the company had already moved six times, and the need for space became even more acute and necessitated another move was needed in 1992. The present spacious premises in Schwarmstedt finally enabled Jelitto to offer Gold Nugget Seeds in their catalogue. The treatment process to shorten or eliminate the dormancy period for cold germinators was developed by Klaus R. Jelitto from 1972 to 1977. Permission for patenting was granted in some countries in 1979 and 1980.
On 1st July 1994 Klaus R. Jelitto appointed two of his longstanding colleagues, Georg Uebelhart and Uli Schamp, as general managers and partners as of 1st January, 1995 in the limited company.
Klaus R. Jelitto was also a member of the board of directors of the Naturschutz Hamburg and of the foundation for the protection of endangered plants.
He was also actively involved with the "Internationaler Gärtneraustausch" (International gardener exchange program) which was founded in 1987 by Loki Schmidt (†2010, wife of the ex-chancellorof the F.R. Germany, Helmut Schmidt), which promotes the exchange of horticulturists between the Botanic Garden in Hamburg and botanic gardens in Israel, Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, Sweden, Czech Republic and China.
Otherwise Klaus R. Jelitto was the first Chairman of the "International Committee" of the PPA (Perennial Plant Association, USA, since 1998).
2007 the company celebrated 50 years of existence, and Klaus R. Jelitto withdraws into a well deserved retirement.
Klaus R. Jelitto passed away on 24 September 2022 at the age of 92.