Ecke Ranch and Yoder Brothers Partner to Provide Better Service to West Coast Customers; Yoder Brothers Moves Rooting Operation from Salinas, CA to Encinitas' Ecke Ranch.

ENCINITAS, Calif. -- Paul Ecke Ranch today officially announced a new partnership with Yoder Brothers, Inc. that will allow the Ranch to serve as one of Yoder Brothers' new West Coast contract rooting stations. The new partnership, which begins on July 1, 2005, will provide customers with fresher products and faster delivery times. Additionally, by building volumes of both Ecke and Yoder products, customers will benefit by more price-competitive truck freight options.

Ecke Ranch will be providing an array of annuals, garden mums and poinsettias to Yoder customers. Yoder will be closing its Salinas, CA, facility in June and transferring West Coast operations to Ecke Ranch and Takao Nursery, another West Coast contract rooting station for perennials.

"We are always looking to find new and innovative ways to work with Yoder Brothers, which has earned its reputation as a world leader in chrysanthemum research and breeding," said Paul Ecke, III, CEO of Paul Ecke Ranch. "This new partnership will help us expand our client base throughout the West Coast and further develop our product line," said Ecke.

"The new arrangement resembles our company's successful experience with garden mum rooting stations in the East. Working together in this way is a natural extension of our ongoing relationship with Ecke as our partner in The Flower Fields Alliance," said Bill Rasbach, President of Yoder Brothers, Inc.

The ordering process for customers will remain the same, directly from Yoder Customer Service, their sales representatives, or Yoder authorized brokers. All products will continue to retain Yoder's guarantees of trueness to type and expert customer support.

The Ecke family has operated the Encinitas floriculture Ranch since 1923. A mainstay in North Coastal San Diego, Ecke Ranch produces more than 70% of the poinsettias grown in North America. The Ecke Ranch is one of the largest private employers in the City of Encinitas. For more information, please visit the Ecke Ranch website at www.ecke.com.

Headquartered in Barberton, OH, Yoder Brothers Inc. has grown to be a world leader in flowering research and breeding. They are a leading breeder and propagator of all types of chrysanthemums: pot mums, garden mums, spray mums and Fleurettes; and a leading propagator and marketer of perennials, annuals, asters, azaleas, dahlias, exacum, gloxinias, hibiscus, New Guinea impatiens, lisianthus, pentas, poinsettias and pot roses. For more information on Yoder Brothers, Inc., contact Yoder customer service at 800-321-9573 or visit their website at www.yoder.com.