OVATA's pure adventure

“Bleiswijk, the Netherlands, 1974. Somewhere in a small greenhouse, a child is sitting in a corner, a look of avid concentration on his face. Next to him is a sharp knife for cutting plants. Carefully and with the greatest fascination, he teaches himself the art of cutting the Crassula ovata he received from a grower.

“At that very moment, 7-year-old Hans Ammerlaan could not possibly have guessed that this single cutting of ‘the lucky plant’ would be the beginning of a great entrepreneurial adventure and a passion that would never fade.”

 

His father, who was also called Hans, owned a flower nursery, which enabled the 7-yearold to pursue his hobby in the greenhouse. After finishing secondary horticultural school, he turned his hobby into his profession. On
july 1st 1987, as a sole trader, he founded Plantenkwekerij Hans Ammerlaan with a total area of 4,000 m². This marked the official beginning of a passion for the propagation and cultivation of succulents.
In the early years only Crassulas were grown there, but soon this was expanded with several succulent families such as Aloe, Haworthia, Pachyphytum and Echeveria.

ovata-oorsprong

CRASSULA OVATA

THE SOURCE OF EVERYTHING

In 1998 the name ‘Plantenkwekerij Hans Ammerlaan’ was changed and the company was named after the first cutting with which it all started; ‘ovata’. In 2007, with the aid of a new construction in 2007, OVATA became an automated, robotised and mechanised greenhouse horticulture company with 102,000 m² of greenhouses. Both the outside and the inside of the company were designed by the renowned architect Hans Kalkhoven. The design paid off with OVATA winning the award BNA Building of the Year 2008 for the Delta Region.
The OVATA crew consists of 40 permanent employees and extra manpower during high season. Together we guarantee quality, sustainability and a pleasant atmosphere.

 

 

At the current location, our plant nursery is developing into a state-of-the-art company, in which every part of the production process is automated. Specially developed machines and conveyor belts, together with skilled workers, ensure smooth logistics processes. With the help of scouting machines that fly over the crop, the growers keep a well-trained, watchful eye over an endless sea of succulents. Thanks to the support offered by dashboards, we can view the collected data from our climate system, and accurately control the temperature and light to create the right balance in terms of energy.

 

Originating from pure passion, our adventure has brought us to a unique state that we call: SuPure, Superior in Purity.

‘Cultivating top-quality succulents is a passion. A passion that will never fade’

Hans Ammerlaan