“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.”
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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.