old black and white photograph from 1964 showing roy and thelma fountain with young child nick fountain in old glasshouse

Our roots.

Where we began. Where we are. Where we’re going.

Our Company's Story

Fountains Plants Ltd. was started in 1964 by Roy and Thelma Fountain at a time when agricultural and horticultural work was a lot harder and more labour intensive. Seeds were sown directly by hand into the ground beneath wooden framed glasshouses and polytunnels, and all watering was carried out by hand, too, as there was no mass irrigation technology back then either.

Our site began to expand as the years passed, with more and more glasshouses built. In 1980 the horticultural market changed overnight, and farmers now wanted individual plant modules; this was a huge learning curve for all involved in the business, but in true Fountain fashion, everyone got stuck in and made it work.

Fast forward 40 years, and our company is starting to change again and have embraced a revolutionary way of growing using Planttape®. Planttape® is where we sow the seed into a tape-like media that is extremely dry previously, the biggest trays we had were capable of holding 504 plants, and now with Planttape®, we can grow 840 plants per tray, meaning more plants in a smaller area, allowing us to take on increased capacity and can deliver increased volumes to our growers.