The history of Foxborough dates back to Spring of 1978, when following their childhood love of horticulture, W. David and Marilyn Thompson founded Foxborough Nursery, Inc.. Originally Foxborough Nursery, Inc. was a liner and container operation specializing in rare and unusual plants. It also provided residential landscape services to the Harford and Baltimore County areas. In 2007, it was decided to split the business into two companies, one wholesale nursery and one residential landscaping, and Foxborough, Inc. was created.
David’s interest in horticulture began in the late 50’s while helping his grandfather on his gentleman’s farm in Harford county. The joy he gained from working in the flower and vegetable gardens turned into a business opportunity as a young man. With his new-found love, he began to offer landscape services to the surrounding neighborhoods. Throughout his adolescence he kept his small landscaping business going and decided to attend the University of Maryland to earn a B.S. degree in Ornamental Horticulture.
After graduating in 1975, David returned to Harford County and was married later that year. Initially working for other local companies in the nursery industry, David and his wife, Marilyn, decided to start Foxborough Nursery, Inc. And so it began, initially on a 68-acre family farm, a one greenhouse operation with a pickup truck for landscape services.
48 years later, the companies have grown from being just David and Marilyn with a greenhouse and a pickup truck, into two companies employing over 50 people, 30 greenhouses, a fleet of vehicles, and many pieces of equipment. Not only did they grow this company, but both of their sons, Brad and Andrew, inspired by their horticultural heritage, returned to the companies and are operating partners with David and Marilyn.
Although this is a portfolio of Foxborough, Inc. it would be incomplete without mentioning the nursery. It is the basis through which we have learned how to be successful “growers” in the landscape as well as the farm.
Brad decided to follow in the path of his father by earning a B.S. degree in Ornamental Horticulture from the University of Delaware and returned full-time to the business in 2003. Brad currently supervises all matters of Foxborough Nursery, Inc., a wholesale B&B plant nursery specializing in unusual varieties of coniferous and deciduous ornamental trees and shrubs. Foxborough Nursery, Inc. still does much of their own propagation, keeping their plants true-to-name.
Andrew’s path led him to attend Penn State University and earned a B.S. degree in Landscape Design and Landscape Management. He returned to the business in 2006. Andrew manages Foxborough, Inc. and is the lead designer. Foxborough, Inc. creates individualized, distinctive gardens for estates and residential homes in Baltimore and Harford Counties.
All three families live on the farms, comprised of 700 agricultural acres. The acreage is comprised of six adjacent farms where many of the plants used in their landscape projects are grown. Surrounded daily by the beauty of over 175,000 plants, including 900 cultivars of unusual plant material, utilizing 375 irrigated acres, they truly live and breathe horticulture. The wholesale nursery ships B&B trees and shrubs throughout the East Coast, with the bulk of the product delivered to the Boston and New York markets. Plants are also shipped to Canada and as far away as the Royal Family in England.
Truly the love for horticulture is the very root of this family and companies. Without it, our history would be very different.