Hurricane Damage Estimate

Reuters reports hurricane damage pegged at around $3 billion.

Excerpt: "Certainly that estimate ($3 billion) is in the range, within the ballpark we would anticipate. We will be somewhere in that neighborhood when all the assessments are completed," McElroy said.

The damage was spread across all sectors, from the $10 billion a year nursery industry that produces house plants and flowers, to the $9.1 billion a year citrus industry that grows premium grapefruits and oranges for the fresh fruit and juice markets. Florida supplies 75 percent of all U.S. grapefruits.

Florida Hurricanes Assistance

GIE Media has organized a drive to collect donations for disaster struck growers in Florida.

Interior Business magazine and sister publications Lawn & Landscape and Golf Course News are holding an ongoing drive for cash donations to support growers, nurseries and interior and exterior landscape contracting businesses affected by the hurricanes. You can send your donations to the Hurricane Relief Fund, c/o Interior Business magazine, at 4012 Bridge Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, 44113.

We The Media

This is a Forbes book review of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People. You can buy it or read it free online here.

Excerpt: Blogs have been a hit. There are more than a million out there, although it's tough to verify precisely how many people are reading them. Newspapers, by sad contrast, know precisely how many of their readers are vanishing. Have they decided they have no time to read? Or are these folks only interested in missives and reports that directly touch their lives?

We the Media (hardback) (O'Reilly) July 2004 Grassroots journalists are dismantling Big Media's monopoly on the news, transforming it from a lecture to a conversation. Not content to accept the news as reported, these readers-turned-reporters are publishing in real time to a worldwide audience via the Internet. The impact of their work is just beginning to be felt by professional journalists and the newsmakers they cover. In We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, nationally known business and technology columnist Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon, and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make and consume the news.

Dan Gillmor is a nationally known columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. His column runs in many other U.S. newspapers, and he also writes a daily weblog for SiliconValley.com, an online affiliate of the Mercury News. Gillmor has been consistently listed by industry publications as among the most influential journalists in his field and has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. We the Media is his first book.

Green-Building Event

Here's news about another building in Arizona. It's an icon of a very different sort.

New IKEA

Tempe's newest tourist attraction has crowd pulling power.

Oil Prices Charge Toward $50 a Barrel

Here's an article from Forbes for those interior plant maintainers who are still driving around weekly to drench and drain their customer's plants.

Bi-weekly (or longer) plant care using subirrigation is both plant-friendly and friendly to our environment. Dare we say (marketed wisely) it's also profit friendly. We call it greenscaping in every sense of the word.

Excerpt: The price of oil is up roughly 75 percent from a year ago, while gasoline is 22 cents per gallon more expensive than last year at $1.85 per gallon.

The high cost of jet fuel has devastated the already battered airline industry and as diesel prices continue to rise the trucking industry's profit margins are being squeezed.

"$2 per gallon diesel isn't as sexy to the public as $2 per gallon gasoline, but the added costs will certainly filter into every nook and cranny of the commercial economy," said Tom Kloza, director of Lakewood, N.J.-based Oil Price Information Service.

USDA Floriculture Outlook

The USDA Floriculture and Nursery Outlook report is now available online in PDF format only.

2003 Floriculture and Nursery Crops Yearbook (scroll down for spreadsheet Files) are also online.

Floriculture Crop Definition: Any item considered in the category of bedding/garden plants, cut cultivated greens, cut flowers, flowering potted plants, foliage plants, floriculture propagative material. Data for flowering potted plants and foliage plants represent only items intended for indoor or patio use.

Excerpt: A 1-percent drop in sales is projected for potted flowering and foliage plants in 2004 following a 2-percent decline in 2003. Sales of potted flowering plants are forecast at $820 million and foliage plants at $616 million in 2004, down from $829 million and $623 million in 2003. Competition from fast growing imports, especially from Canada, and crop damage from hurricanes in Florida dampen sales prospects of domestic growers this year. Imports of orchid plants are also rising from Taiwan, Thailand, the Netherlands, South Korea and Canada. Nevertheless, domestic grower sales per U.S. household of potted flowering plants have held steady at between $7 and $8, and between $5 and $6 for foliage plants, over the past decade. Florida dominates the foliage plant market, capturing 64 percent of total U.S. value in 2003.

What Will They Think Of Next?

For those who have everything. No, we don't have one.

Top Ten Plant List

We recently came across a Top Ten Plant List from Clem Cirelli, Interiorscape magazine Industry Correspondent and General Manager of Summit Plants & Flowers, Springfield, NJ.

Capturing The College Crowd

Fred Meyer knows how to capture the college crowd. If we in the interior plant business could do as well, the business would be moving forward instead of sliding backwards.

Excerpt: Sarah Coch and her friend, Sarah Cobelle, both sophomores, had a shopping cart full of items, including a giant house plant.

"I feel like I'm on ‘Supermarket Sweep,'" joked Coch.

"This is the kind of thing returning students like to do," said Cobelle, who shopped at the event her freshman year.

We’re unfamiliar with Fred Meyer so we visited their website. We could nitpick the advice but we were pleasantly surprised to find some houseplant information. Read Why Houseplants. It's well written, concise and to the point unlike many overly wordy "broccoli marketing" sites we visit.

The Fred Meyer information is far better than what we find on most inside plant websites, including big box retailers and taxpayer funded Master Gardener sites.

That’s another story to be continued in the coming days.

Speaking Of Sustainable

Have you been searching for something different for your living room?

Whatever you do, please don't drench and drain this beauty.

Visit the Wollemi Pine website.

Excerpt: The Wollemi Pine is one of the world's oldest and rarest plants dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. With less than 100 adult trees known to exist in the wild, the Wollemi Pine is now the focus of extensive research to safeguard its survival. By 2005/6 you will be able to assist in the conservation effort by growing your own Wollemi Pine and becoming part of one of the most dramatic comebacks in natural history.

Green Building Tours

The City of Santa Monica is offering two green buiding tours. The Commercial Green Building Tour registration has closed. The free self-guided Green Home and Landscape Tour on Saturday, October 2, 2004; 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.is still open for registration.

The Santa Monica Environmental Programs Division website contains a wealth of green information. Scroll down to the EPD Sitemap.

Wal-Mart Fights Back In California

Can things get any more contentious, or nastier, in our society? Wal-Mart issues now fit right in with the tone of the presidential campaign.

Residential Interiorscaping

Here’s a story about residential interior plantscaping written by Margaret Roach, editor-in-chief, and gardening editor of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

How much more valuable this would be if it included information about sub-irrigation. Imagine watering these plants by drench and drain methods. What a potential mess on the floor. What a hassle.

Sub-irrigation, of course, is a watertight method. There's little or no exposure to water damage to the floor. A bi-weekly schedule of watering all of the plants at the same time would keep them in fine shape.

We believe ASID-type interior designers, along with busy householders, would be happy with this.

Pothos Portage

This is what drives ASID-type interior designers nuts about "houseplants". The misspelling of Pothos as 'pathos' is appropriate in this case.

Utah State University Extension officials orchestrated the carefully choreographed move Monday of the potted plant with 350 feet of leafy vines from their old office in the Historic County Courthouse to the county Administration Building next door.

The golden pathos started out as a small house plant in an 8-inch pot, purchased by extension director Dean Miner for his office. Over the past six years, it grew and grew and grew. It grew out of his office and into the hall, eventually having vines stretching through the whole office.

Less is more!

IKEA Is A Moms Company

IKEA has been named in Working Mother magazine's 19th annual list of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers."

Nearly 50% of IKEA's top earners are women.

On Coworker Appreciation Day, IKEA employees receive a store discount of up to 40%, based on their location's performance. The perk extends to their family members, too.

We'd like to remind them to spend some time (and money) to get their discount in the houseplants department.

Photosynthesis Power

Photosynthesis may one day be powering more than our houseplants. Mothers, of course, have always known the power of spinach.

Any Houseplants From Wal-Mart Lately?

Half of all U.S. primary household shoppers visit a Wal-Mart store on a monthly basis, reports Retail Forward in a new report.

NYC Flower District

The Museum of the City of New York has a virtual exhibition about Single Trade Districts which includes the Flower District a significant source of indoor plants.

Excerpt: The wholesale flower trade is shrinking. Smaller firms have disappeared; others have relocated to newer buildings away from the chaos of midtown. Gentrification and new construction are sweeping through this weary part of town as Manhattan real estate values rise, rendering the old structures less valuable than the dirt they stand on. Clutter and heavy traffic along these streets and sidewalks charm the occasional passerby, but they are a daily headache for the florists and other trades who use them. No business can long afford to remain where costs are high and operations difficult.

Please Mute That Sunflower

Today we have an editorial, no less, from Ka-on home country.

Editorial excerpt: As we have suggested, this is a complex issue arousing understandable ambivalence. It will be years before historians deliver a final verdict on the ka-on's social utility. For now, it is probably best to just smile and watch.

Open A Store

Here's an idea for marketing an interior plantscaping company or retail garden center. Many organizations have custom printed shirts for company staff. Why not sell shirts and other products to promote the business?

It's an easy thing to do using CafePress.com. Take a tour.

Here's a website with a CafePress store. Click on Buy Commemorative Products.

Blog Curious?

If you're curious about starting a blog, read this from Debbie Weil. Good stuff!

If we were starting over, we'd use TypePad from the creators of Movable Type. Consider it for personal, business or photoblog use.

TypePad makes it easy to:

Publish a weblog

Publish a photo album

Maintain lists of your favorite books, music, weblogs, and links

Personalize your site's colors, layout, and design

Connect with others who share your interests

Limit who reads your weblog through password protection

Make Your Peace Lily Really Peaceful

With a Ka-on (“Flower Sound” in Japanese) you can listen to Enya’s Orinoco Flow through your Peace Lily. What you inhale while listening is your business.

We don’t make this stuff up. Let’s Corp, a telecommunications company in Nagoya, Japan developed a machine you can hook up to your houseplant or flower vase and listen to music through the petals and leaves. Is that cool, or what?

For you Integrated Pest Management folks, they claim it will keep bugs off plants. This could open up a completely new method of IPM for hotels and shopping malls. Think about it. Do you hear the music coming from that contented looking Bird of Paradise over there? Notice!—no mealy bugs or scale.

Marcel Vogel, a colleague from our IBM days, would love this if he were still with us. He was a contributor to "The Secret Life of Plants". We well remember the reaction in our office when publicity about Marcel and the book hit the wire services and radio news. Big Blue wasn't quite ready for metaphysical Marcel at the time. Woo hoo!

Aeroponics and now shall we dare say "audioponics" all in the same week. You can be sure we’ll follow both of them.

Rare Cycad Theft At Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Using a hurricane evacuation as cover, plant thieves broke into Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and made off with 33 priceless plants -- cycads, said to be nearly extinct.

The World's Longest Greenhouse?

No matter how many hours of research, we regularly miss something significant. It's an amazing, fast-changing world we live in.

This article about Millenium projects in the UK referred to the success of the Eden Project which somehow got by us. What an amazing project it is. We have yet another reason to visit the UK

Article Excerpt: The Eden project, created in a vast china clay pit near St Austell, in Cornwall, has attracted tens of thousands of visitors and been dubbed the 8th wonder of the world.

It features two biomes – one as high as Nelson’s Column – which make it the world’s longest greenhouse. The giant structures house plants from the steamy rainforests and the warm temperate regions of the world.

In addition to the official website, Keith Martin's website provides a virtual trip in lieu of a plane trip. We're sure it will whet your appetite to vist the Eden Project wherever you are.

Symbiot Gets Some Money

A press release announces new funding for the Symbiot Business Group. A portion of the funding is allocated for the Interior Plant Network.

New PAW Director

Plants At Work (PAW) announces McRae Anderson as new director.

IKEA Coming to Austin?

It looks like our favorite big box houseplants, planters, home furnishings retailer is coming to Austin, Texas. Lucky Austin.

If you don’t have an IKEA store yet, their website is an online shopping treat. We received the new 2005 catalog recently and were impressed with the number of houseplants included in the product display photos. We vote IKEA the most houseplant friendly big box retailer of the year although you do have to go to a store to buy them.

Here’s their website index including a link list of information about all 24 of their US stores. The 2004 paper catalog is now out of stock. However, their entire catalog is online.

Pottery Barn Disappointing

We think the Pottery Barn is a quality retail chain. We read this article about the update of their SoHo, New York store and decided to tour their website.

What a disappointment. We found nothing that would promote or encourage the use of houseplants. Nor did we find anything that stimulated our imagination in that regard. It changed our image of the Pottery Barn. Did we miss something?

A New York Opinion

Not everyone in New York was captivated by the opening of Home Depot's new store. Charlie Suisman, publisher of the Manhattan User's Guide (MUG) is never bashful about voicing his opinion. He did and we find that refreshing.

We may not always agree with MUG, but we read his blog regularly. If you're a New Yorker by birth, residency or just at heart check it out. The content is interesting and Charlie knows how to write.

Inside Plant Technology

For your information only, no endorsement expressed or implied.

Excerpt: With the right sales pitch and price, the company is betting it can get many of those inexperienced gardeners — or green thumbs who want to grow year-round — to buy a plant-growing system that's clean, fits in a kitchen and takes some of the guess work out of gardening.

Aerogrow plans three sizes and styles of grow boxes with integrated grow light units, ranging in price from $99 to just under $200. The machines are manufactured in China.

Does This Look Like Your Local Home Depot?

The first Home Depot in Manhattan opened yesterday complete with doormen and concierge. It's located in the landmarked 1890 Hasbro Building on West 23rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Chelsea. This was the NY Times preview.

We wonder if they're offering an Ozone NY "Get A Plant" discount. This store will no doubt have further impact on the already declining Chelsea flower district.

Orchids From Taiwan?

Phalaenopsis at Pothos prices? Probably not, but their prices will likely get a lot closer if things go according to the plans of the Taiwanese. They’re investing some serious money in a bid to dominate the world’s $2 billion (U.S.dollars) orchid industry. They're looking to become the orchid capitol of the world.

Their plan has understandably created some unhappy orchid growers in Florida and Hawaii. The Hawaii orchid growers are fighting the recent USDA ruling in the courts. They have asked a federal court for a preliminary injunction to block the imports. A ruling is due this fall.

Stay tuned as we track this story.

Wal-Mart Public Relations

Big box merchandisers, led by Wal-Mart, dramatically changed the distribution of indoor plants as they did for so many other consumer products. The public has demonstrated somewhat of a love-hate attitude towards Wal-Mart of late. We found this NY Times article most interesting.

Asiatica Mail Order Nursery

Asiatica is a mail order micro-nursery in Pennsylvania specializing in exclusive and rarely-offered plants. They have been in business since 1996.

We were attracted to their website and varied plant selection. This is a link to their extensive collection of indoor and tropical plants.

We have no first-hand experience with them so please let us know about any experience you may have. Thanks!

Ozone NY 'Get A Plant' Campaign

We were thrilled to discover Ozone NY on News12.com in the Bronx, NY. This is the first promotional campaign involving houseplants we have seen. Watch the video.

It surprised us that there appears to be no connection to the horticultural green industry and we wonder why. The sponsor is Ozone NY, an environmental green industry organization, whose primary mission is improving air quality in the New York Metro region.

They've taken the plants for clean air message and run with it in a way we've not seen before. Ozone NY is not in the business of promoting houseplants per se. They’re just cleverly using the clean air publicity to get their message out.

To do this they have enlisted the support of over 200 participating plant stores and over 500 businesses. Say, “I’m buying this plant to reduce Ground Level Ozone” and receive a discount.

Ozone NY business partners receive Ozone Action Alerts, are listed on their website and receive materials and assistance from Ozone NY to keep companies and employees aware of Ground-level Ozone. Hopefully they become involved in helping to reduce it.

We wonder why all of the interior plantscaping companies in the New York metropolitan area aren’t participating. All we found were Let It Grow Indoor Landscapes (no website link), Initial Tropical Plants (listed as Rentokil Tropical Plants with no website link) and Plantworks Inc.

We'll post again when we get more information. We would like to see this program in every city in the country.