Plants For People

Plants For People is a European website that does a fine job of promoting the use of interior plants and providing information about them. There is a wealth of knowledge here we found well worth exploring.

Excerpt: Plants for People

Plants for People is an international initiative, spreading knowledge of the benefits of plants in a working environment. Plants for People initiates and supports international research projects, collects and publicises relevant study results and communicates these results at symposiums and workshops.

Watering Can

Click to enlarge. This watering can holds about one half gallon of water (one milk container). We have found the ergonomics to be very good. It pours easily and four pounds (when full) doesn't put undue strain on your shoulder. It is translucent. We bought it at IKEA, but have never seen it there again and wonder why. It is a very good product at low cost (about two dollars as we recall).

Water Storage Rack

Click to enlarge. An inexpensive Cube shelf imported by Seville Classics works well as a water storage rack holding sixteen gallons of water in a small amount of space. We buy a package of eight Cubes at Costco for about eighteen dollars.

Water Carrier

Click to enlarge. We also use the Ultra Caddy trays as four-gallon water carriers. We used a Sharpie pen to mark the eight-ounce graduation lines.

Indoor Plant Care Kit

Click to enlarge. This utility tray holds eight half-gallon recycled milk containers. They fit as if the tray was custom molded. In this configuration, four of the milk containers hold water and we trimmed four to serve as tool holders. Note the foot-candle light meter and soil probe.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer changed the design. It looks like the new 1584 tray will probably hold six, rather than eight milk containers. You may be able to find some of the old trays somewhere. It is called an Ultra Caddy (item no. 1582), made by Sterilite Corp, Townsend, MA. We also use the Ultra Caddy trays in our plant lab for water storage and delivery.

This is a typical “indoor gardening” tool carrier available on the web. It holds a general-purpose trowel, bulb trowel, hand cultivator, bypass pruner and thinning shears. This was obviously configured by an outdoor gardener who knows little about indoor plant care. What, pray tell, is the need for a cultivator, trowel and bulb trowel?

There is also a little mister for nervous Nellies who waste time misting their house plants. The only worthwhile item is the pair of thinning shears. We have two pairs and use them for a wide variety of cutting and trimming jobs from leaves to plastics.

Probe With A Probe

I've previously recommended using a soil probe to check soil moisture. Using your finger as a probe may be handy, pun intended, but it’s not as accurate as a probe.

And, forget about those el cheapo moisture meters. They don’t really measure moisture they measure ionic reaction. Probe a glass of distilled water and watch the meter read “dry”. Conversely, the salts in dry soil may give you a “moist” reading. Further, they are not durable and go out of calibration very easily resulting in false readings.

Here’s an endorsement today from an experienced, highly respected interior plantscaper.

Greenscaping Versus Retroscaping Of Green Buildings

We continue to read about green buildings. The buzz about them is increasing. There is even a new LEED-certified green supermarket. This, by the way, looks to us like a business opportunity for an enterprising interior plantscaper.

We know that there are plants installed in many widely publicized green buildings even though they’re never listed in the green resources addenda. We see them in project photos such as here, here and here. Water saving outdoor landscaping and waterless urinals are frequently listed but not interior plants.

To omit plants from green building specifications is a significant omission. Although obviously not established at this time, let’s make an assumption for this discussion that there is acceptance of interior plants as environmentally green building products.

We hold the opinion that a green product can be less than green if improperly installed and maintained. We believe this is particularly true of interior plants. Our recent Greenbuilt Tour experience is an example.

We visited six facilities touted as green buildings. They all contained plants. They were all maintained with drench and drain retroscaping methods. All had exposed moist soil creating an environment for mold generation, allergy triggers and plant pests such as fungus gnats. All wasted water that did not need to be wasted.

Retroscaping also requires unnecessary weekly plant care. Two-week interval or more is all that is needed using greenscaping methods. The result is reduced vehicle use and a significant savings in fossil fuel with no loss of quality. This alone justifies the use of greenscaping.

The interior plantscaping industry needs to address retroscaping within its ranks before it can hope to be looked upon as green. Helping in this effort will be a significant activity of our new GreenScaper blog.

History Of Hydroculture

We found this extensive history of hydroponics an interesting read. We have made no attempt to vet the information and found little information about the author. A search on Amazon.com turned up nothing.

Glad Tidings of Joy

However you celebrate or experience this day we wish you peace wherever you are in the world. We enjoyed this research , by Ruth Browning retired teacher and librarian. Once a scholar, always a scholar. Thanks Ruth.

Very Green Christmas Trees

We like this story about Christmas trees that are green in every sense of the word.

Update: December 25 - We note that this story received wide coverage.

Tis The Season

A significant segment of the US population has evidently grown weary of putting up Christmas decorations. The result of course is a business opportunity.

The Startup Journal of The Wall Street Journal posted an article about businesses that do just this type of work. They are Christmas decorators. Many interior plantscapers are participating and hold a significant share of this seasonal business. Some of these companies survive due primarily to holiday decorating revenues.

This article tells how an interior plantscape company has diversified into holiday decorating. This is their busiest month of the year.

The Daily Compost

The publication may be “America’s paper of record” but the houseplant advice in this column isn’t. It’s as up-to-date as grandma’s Oldsmobile. The NY Times of all papers should hire columnists who know better.

Here’s the Q & A. More than likely these “houseplants” were moved outdoors over the summer and accumulated the bugs. This is just one of the reasons why most interior plantscapers, us included, would discourage doing this.

Bugs on the Pots

Q. When I lift some of my indoor plants, the pot bottom and saucer are crawling with minute insects. What are they? What can I do about them?

A. Most of the usual minute suspects (aphids, whiteflies and spider mites) live on the plants, not the pots. Saucers tend to harbor millipedes, wireworms, slugs, ants and snails, all of which are on the large side.

That leaves two likely culprits. If the creatures hop, they are harmless springtails. If they fly, they are fungus gnats, which seldom cause problems but can damage plants in large numbers.

Allowing the soil to dry more between waterings and making sure no water stands in the saucers should banish both. Try an insecticide based on Bt if the gnats persist.

With simple sub-irrigation, there is no need for saucers because there is no need for drainage. There is no moist soil to harbor fungus gnat larvae, thus no need for insecticides. There are no fungus gnats.

We find that most outdoor garden writers have no commercial plant care experience and are clueless about simple houseplant technology. In this case, the writer is a food writer and houseplant book author. Perhaps, one day, professional interior plantscape horticulturists will come out of the closet and speak up.

Fancy Shoestrings

Click to enlarge. Here's a snazzy looking sub-irrigation planter for your houseplants. Here's another one. Note that they are erroneously referred to as "self watering"

They're nice looking but have no more functionality than a “shoestring” planter you can make yourself. They use shoestring type wicks and a reservoir. It's as simple as that.

Excerpt: A quick look at the base will tell you when your plant needs water.

This is a common error given in the instructions for so-called "self watering" planters. The question as to when to water is not whether there is water in the reservoir. The question is whether the soil moisture has dried to a point where it's time to water. Whether to add water to the reservoir of a sub-irrigation planter is a function of the soil moisture, not water reservoir contents.

A reason why caretakers often have problems with "self-watering" planters is they keep adding water to the reservoir when it is empty. This is a sure path to overwatering, particularly in low light.

The problem is not with the planter it's "operator error". Perhaps it's more accurate to call it "provider error". Providers of "self-watering" planters rarely include adequate instructions. In fact, we've never seen a proper set of instructions with one of these planters.

Planters Without Drainage Holes

Here’s a question that appears frequently on houseplant forums. Apparently, there's no one on this forum who understands sub-irrigation. The simple to use shoestring method would work beautifully. It’s a horticulturally sound and low cost way to implement greenscaping in your home.

Perhaps we can motivate some tech savvy professional interiorscapers to answer houseplant questions on this forum. There used to be a very competent, albeit techno-averse, interiorscaper who posted. Unfortunately, he was banned for ignoring warnings about promoting his business. The forum has never been as good.

No Trust

According to a survey cited by Internet Retailer, 87% of respondents don't trust e-mail newsletter privacy policies. They believe they'll receive spam if they sign up.

We subscribe to more newsletters than we can read. However, we're gradually shifting our information sources to RSS feeds. We readily admit we're oversubscribed with RSS feeds too. But if we weren't information junkies, we probably wouldn't be publishing this blog.

We've thought many times about publishing an e-mail newsletter but have moved it down the to-do list. How do you get your news and information? Have you signed up for a lot of newsletters? Or, are you more often using a RSS newsreader?

Another Greenscaping Opportunity

Lennox Township (40 miles north of Detroit) plans to follow LEED guidelines for its new municipal building. It will probably have grass on the roof. It would also be a benefit for township employees to have living plants inside. Perhaps a Detroit area interior plantscaper will step up to the plate with some plants and greenscaping technology.

A Greenscaping Opportunity

Here’s a column about green building from the Editorials/Opinion page of The Seattle Times. This isn’t about a high profile commercial green building like CH₂ it’s about affordable housing. We found it most interesting that the green building movement is moving into mainstream residential housing for low-income families.

Is this yet another opportunity for progressive interior plantscape professionals to get involved with the green building movement? Is it an opportunity to do some good? Is it a buzz opportunity. We think so. It appears to be an invitation presented on a silver platter. After all, what is most synonymous with “green amenities” in homes?

We would emphasize that for the plants to be truly "green" they need "green" care. We were appalled with what we discovered on our local "Greenbuild Tour" in October.

One of the tour stops was a Pardee Homes development. The array of houseplants was impressive. What wasn't impressive was that they were installed in common grow pots. The overly moist soil was covered by copious amounts of top dressing moss installed by a local retroscaper. These plants were anything but "green".

Blogging Awards

It's not only the holiday season, it's the awards season too. Here are the "2004 Weblog Awards". No, you're not going to find anything about plants but there are some interesting blogs to read.

Six Star CH2 In Melbourne

Sewerage water and vines are energy saving features of CH₂ a most interesting green building in Melbourne, Australia. They also contribute to making this a better environment for the people working inside the building.

Be sure to watch the video of architect Mick Pearce. He says a lot in a short time.

Notice the Bamboo palms (Chamaedorea seifrizii) behind him. We wonder if they are eco-friendly, dry soil surface, water conserving palms or is someone foolishly drenching and draining them.

While researching this project, we surfed in to the website of Hansen Yuncken, builders of CH₂and looked through their portfolio. This is a healthcare facility. We noticed the Dracaena Janet Craig and decided to look closer. We've been in the business too long.

This is a big file so don't open it without a broadband connection. Scroll down and check out the lower leaves on the Dracaena. Oh, if we could just reach in there and check out how this plant is watered. Of course you would never guess what we think.

Update: Here is detailed information about the building and how it works from the City of Melbourne website.

Looking Ahead

We have come to believe that consumer houseplant care, interior plantscaping, retailing, commercial growing, green building, etc is too much material to address in one blog.

Therefore, we have decided to start another blog named GreenScaper.net. It is already online with similar graphics but under construction without content. InsidePlantsLive.org will remain focused on houseplant care and the retail indoor plant market.

We will target GreenScaper.net towards interior plantscapers, interior designers, architects and all entities within the rapidly emerging “green building” movement. We believe it is imperative that the interior plantscaping industry become more involved in this environmental movement. There is a business opportunity here, an opportunity to contribute to society. We believe the business is hiding its light under a bushel.

There is no all powerful trade or marketing organization, no über-organization, guiding the industry currently. Therefore, we believe that it is up to individual companies to take the responsibility rather than waiting for someone else to do it. This means self-education and change, both requiring open-mindedness and personal motivation. The business has all too often been characterized by technophobia and cenophobia. This needs to change if there is to be progress and growth.

The companion audience we seek is the specifier community. Architects and interior designers all too often show an aversion to incorporating interior plants in their projects. We do not believe cost is the overriding reason. We believe there is an impression that indoor plants are a hassle to maintain and can clutter up a design. We hope to persuade them otherwise.

We will soon outline our planned subject matter for each blog. We and other readers will appreciate your comments and feedback.

Looking Back

We won’t bore you with all the details of spambots bombarding this blog during the past week, but will share that it has been a horrible experience. As happens with all life experiences, something good always appears from the bad.

The good in this case is that the situation caused us to confront what we are doing with this blog. We gave serious thought to giving it up, to just quit. We knew, however, that if we did it would be for the wrong reason.

We believe there is a need, a purpose to what we do here. The subject is not of great consequence to the world at large, but it is grievously mischaracterized and misreported. There is a need to debunk the plethora of untruth and mythology surrounding the use and care of plants indoors. If for no other reason, the plants deserve better. Have we just anthropomorphized them again?

So, we decided to share our vision for the future in context of where we are now and how we started. We decided about six months ago to explore the potential of this exciting new communications format known as blogging. We decided to explore the blogosphere.

We discovered that unlike writing within the privacy of our word processing software, there was no on-off switch with a blog. Once we bought a domain name, designed a format and found a host we were live on the air, connected to the web, to the world at large.

We indulged in a bit of self-deception however; we made believe we were writing it within the privacy of our office. We made no announcement, issued no press release, created no publicity, did not even register with Google, Yahoo or any other search engine. We told just a small number of friends and business colleagues what we were doing.

We were in for a surprise. Yes, the spambots found us, but so did search engine bots and more important you readers from over thirty countries. Our activity for just the first half of December is equal to the entire month of November. The base was obviously small, but our growth has been exponential. This activity is supporting our will to continue, so we will. In the next post, we will share our plans for the coming year.

We're Back!

We were blocked out of our Movable Type software the last couple of days and couldn't post. We believe it was somehow connected to the very ugly comments spam problems we've been living with for the past week.

Thanks to help from Dave Aiello, Weblog Improvement, we believe we can now move forward without the barrage of comments spam. We'll be back with new information in the days ahead. Thanks for your patience.

It's Open!

In case you've been losing sleep over this. It's open! Cancel the meeting with Putin!

Inquiring Young Minds Want To Know

This is a story about Toledo, Ohio high school students experimenting and learning about hydroponics. No they’re not growing ornamental plants, they’re growing things like lettuce just like the students in the Bronx. In the process they’re learning about basic plant science and the technology of growing plants without soil.

We believe the houseplant and interior plantscaping businesses have a vital need for young people like these students. They’re learning things alien to most of today’s “indoor gardeners” still practicing outdated methods from decades past.

There is a need for young open minds willing to explore new ways of growing, marketing and maintaining plants. There are enough forefingers and watering cans in the business.

Excerpt: "Hydroponics is a huge business right now," said floriculture teacher Ellen Saffran.

It's not as simple as filling up a bucket and dropping seeds, she said. Students regularly check the water's acidity and alkalinity and measure whether nutrients are needed.

Toledo Public Schools operates the center and accepts students from other districts. It attracts 150 students a year interested in floriculture, small-animal management, natural resources, and landscaping.

"I also teach the students how to run a business and price items," Ms. Saffran said. "Theoretically, 80 percent of our kids should go into a career in this field."

The Problem Escalates

It's not at the U.N. yet, but IKEA's problem with the Russians is evidently headed for Vladimir Putin's office. The press is claiming his Ukrainian strategy backfired, now he has to deal with the Swedes. Besides those who wait patiently in line to barge through the doors for an IKEA store opening, who knew that retailing could become such a battle zone?

Man On A Mission

Let's hear it for Stanley Tigerman. Maybe they need some help from an interior plantscaper. Step right up if you're in Chicago!

Excerpt: Despite all of these features, McCarrell said, the design aspect that impressed him and city officials the most was a series of gardens on the third and topmost floor of the facility.

Tigerman said these gardens would be grown in greenhouses using two methods: hydroponics and traditional gardening. What would make the gardens unique, he explained, is that mission residents would attend to them, just as some mission residents work in other positions at Pacific Garden.

Tigerman proposes that the mission residents will grow organic tomatoes that could be sold to restaurants and retailers.

“It’s one thing to teach in the secular sense; it’s quite another to do,” Tigerman said. “Instead of warehousing people, the greenhouse is an attempt to bring these people back into society by giving them jobs.”

An Interesting Interview

We had not seen a news or PR item related to America’s largest interior plantscape company until today.

IKEA International News

IKEA had a bit of a problem in Russia. Next thing you know Kofi Annan will be involved.

What You Are Doing In Your Spare Time?

Harris Interactive just released the results of a poll measuring the popularity of various leisure activities including gardening. Indoor or houseplant care wasn’t included as a leisure activity. It was probably lumped into the gardening category if measured at all.

Harris uses the year 1995 as its baseline in measuring the rise and fall of the various leisure activities. They list gardening with a 3-point fall in the group
with the greatest decline in popularity.

Excerpt: The biggest declines in popularity over the last nine years are in swimming (down 5 points from 7% to 2%), TV watching (down 4 points) – possibly a result of greater Internet activity, playing team sports (down 4 points), gardening (down 3 points), sewing/crocheting (down 3 points), and bowling (down 3 points).

This is an understatement. We note the gardening decline is even greater at minus 9 points since the peak year of 1999, the end of the late ‘90s “gardening boom”. Read the story of Garden.com to refresh your memory of these heady times.

What does this mean in relationship to the houseplant and interior plantscaping businesses today? We don’t really know but the poll triggered some thoughts.

Without research information, it is difficult to correlate the relationship of the outdoor gardening, retail houseplant and interior plantscaping businesses. There is however, a common thread. The common thread of course is all three are markets involved with the relationship of humans and plants. We believe they are interrelated markets and move together in yet unexplained ways.

Best Of The Web Retailers

Internet Retailer has an interesting overview of their choices for Best of the Web 2005 retailers. These are the big kids of online retailing and none other than eBay offer much of anything related to indoor plants.

We wonder if the Internet will ever support the houseplant business in any meaningful way. Do you remember Garden.com? Here's an in-depth 1999 article from Inc.com. We had high hopes that it would succeed. The founders were three MBA's with funding. They were recognized for the website's technical attributes but unfortunately the company went under in the dot com bust circa 2000.

We live in hope that someone with creativity, brains and money will come along with a new concept and try again. Whatever the product, "offline only" is not a good business plan for the future.

Aalsmeer Index

We found the Aalsmeer index an interesting service of the auction. They maintain auction statistics on the volume of cut flowers and potted plants (both green and flowering) presented here in graphic format.

The four indexes are based on systems used in the financial world, like the Dow Jones Index. They show the current daily mood each week, with the current week compared to the same week the previous year.

For more information about the Dutch auctions, we visited the Rotterdam School of Management and the website of Eric van Heck, Professor of Business Administration. This paper, Experiences with Electronic Auctions in the Dutch Flower Industry (PDF file), is worth reading if you're interested in a better understanding of the auction processes and their history.

Awesome Aalsmeer

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest commercial building in the world is Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer, the flower auction at Aalsmeer, Netherlands. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the magnitude of this impressive world-renowned auction.

You can read about the auction, where almost 19 million flowers are sold each day, on the cooperative's official website.

The Case Against Sub-irrigation Of Houseplants

Sub-irrigate a canary. If the canary flips over and breathes its last, maybe you have a problem with high soluble salts in your houseplant water. If it seems to be enjoying itself, you and your houseplants will most likely enjoy all of the benefits of sub-irrigation. We’re only half joking.

The only case ever made against sub-irrigation is about soluble salts exposure. We have a way for you to prove the fallacy of these soluble salts warnings made in support of drench and drain watering.

Years ago, miners used canaries to test for toxic gases in coal mines. You can use a similar method to test for a soluble salts problem with your water supply at the same time proving the value of sub-irrigation to yourself. Use the shoestring measured sub-irrigation (MSi) method to maintain a few “canary plants”. Do not fertilize them initially.

“Canary plants” include the ubiquitous Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) and the ever-popular Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana). Both have sensitivity to high soluble salts in the water. They will evidence it by displaying significant tipping (browning) of leaf tips. Incidentally, slight tipping is normal with any level of water quality. Perfection is difficult to attain in the care of all houseplants since the indoor environment is less than ideal.

We don’t believe you can have a soluble salts problem unless you’re using private well water rather than a municipal water supply. Or, you may be adding too much fertilizer.

Over six years of testing in our Greenscaper Consumer Lab and three decades of professional experience prove to us that there are no disadvantages to sub-irrigation of houseplants. Once again, a potential problem with soluble salts is the only justification ever cited in favor or drench and drain over sub-irrigation. Simply put, it is mythology that you can easily debunk yourself.

So, sub-irrigate a canary plant today and enjoy all the benefits.

The Case For Sub-irrigation Of Houseplants

There are numerous benefits for houseplants, caretakers and the environment from sub-irrigation watering. It produces healthier houseplants and makes their care more user-friendly and hassle free. We know of no disadvantages.

Widely publicized misleading information about the threat of soluble salts has inhibited the use of sub-irrigation except by professionals. This false fear, coupled with resistance to change, has been the primary obstacle to gaining the benefits of sub-irrigation.

The following is a long list but well worth reading if you have not experienced the benefits of measured sub-irrigation.

Benefits to the plants

• Reduced exposure to soluble salts problems. Salts are elevated up and out of the way of the primary root zone.

• Maintenance of the ideal state of ‘evenly moist’ is much easier. This is a healthier soil condition and reduces the exposure to precipitation of soluble salts out of solution in the dry state. This condition can result in the burning of hair (feeder) roots.

• Water moves up evenly molecule by molecule, drop by drop. Capillary action facilitates maintenance of the ideal state of evenly moist with no exposure to dry soil pockets.

• A small measured amount of water can be delivered directly to the root zone with hypodermic like accuracy. This is essentially impossible to do with top watering. It makes sub-irrigation feasible for all types of plants including cactus and succulents.

• Gentle movement of water by capillary action reduces the tendency for soil particles to compact, which improves oxygenation over time. Pore spaces do not close up as they do from the force of water moving by gravitational pull.

Benefits to the caretaker

• The interval of time between plant waterings can be extended. A ‘reservoir’ capability allows extra water application to cover caretaker absences (vacations, etc.).

• Plants can be watered on a fixed schedule (every 2 weeks for example). Larger plants can go even longer than 2 weeks. Every 3-week plant care is definitely feasible. Small 4” inch pot size plants might require a 10-day cycle.

• A closed watertight sub-irrigation system reduces exposure to water damage of furnishings and floors.

Benefits to the environment

• Proper use of measured sub-irrigation results in a dry soil surface 100% of the time. There is no exposure to creating an environment for propagation of fungus gnats (Sciaridae). They are annoying to humans and are known to be vectors for plant damaging diseases.

• A dry soil surface mitigates exposure to the creation of toxic molds and triggering of allergic reactions such as asthma.

PHS Reports Six Month Results

Rentokil competitor PHS reported results today including a 12% increase in half-year profits. The company also announced a share buyback of up to £40 million ($77.5 million US).

Greenleaf is their interior plants division. There's more information here and here.

Excerpt: It tends to buy small, privately-owned businesses in similar areas to its own five businesses, which are washroom services, Treadsmart – a provider of standard and specialist mats, Greenleaf – a provider of plants to companies, Waterlogic – which provides plumbed in water dispensers and Teacrate – provider of crates and pallets for office removals.

Cohen said the company is likely to spend £20-25 million this year on acquisitions. It is currently looking at 17-20 projects and this sort of figure is 'normal' for the business. The company is also investing £2.7 million in new IT systems to help with customer service and productivity.

PHS is a market leader in most of its business areas. Its key focus is on retaining customers and selling more to existing customers. Retention rates in washroom services slipped to 87% from 88%, largely as a result of the fall out from two acquisitions the company made, but Cohen said this was to be expected and has now been addressed.

Treadsmart has a record customer retention rate and Greenleaf's is up to 84% from 77%. Cohen also expects Greenleaf to benefit from a new Christmas catalogue.

The Case For Drench And Drain Interior Plantscape Watering

As previously outlined, we believe there is no horticultural advantage or benefit associated with drench and drain top watering of indoor plants. We also believe the practice has a negative impact on the growth of the interior plantscaping business.

Please refer to the disadvantages described in the following post.

The Case Against Drench And Drain Interior Plantscape Watering

There is still a significant (but unmeasured) segment of the U.S. interior plantscaping industry that practices drench and drain watering.

We believe widespread use of top watering methods is counter productive to current efforts to attain LEED credits status for interior plants. There are negative environmental factors associated with top watering that cast a shadow over the green benefits of interior plants in commercial spaces. It is more difficult to argue that interior plants are ‘green’ if the method of maintaining them is ‘brown’.

Negative to the environment

• There are LEED Water Efficiency credits for reducing water consumption. Opposed to this, drench and drain methods waste water.

• Drench and drain watering is typically coupled with unnecessary weekly plant care. This is a waste of petroleum and human resources at a time when the industry should be publicizing all that it can do to conserve natural resources.

• A moist soil surface provides a haven for the growth of fungus gnat (Sciarid fly) larvae. Fungus gnats are annoying to employees, guests and customers. Sciarid flies are also vectors for plant disease that can shorten plant life.

• Overly moist surface soil can be a source of mold generation and asthma aggravation. Whether real or imagined this increases the potential for arbitrary, capricious legal actions.

Negative to the business

• Drench and drain watering requires an investment of but a few dollars for a watering can. It invites unqualified low-price practitioners into the business. When larger, more established companies compete on the same terms, the impact on profitability is devastating.

Negative to the plants

• With the exception of floor and furnishings damage, all of the negative horticultural factors outlined in the case against houseplant drench and drain apply to interior plantscaping.

Green Buildings For People And Hopefully Plants

Here's an excellent in-depth article about green building from The Economist. If you want to catch up on the status and history of the green building movement this is a worthwhile read.

We have no doubt that the green building movement will have a significant impact on how plants are used inside commercial spaces. In our opinion the interior plantscape industry needs to move ahead to modernize its maintenance practices to stay in step with the trend.

Plants are green, but all too often their maintenance is not. Out of date methods waste water and gasoline.

Excerpt:Green is good

But things are now changing, as green architecture moves into the mainstream. In the spring of 2003, Toyota completed a 624,000-square-foot office complex in Torrance, California, that received a LEED gold rating, thanks to the inclusion of features such as solar cells to provide up to 20% of the building's energy needs. Also last year, Pittsburgh opened the doors on its 1.5m-square-foot convention centre, the largest building to be awarded a gold LEED rating so far. The USGBC says nearly 1,700 buildings in 50 states are now seeking LEED certification and 137 have been constructed and certified so far. And America's General Services Administration, which oversees all non-military government construction, recently decreed that all new projects and renovations must meet the minimum LEED standards.

In Britain, meanwhile, 70 office buildings constructed during 2003, representing 25% of the total by floor area, met the BREEAM standard. Similar standards have been adopted in New Zealand, Australia and Canada. In China, the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games aims to host the first zero-net-emissions games, which will include constructing all buildings and sports venues using green-architecture principles.

Green Building For People And Plants

This is all about "green building" in every sense of the word. The word is conservatory. We've had two excellent articles stashed away. Here they are for your Sunday reading and dreaming.

Some call them sunrooms or solariums, the Brits call them conservatories. We like this traditional name because it sounds more residential, more homelike, than greenhouse. Solariums and sunrooms sound like a place only for old people.

While they may be synonyms, our perception is people and plants live in conservatories while only plants live in greenhouses. Your favorite chair is waiting for you.

Excerpts:

From the UK: In the UK, where our weather is less then reliable, their popularity is easy to understand - they let us bring the outside in, giving us a chance to enjoy the great outdoors from the luxury and warmth of a great indoor space - all year round.

From the US: In England, he says, "one of every five homes has some kind of greenhouse. ... They've grown up with them, they know how to do it. That's not true here — greenhouses are not part of our gardening history. But we're getting started on a new adventure here."

Cat In Your Plants?

Although we're not dealing with the problem currently, we often read about the struggle to maintain the rights of both houseplants and pet cats. This seems like a humane and effective way to solve the problem.

The product is called the Mini ScareCrow from Canada and we read about it here. That, by the way, is an air spray not water.

We noted that the Mini ScareCrow (Contech) website is available in five languages. We wonder how good the translations provided by SYSTRAN Language Translation Technologies are. Please let us know your opinions. We entered the URL for this blog and translated it into Spanish. Cool! Although we were born of Finnish immigrant parents, we are unfortunately a rather typical monolingual American and can't read it.

Perhaps we can afford this service one day. Who knows? We believe it is inevitable that language translation will be a much more common website amenity in the future. It is imperative that we develop a better capabiltiy to communicate with each other no matter where we are in the world and what language we speak.

The Case In Favor Of Drench And Drain Watering Of Houseplants

Mitigation of soluble salts is cited as the sole justification for drench and drain watering. We read of no other horticultural reason to top water. If anyone can cite research studies in support of top watering of houseplants please let us know and we will publish them.

We are convinced that soluble salts problems are highly overstated. How many have ever seen symptoms of soluble salts? It is easy for the average layperson to blame symptoms caused by insufficient light, over and under watering and excess fertilizer on the overly publicized “soluble salts threat”.

It would be better advice if houseplant caretakers were more strenuously cautioned to restrain the use of fertilizers. Outdoor gardeners are used to fertilizing and prone to overdo it for houseplants. Commercial plant maintainers use very little fertilizer if at all. The objective is to maintain indoor plants in good health rather then attempt to grow them on.

In context of insufficient light, pest problems and soil moisture management, soluble salts alarms are a case of the tail wagging the dog. It is a very low-level threat to houseplant health and longevity.

We believe the genesis of this bad advice about drench and drain comes from greenhouse growing academia. In actual field practice, we find absolutely no horticultural benefit attributed to drench and drain watering of indoor plants.

Bad advice and resistance to change are the only reasons the practice still exists. It is bad for the plants and bad for the indoor plant business.

The Case Against Drench And Drain Watering Of Houseplants

Drench and drain houseplant watering is similar to watering landscape or garden plants with a hose. So what’s wrong with that? The answer is…everything.

Besides the horticultural negatives, we believe the incessant mantra of drench and drain advice contributes significantly to the less than user-friendly reputation of houseplants. Busy people don’t have time to suffer the trials and tribulations of acquiring a ‘green-thumb skill’. Replica plants have become an easier solution for many.

Meanwhile, houseplants die unnecessarily and the houseplant market stagnates.

A plant in a pot inside a building is in a totally different environment than a plant growing in the ground outdoors. Flooding is fine when the plant is unconfined and growing in natural light. It is difficult to control soil moisture, however, in a confined low light environment using pour-from-the top methods.

Do mothers measure the milk in a baby’s bottle? Do they give a child a glass of milk or the entire container? Unlike plants, children have a brain. They will likely not drink too much. Plants, however, have no intelligence to stop drinking. They will drown in overly moist soil when given too much water.

Also, consider these factors.

• Drench and drain is messy and often the cause of damage to furniture and floors. There needs to be a provision for drainage water. Watering in place requires saucers that can easily overflow. The alternative is to move plants to a sink or shower, a time consuming chore.

• There is no certainty that water applied from overhead watering evenly permeates the entire root zone. There may be dry pockets not visible. Water dispersion from gravity flow is uneven and difficult to control. Moist soil attracts water more than dry soil leaving an exposure to dry soil pockets. Water may just run down the sides if the soil has dried too much.

• Over a period of time, gravitational water-flow compacts soil and closes oxygen-holding spaces leading to poor plant health and eventual death.

• The roots of a container grown plant are concentrated at the bottom of the pot. Why water the soil at the top and maintain moist soil unnecessarily?

• Drench and drain is a wasteful practice. It wastes water.

• Drench and drain is conducive to overwatering, particularly in low light.

• A moist soil surface provides a haven for the growth of fungus gnat (Sciarid fly) larvae. Fungus gnats are annoying to people and are vectors for plant disease.

• Overly moist surface soil can be a source of mold generation and asthma aggravation. Whatever positive air cleaning properties plants may have are easily offset by environmentally unsound watering practices.

Philly To Wi-Fi

Perhaps you've read this ongoing story about Philadelphia’s plan to install citywide Wi-Fi broadband service. Their plan ran into strenuous objection from Verizon. We’ve been following the story and believe there’s merit on both sides of the controversy.

They reached a compromise and a deal was struck yesterday. Try to figure out exactly what that means when you read this article.

We are strong advocates of universal broadband and it will be interesting to see how this plays out across the country. The potential economic and educational benefits of universal broadband service are enourmous.

Excerpt: Pennsylvania's governor has signed closely watched legislation that Philadelphia officials had worried would imperil their plans to provide Wi-Fi service to all city residents.

Wanted!

Fresh thinking tradition breaker like this man wanted for U.S. houseplant market. Read his article about reversing five entrenched outdoor gardening traditions (myths).

Perhaps there is still hope to "reverse the direction" of houseplant watering and make it a growing business again.

Lee Reich, Ph.D., is an avid gardener who, after more than a decade in agricultural research with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cornell University, turned to writing, lecturing, and consulting. He is a frequent speaker at many gardening events, including garden symposia and clubs, grower conferences, and Master Gardener training workshops. His books include Growing Fruits in Your Backyard, A Northeast Gardener's Year, The Pruning Book, and Weedless Gardening. Lee writes regularly for such publications as Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and The New York Times, and his gardening column for Associated Press appears weekly in newspapers across the country.

Article excerpts:

Tradition 1 - Tradition dictates spring planting, but fall is actually a better time. Plant now and roots have some time to grow before spring warmth coaxes leaves from bare stems. Also, the soil is often too slurpy to dig early in spring; now should be perfect for digging.

Tradition 2 - Better a $5 tree in a $50 hole than a $50 tree in a $5 hole, goes the old saying. Not so. The planting hole for a tree or shrub doesn't need to be any larger than the spread of the roots.

Tradition 3 - There's no reason to use great quantities of organic materials, such as peat moss, leaf mold or compost, to fluff up the soil in the planting hole. Create too fluffy a soil and roots have little reason to leave the planting hole and they should as soon as possible!

Tradition 4 - Right after planting, all the best gardeners have traditionally staked their newly planted trees. In fact, it is generally better not to stake a tree. Trunks allowed to sway in the wind become stronger and develop better. Even the roots grow more on an unstaked tree.

Tradition 5 - The gardener who follows traditional wisdom in planting a bare root tree or shrub has one final task after the plant is in the ground. That task is to cut back some stems ‘‘to balance the loss of roots".

Don't do it! It turns out that hormones produced in stem buds, especially those at the stem tips, help stimulate root growth and, hence, stem growth. Keep pruning to a minimum, and remove a few stems at their origin rather than shorten many stems.