Return of the Wollemi

The prehistoric Wollemi pine was in the news a while ago. It's back! Read on...

I have my doubts that it’s a good interior plant. But, what do I know? I haven’t tested it. It sure is an Australian buzz creator, whatever its merits as a plant for your home. You can enter your bid in October.

Lost my Loupe

The two best defenses against plant pests are maintaining healthy plants and diligent observation. Greenhouse growers and pest control advisors refer to pest observation as ‘scouting’. A 10-power loupe is highly recommended since common pests such as spider mites are difficult to see with the naked eye.

I lost my loupe a while back, got lazy with my scouting and paid for it. More accurately, many of my Ficus benjamina plants paid for it. They are just now growing out of a significant amount of leaf damage caused by my negligence.

The best pest management program for plants in buildings is to supply water to them by sub-irrigation or hydroculture, give them adequate light and scout for pests. Buy a loupe if you don’t have one. They're not expensive.

Here’s some good information about spider mite control.

Guide to Interiorscaping

This is the first time I’ve seen the word “interiorscaping” used to refer to houseplants. Unfortunately, no one on the editorial staff knows what interiorscaping looks like. The photo is titled "houseplants" (right click properties). They're obviously not.

This was analogous to publishing an article on women’s fashions and showing a photo of a man in a business suit. We already have enough problems explaining to lay people how difficult it is to grow flowers inside buildings because there's not enough light.

IKEA is Indoor Plants

Here's an IKEA update from the Twin Cities near Mall of America.

Ikea's retail shtick is selling contemporary, do-it-yourself furniture and a vast selection of home accessories at discount prices. Its stores display a broad array of merchandise in more than four dozen showroom settings and a handful of model displays — from sofas to bookcases to dishes, lamps and indoor plants.

To repeat what I’ve said before, I don’t know any other retailer that merchandises indoor plants like IKEA. They market them in the context of interior furnishings and good design rather than as an adjunct to a gardening center.

Growing houseplants is a “gardening” hobby for many but that’s not where the market growth potential is. I believe there is an under exploited market for more user-friendly plants in buildings as interior design furnishings.

There are many more people who are not “green thumbers” or plant collectors than those who are. They currently don’t use plants as interior furnishings simply because they’re too much of a hassle to maintain.

A Happy Sansevieria in Bloom

Click to enlarge. If you haven't seen a Sansevieria in bloom, here it is. I don't think I noticed the flower at its peak and I'm by no means a professional photographer. In any case, the flower is interesting but not very significant

Click to enlarge. This plant like most of the others in my lab is sub-irrigated twice a month and lives in a clear container. It receives a measured amount of water using a half an ounce (.5 oz) of water per day (on average) over the past year since it was installed.

There is no problem with algae since the clear container is installed inside a cachepot. Clear containers coupled with "aqua-pad" sub-irrigation certainly make the plant care job much easier...and the plants obviously like it.

Click to enlarge. I've seen plants on the web installed in clear containers with a saucer reservoir instead of a cachepot. In this case, it's an Orchid maintained in expanded clay pellet hydroculture. The saucer set up makes no sense to me when a cachepot looks so much better and prevents algae propagation.

Digital Plants in Buildings

I’ll do whatever I can to encourage the use of plants in buildings including virtual reality. If you're wondering about radiosity as I was here's the answer.

Twilight of the Flower Fields

 
 
The "flower capital of the world" is fast becoming the expensive housing capital. Slowly but surely the flower fields and greenhouses of North San Diego County are disappearing.

I lived in South Dade County Florida a long time ago and the same thing is happening there and in West Palm Beach County. What impact will this all have on the floriculture business in the U.S.? I wonder.

Horticulture, once the mainstay of Encinitas' economy, is entering its twilight, growers and city officials agree.

Soaring real estate values throughout coastal North County are enticing farmers to sell their land and retire in comfort or move their operations inland where the land is less expensive.

Classy Watering

I've seen this watering can in IKEA from time to time. I'll have to try one the next time I see them. It looks good and the price is right. This watering can is also from IKEA. It has good ergonomics and you can see the water level through the translucent plastic.

Bill Gates and Hydroponic Grass

No, not that kind of grass. This is about wheatgrass grown hydoponically by a bunch of 12 year old kids. Bill Gates was in Singapore recently to deliver a keynote address titled Innovation with Academia.

A 49-year-old whose name is synonymous with enterprise was talking about it at Suntec City on Friday.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-old was among those handing out a do-it-yourself kit, which allows people to grow their own wheatgrass at home using hydroponics.

Soon after Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates delivered the keynote address titled Innovation with Academia during the Ministry of Education's (MOE) ExCEL Fest launch, some eyes turned to a bunch of Primary 6 students from Stella Maris High who had come up with the wheatgrass kit.

They were on hand to give out 5,000 kits — comprising a packet of seeds, two trays and a kitchen towel — to visitors.

PHS Has a New Owner

The UK press is reporting an offer to take PHS Group (including their Greenleaf interior plants business) private.

Good Looking but Pricey Shoestrings

This article reports about the Industrial Designer's Society of America (IDSA) 2005 awards. This planter won a silver medal. They’re neat looking and will work if you forget the term 'self-watering'. There will be a temptation to fill that reservoir when it's empty. Don’t! Check the soil moisture before adding water. For those who can afford them…go for it. For those who can’t, use shoestrings, or better yet ‘aquapads’.

The 2005 Industrial Design Excellence Awards offer a dizzying portrait of a consumer society on steroids.

Shoppers gorge on smarter phones, sexier music players and multifunction cameras. The new leisure class relieves stress with self-watering flowerpots and back-saving kayak racks. Caffeine hits may be taken from a personal coffeemaker in a black zippered wet suit. Decorative floating buoys light up the swimming pools prosperity has bought.