Just Add Water

Continuing the subject of sprouts, just add water and this is what you get . I'm not sure how it works, but evidently it does.

Calvin (Ngan Tengyuen) a blogger who publishes mirage.studio.7 posted about the card on November 6th, 2006. Evidently he found it surfing the Epica Awards website. The card, belonging to Tur & Partners, Landscape Architects in Germany, was a 2004 Direct Marketing category finalist in the Epica Awards .

Since the post on mirage.studio.7 last year, the card has just recently been passed around the blogosphere . It has been interesting to read many of these posts writing (or speculating) about how it works.

In any case it is a creative idea that sprouted from the minds of Tur & Partners. and certainly appropriate for a Landscape Architecture firm.

Houseplants Survey Information

Following is some interesting information about indoor houseplants from the Garden Writers Association Foundation. It is excerpted from Fall 2004 Garden Trends Research. This is a PDF file.

It was particularly interesting that in most categories, those with high incomes were more likely to purchase for their garden. Low-income buyers were more likely to purchase indoor houseplants and fall vegetables.

This is not surprising from my experience monitoring houseplant forums. There is much conversation about penny saving and buying small 4" pot size plants. Cost is a recurrent issue and there is significant traffic in exchanging cuttings for propagation.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of marketing leadership to elevate indoor plants as a more upmarket home design amenity. Big box retailers, who dominate the market, sell houseplants much like produce. There is a decided lack of creative presentation.

Also not surprising is that 6 of 10 buyers are female. Again, from houseplant forum experience I would have guessed even higher, perhaps as high as 80% female. I wonder how many men purchase houseplants as gifts for women.

Note the sole category where male buyers were slightly in the majority (53.3%) was trees and shrubs. This is also observable on the web if you monitor bonsai forums. This is where more guys hang out talking about miniature tray trees.

Women camp out on the houseplant forums. Their priority is flowering houseplants, which presents a significant challenge due to inadequate light. This, no doubt, motivates the migration of so many winter houseplants that become outdoor “around the house” plants in the spring.

Excerpts regarding indoor houseplants

• Fall flowers, indoor houseplants and mulch were tops on the planned buying list for gardeners.

• In most categories, those in the high income were more likely to purchase for their garden. Low-income gardeners were more likely to purchase indoor houseplants and fall vegetables

Continued Activity

The buying spree continued with indoor houseplants coming in second (for the second year)
on their list of planned purchases for the season. These gardeners were looking forward to continuing their green thumb activities indoors for the winter.

Fall Gardening Overview

• Fall flowers, indoor houseplants and mulch were tops on the planned buying list for gardeners

• In most categories, those in the high income were more likely to purchase for their garden. Low-income gardeners were more likely to purchase indoor houseplants and fall vegetables

Indoor Plants & Vegetables
Those gardeners in a high-income bracket naturally were more likely to purchase garden or yard items in most cases. This was true for all categories except for indoor houseplants and vegetables where the lowest income earners were the most likely to purchase.

Houseplants

Indoor houseplants followed a similar trend among gardeners who planned purchases. Most of the planned buying was in the south (36%) followed by the northeast (24.8%). The most likely to purchase this type of plant were the 25-44 year olds (40.2%) with the 45 – 64 year old group closely following (33.3%). Also predictably, more females (60.2%) than males (39.8%) planned to purchase indoor plants.

In looking at gardeners by age, the predominant spending group was the 25 to 44 year olds for the entire range of item categories (fall flowers, indoor house plants, trees or shrubs, perennial plants, fall decoration, and fall vegetables) except for two areas. The bulbs and mulch-buying gardener was more likely (or just as likely) to be older (45 – 64 years).

Mulch, Trees & Shrubs

In fact, female gardeners planned to make the majority of the yard or garden item purchases this fall in all categories (fall flowers, indoor house plants, mulch, perennial plants, fall decoration, bulbs and fall vegetables) except for one! Females were the driving force behind the planned garden spending last fall. Surprisingly, this also included those planning to buy mulch. The one area in the fall season where slightly more male gardeners are buying (53.3% male vs. 46.7% female) was in the purchase of trees or shrubs.

NOTE
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Interior Plants Consumer Survey

Interior Landscape Business reported on a recent consumer survey conducted by Project Evergreen. The results are not surprising considering the low level of interior plants publicity I find when doing research for this blog.

Summary of consumer awareness turned up the following points:

• 70 percent of the respondents were not aware that interior plants save air conditioning costs before seeing the survey;
• 70 percent of the respondents didn't know that psychologists have found access to plants and green spaces provides a sense of rest and improves worker productivity;
• 70 percent of the respondents weren't aware that employees with an outside view of plants experience less job pressure;
• 65 percent of the respondents didn't know that employees with an outside view of plants experience greater job satisfaction;
• Half of the respondents were aware that trees, shrubs and turfgrass remove smoke, dust and other pollutants from the air; and
• 80 percent of the respondents were aware that well-placed plantings offer privacy and tranquility by screening out busy street noises.

Hidden Hydroculture

Click to enlarge. This is a tabletop interior design amenity meant to look good and provide a touchstone to the natural world even if only iconic. There is also strong evidence that plants like this will help to improve your indoor air quality and your interior mindset.

Please don’t just think of it as either a “house plant” or “bonsai.” Both of these names conjure up a host of issues concerning a need for specialized skills. With all due respect to outdoor gardeners and bonsai masters, it’s simply not necessary to have a so-called green thumb or be a bonsaist to maintain this little tree.

Think of it as an indoor plant for every man, every woman, and every child. Anyone can maintain this plant as long as it’s located in adequate light. You do not need to be a gardener, have a green thumb, or know how to poke your finger into the soil to test it for moisture. Young children can easily take care of a tree like this and keep it as a pet.

Polished pebbles, Creeping fig and a few rocks on the surface conceal the fact that this 7-year-old Ficus benjamina is growing in expanded clay pebbles. Unlike the so-called bonsai with glued pebble groundcover there is no problem in watering this tree.

There is a pipette tube adjacent to the rock on the right. Simply insert a ¼” plastic pipette tube hold your finger over the end and you can clearly see the water level when you remove the pipette tube.

Just be sure not to add water until the pipette tube shows only about 1/4" in the bottom. By doing this you are re-oxygenating the media. If you keep the media saturated (topped off constantly) you will drown the plant and it will die. The same is true for sub-irrigation using soil (erroneously referred to as "self-watering").

The tree is growing in a microwave food cover inside the melamine bowl. This plant could also grow in artificial soil mix. The only difference would be the need to lift the clear plastic inner planter periodically to check the soil moisture.

Caring for this tabletop tree can be done on a fixed schedule to suit your time demands. Don’t let anyone tell you can’t. It's easy to prove it to yourself. Most busy people don’t have the time or interest to be daily plant nannies.

Grassroots Community Work

The Design Network is a group of women landscape professionals in Northern Ohio. Over the Memorial Day weekend, about 14 of their members were out in the fresh air. No, they were not at a beach, a lake or lounging on a backyard chaise lounge. They were catching some rays by working to landscape three Habitat for Humanity homes. I would love to have been there. Read on from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

What does this have to do with inside plants, plants in buildings? On the surface, not much but what an opportunity it was. What an opportunity for interior plantscaping professionals to feed their souls by doing something for others while demonstrating their talents. I scanned the entire membership roster looking for members involved in interior plants and found none.

There’s always tomorrow. Perhaps the Design Network will consider expanding membership to include interior plant professionals who are well versed in 21st century methods for designing and maintaining plants in buildings. There’s not much point in demonstrating poke and pour stone age methods. Wouldn’t it have been great to have showcased some hydroculture or sub-irrigated plants in these Habitat for Humanity homes?

New Green Business Blog

The launch of a new blog by Greenview Fertilizer gets a bravo and a big round of applause from this blogger.

It’s great to see a company involved in the green plants business recognize the value of a blog. I like what they’re doing and wish there were people and companies in the “plants in buildings" community (houseplants or interior plants) with the courage to publish a blog.

This press release was the first news of the blog. This link captioned What is a blog? from their website explains more about their rationale for the blog. I often wonder how many people in the green plants business yet know what a blog is.

What's in a Name?

The name you select for your interior plantscaping, florist or nursery business says a lot about you. It’s worth the time to select wisely. This article from the Startup Journal of the Wall Street Journal will get you started.

Do you want the world to identify you as an unsophisticated sole proprietor? I can usually tell from an e-mail address. MsPlants@AOL.com reveals much at a quick glance. Like it or not, those who are web wise look down on an AOL address as that of an unsophisticated web user. That’s particularly true when there’s a trite name before the @ symbol.

Even if you’re not ready to start your website, buy a domain name for your business to use as the e-mail address. A few years ago, I bought a domain name for personal mail hosting for under $30 per year. Hyland was taken so I bought HylandHome.com

It was a good decision. No matter how many times I change Internet service providers, my personal address does not change. There is never a need for a change of address notice mailing. That alone is worth the annual fee.

Incidentally, are you sorting your mail into folders? Along with spam filtering it’s the most effective way to manage spam. Only unsorted mail is in my inbox. It’s easy, therefore, to see the spam and quickly delete it. Click, click, it’s gone!

The web offers an abundance of resource material to help you create a business name. Here are the results of a search on the phrase “business name generator”.

Feel free to run your new name short list by me for an opinion.

Scary Headlines

True or not it gets reported.

Stormy Weather Breeds Scary Mold

Experts Say Mold Eats Anything

During winter months, mold tends to grow indoors, gravitating toward dark, damp, warm environments, including attic walls, house plants and garbage pails.

Rentokil Update

Update: Initial Tropical Plants issued a press release dated February 11 and published here as "breaking news".

We called Initial Tropical Plants corporate headquarters and got a confirmation that they did indeed acquire the interior plant maintenance business of Valley Crest Companies.

We also did some research to learn a bit more about Doug Flynn, the new Rentokil Initial CEO.

This quote from a December 2004 press release on the Aegis Group website caught our attention. We could not agree more and anticipate him carrying this belief forward in his management of Rentokil.

Doug Flynn, CEO of Aegis Group plc said "Digital media will become the dominant delivery mechanism for media and advertising. Understanding the ways in which the internet can be used to effectively develop consumer interest and drive sales is the holy grail of marketers. We are very impressed with the vision of iProspect and are very keen to develop this part of the business into a true international capability."

He is obviously tuned in to the tech world of the 21st century. This could be a positive and much needed benefit to the interior landscaping business.

Excerpt: This makes it a very exciting time in mankind’s history and a very exciting time for our company and our people

We liked what we read here about his values. Much of it could have been written in context of his new job at Rentokil.

This may not add much of substance, but here is a June 2001 CNBC interview on Power Lunch Europe, if you would like to see and hear him.

A Missed Opportunity

Here is yet another missed public relations opportunity in the interior plantscaping business.

New Year Outlook

There's a positive outlook for "houseplants" according to a survey done by the Garden Media Group. Let's hope their study is on target. We know we're not alone in looking forward to some significant growth in the inside plants market in 2005.

Excerpt: HOUSEPLANTS ARE IN. GREENLESS HOUSES ARE OUT. Ferns, snake plants and palms aren’t for your grandmother’s parlor any longer. Bigger houses with lots of open space and sun porches lend themselves beautifully to being filled with houseplants.

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?

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.

Rentokil Recognized

Here's some positive publicity about Rentokil, UK. It's a pleasure to link it because we certainly have posted enough about their trials and tribulations this year.

We also applaud the fact that the story appeared in a paid circulation publication other than an industry trade magazine. It's positive publicity presented to the community outside of the trades. That's where we need to communicate rather than talking to ourselves.

Excerpt: Rentokil Tropical Plants, based at Acorn Nursery in Barrow Lane, picked up nine awards in the European Federation of Interior-Landscape Groups (Efig) Interior Landscape Excellence Ceremony held at Stoneleigh Park Exhibition and Conference Centre in Coventry.

The article also appeared here today, November 24.

Plant Tour Days Adds Seminars for 2005

Four 30-minute presentations have been added to the popular Plant Tour Days event sponsored by the San Diego County Flower and Plant Association.

Britain, Canada And America In Bloom

We’ve had this link to Britain in Bloom, sponsored by the Royal Horticultural Society in our “to-post” file since the beginning of the month. Our thought was that we should have a program like this in the U.S. Well, guess what, we do.

We discovered this from a Greenhouse Product News item.

It turns out that the Canadians were smart enough to copy a great idea. They named their program Communities In Bloom. They then helped the U.S. launch America In Bloom in 2001.

We found BIB from a UK interior plantscaper website link. We’ve lost the link but we’ll find it. What a wonderful outreach and PR opportunity this program is for interior plantscapers and garden centers who practice outdoor container gardening.

Initial Tropical Plants PR

We reluctantly agree that any publicity is better than no publicity but we would be happier to see more constructive PR from the world's largest interior plantscaping company. We diligently look for it, but find nothing.

Community Partner Champion of the Month

Community Partners selected Commuter Link, sponsor of OzoneNY, as Community Partner Champion of the Month for September.

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in the creation of OzoneNY, a campaign that merits implementation in every city in the country.

Please comment below or post an e-mail if you have an interest in learning more about this outstanding program.

Excerpt: This year Ozone NY launched a new and innovative campaign—Get a Plant, Green Means Cleaner Air. The campaign, which includes traffic, sports, and weather report sponsorships on several radio stations and advertisements on several local cable TV networks (such as HGTV and Fox News), targets individuals rather than the business audience that Ozone NY traditionally targets. The ads center on the simple and thought-provoking concept that plants can improve air quality by reducing ground-level ozone (see www.OzoneNY.org for details on how plants can reduce VOC levels and air temperature).

As part of the program, Ozone NY formed partnerships with 250 plant stores in the region that will allow anyone who mentions ground-level ozone to get a 5-10% discount on the purchase of a plant. The plant stores were given two posters to help them promote the campaign. In turn, the plant stores receive free advertising and a listing on the Ozone NY web site. A plant tag congratulates purchasers for taking the first step to improving air quality, lists three more steps from the It All Adds Up “Ten Simple Steps to Improving Air Quality” flyer, and directs customers to the Ozone NY web site for more information.

Positive PR

Nice to see this plug for houseplants from Lowe's.

Excerpt: Clearing the Air

According to the Office of Environmental Affairs, indoor air is often two to five times more contaminated than outdoor air. Combat this issue with these easy improvements:

-- Grow indoor plants. Spider Plants, Ferns, Dracaenas, English Ivy and Daisies will absorb indoor pollutants, such as carbon monoxide.

The press release was picked up by Occupational Hazards on October 7.

We Just Moved Into The Neighborhood

If you're tired of political campaign commercials, check this out.

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.

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.

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.