FosterPlants.com

Envision this.

You’re sitting at you desk working on the computer and there’s this annoying little miniscule bug… or perhaps a few of them that keep flitting around — right in front of your face — between you and your monitor and they’re really annoying.  Just about impossible to swat too!

Have you been there?

Say hello to the Fungus Gnat.

This little critter isn’t harmful to humans or animals, but they are extremely annoying, as you may know, and eliminating them from your space can be quite a challenge.

Where do they come from? Well, several possible sources. they could be coming into your space in the soil of your plants at the egg or larvae stage, or they can fly into your space through an open door or window at the adult stage. Kind of like mosquitoes or flies. The only way to eliminate them once an area is infested is to treat both the nesting area  (which could be, but isn’t always necessarily the soil of your plants) and the adults that are flying around.

I won’t get too technical here, but if you’d like to find out all the technical details, there’s a great article at https://class-insecta.com/Fungus_Gnats.html

How can you prevent the likelihood of an infestation?

• Make sure that your plants are sourced from a reputable Interior Plantscape Professional (we know a good company if you need a recommendation )
• Make sure that that company treats all of your incoming plants to eliminate any larvae that may be present in the soil. We do.
• Ask your staff not to bring gift plants or plants from home into the office as they may unknowingly introduce the dreaded fungus gnat into your space.
• Use covered trash receptacles in your kitchen areas and require that they are emptied daily making sure that the trash is properly disposed of outside of the space.
• Require your staff to dispose of any food that they may have taken to their workspace in that covered trash receptacle in the lunch room.

What to do if you do have an infestation?

• Call your Interior Plantscape Professional  and let them know that you’re having the problem. They will know what steps to take to eliminate the problem.
• Call your Pest Control Professional also, as the infestation may not necessarily be emanating from the plants.
• Be patient and understanding during the process as the only way to completely eliminate the problem is to break the life cycle.
• Realize that your Interior Plantscape Professional is on your side and wants the issue resolved as much as you do.
• Understand that the plants, although they may now be the nesting area may not necessarily have been the cause of the infestation.

Please leave us a comment if you found this post useful.
Our thanks to Class-Insecta.com for the use of their photo.

It’s 2010, can you believe it! Where did 2009 go?

Some things may be different in 2010 than they were in 2009 or before, but one thing remains the same.

First impressions are… well, first impressions, and you only have one opportunity to make a first impression. After that it’s gone. Poof!

The first area of your space that your clients and visitors see is you reception area and in addition to all the great furniture and art that your Designer placed there,  we’d like to suggest that a few live plants in awesome planters would really complete the space.

Whether you get them from us or a cometitor isn’t really the point, as long as you get them.

Reasearch has shown that live plants that are professionally maintained will increase productivity and promote a sense of well being, reduce absenteeism and assist with the removal of  Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) that are scurrying around in the air that the occupant’s of your space are breathing!

Not to mention that they will enhance the aesthetics of the architecture and design of the space and really won’t cost that much in the scheme of things.

Sounds like a good thing to us!

Next time we’ll tell you how a few well specified plants and planters could be better than too many, or none, and what factors you should consider when comparing  Interior Horticultural Professionals.

Check back in a couple days and we’ll tell you more.

Ok, I’ll make this one short

We offer a program called FlowerCuts™ to our corpporate and residential clients and I was doing one of our FlowerCuts™ routes last week to fill in for one of our people.

As I was just about finishing up at my second stop, a very high end fitness center, when this lady walks up to me and asks for a business card. Knowing that I had just reordered business cards, and that I had given out my last one the day before, I explained to her that I was completely out, but may have one in my wallet that I had written a note on.

So, I take a look and pull out a kind of worn business card and flip it over to see what I had written on the back. Hmmmmm…. a name and phone number that are meaningless to me, but strangely enough she takes a peek and says “that’s my name!”.

We both got goose bumps, as I said “I hope the phone number isn’t yours?”

Turned out that it wasn’t, but it’s  kind of creepy anyway and I wonder what it means. It must mean something!

What are the odds of my having the name Yiel written on the back of a business card in my own handwriting, not recalling when I put it there and then having someone ask me for a business card and her name turns out to be Yiel?

Coincidence?

Do strange things like this ever happen to you too, or am I the only one?

You’re not living under a rock, so surely you’re familiar the US Green Buildings Council’s (USGBC) rating system for buildings that are “certified green” by meeting their LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) criteria.

You might not be aware though that NO credit points are awarded for the inclusion of live “green” plants that are placed and professionally maintained in these interior spaces.

That’s shocking to me!

Both the Australian and New Zealand equivalents of the USGBC have recognized the importance of live indoor plants that are professionally maintained and included them in their rating systems.

Bravo to them!

Look at the photo at left, of a building  lobby that we installed a few years ago. Can you imagine how stark this lobby would be without the beautifule plants and  planters to complement the architecture of the space!  They provide a sense of human connectivity with the outdoor that only live indoor plants could. A sculpture wouldn’t achieve this nor would artificial plants!

The good news is that the LEED rating system is continually being reviewed and re-evaluated and the Interior Plantscape Industry has about a two year window of opportunity to DO SOMETHING  to correct this obvious oversight on the part of the USGBC.

Enter GreenPlants for Green Buildings (www.gpgb.org) and my friend Joe Zazerra, co-owner of Plant Solutions, Scottsdale, AZ. (www.PlantSolutions.com) and a board member of GPGB. Joe has made the mission of the USGBC including “point’s for plants” in the LEED rating system his personal goal and on behalf of GPGB, he is relentlessley doing what it takes to achieve this goal.

Bravo to Joe!

To that end, Joe who is one of the first Interior Plantscapers to have taken and passed the LEED, AP certification exam has taken on the challenge of making this happen for our industry. Just last week Joe was interviewed by Kathy Fediw of JFA Consulting, The Woodlands, TX. (www.jfaconsultingbiz.com) also a LEED,  AP, and he brought us up to speed on some recent developments that should help our mission to get the USGBC to take notice of our industry.

One of the areas that already exists in the LEED rating system which enables plants (and containers) to contribute to project points is the  ”Innovation in Operation and Maintenance” category and Joe along with GPGB have identified a project that has succeeded in gaining a LEED rating in part due to points gained in this category. The project is the Ecology and Environment Headquarters building in Lancaster NY, a building that achieved it’s LEED status in part because of the points awarded under the Innovation In Operation and Maintenance credit under LEED for existing buildings 2.0. The specific credit is for the Biophilic connection and the narrative that was part of the process featured a plant list, environmental benefits and references to research found on the GreenPlants fo Green Buildings website

Joe also mentioned that recently, a second building located in new Mexico has achieved LEED Silver certification in part because of the inclusion of plants in the Innovation and Design Process category. This information will be forthcoming on the GPGB website as soon as it’s confirmed.

We’re very excited about all of these findings and can’t wait to be a part of it all!

If you’re an Architect or Design Professional working on a LEED certification process for one of your projects, we’d love to work with you to see if we can’t get you some points in the “Innovation and Design process” category. Give us a call and let’s do this!

These days everything’s about green!

Green this or green that! Most of our plants are pure green… well in color anyway… but did you know that many of the planters that we carry are really green?

That’s right. They’re manufactured from materials such as recycled plastic, steel, aluminum, concrete and reclaimed wood.

This really cool looking Eurostyle Tapered Cylinder (below left) is perfect for any modern or contemporary space, and it’s available in more than fifteen fantastic colors.  Better yet though,  it’s manufactured  from 100% post-consumer plastic and it’s 100% recyclable!  Yes, that’s right. The Eurostyle Tapered Cylinder is made from retired office equipment, household items and car parts.

Another great new planter, The Wave, shown below at right, is made from a natural Fiber Cement material that gives the planter the versatility and durability of concrete without all of the weight.

Then there’s the wonderful line of planters such as the Tall V’nezia  shown below left, which is constructed from natural isi fiber and is perfectly comfortable inside or out. They’re also availabel in many sizes and several finishes

While we’re discussing sustainable materials, let’s not forget steel and wood. Take a look at the beautiful Stilted Cubes below. This classy box is available in steel or aluminum, natural rusted finish or numerous powder coat colors. The stilts are made from reclaimed wood. How green is that!

More and more green planters are on the way and we’ll be posting frequently about them in the coming months. Check back often or give usa call at 305.251.7383. We’ll happily show you how green our planters can be!

Just like there are Toyota’s and there are Lexus’, there are Majesty palms (Ravena rivularis)  and there are Kentia palms (Howeia forsteriana)

While both the Toyota and the Lexus are great automobiles,  they’re just not the same! Sure, they both have four wheels, an engine and some seats, but that doesn’t make them quite the same, does it?

Well, the same applies to the Majesty and the Kentia palms. They’re just not the same thing, although they’re both plants. The Majesty palm is the equivalent of  a Toyota and the Kentia, well it’s a Lexus.

Why are we telling you this, you may wonder? Because, in the Interior Plantscape business, there are some companies that may be inclined to try to sell you that Toyota for the price of the Lexus, thinking that you won’t notice the difference! There are others that may suggest that you purchase the Toyota instead of the Lexus, because the price would be a LOT lower, but really, it’s about what you are interested in purchasing, not what someone wants to sell you!

So here’s where we’re going with this. If you haven’t established a budget and you don’t have a set of design specifications for your Interior Plantscape project, then you’ll likely end up with prices that are all over the board when you receive your proposals because one bidder may be proposing Toyota’s and the other may be proposing Lexus’.

Here’s the thing. The Kentia palm (Lexus) costs  more than the the Majesty palm (Toyota), but it also looks ten times better, will last considerably longer, isn’t prone to as may pests and is a much better value in the long run. Not to mention that it just looks a lot better… did we say that already?

The bottom line here is that you have to think in terms of cost vs. effect.  Would you rather save a few dollars up front and a few dollars a month to have a plant that really dosesn’t look that great, is more prone to pests and really won’t project the high quality image of your company or would you rather spend minimally more in the long run and project the quality image that you’ve worked so hard to nurture.

Our objective here at FosterPlants isn’t to sell or lease you something that you don’t need or don’t want, it’s to provide you with the absolutely best value that’s within your budget  and provide your FosterPlants with the on-going horticultural service that’s second-to-none!

Want the Toyota, we can sell you that (we like Toyotas), or prefer the Lexus, or something in between the two, we can sell you that too. We just can’t sell you the Toyota for the price of the Lexusand we’ll never try to pull a switch on you!

Not all plants are created equal. Nor are all Interior Plantscape companies.

We’d love to show you the difference between “us” and “them”.

For a complimentary consultation, just call Steve Foster at 877.647.1782 or in Miami-Dade 305.251.7383

Here we are, it’s the first week of 2010 and the lobby of your building looks kind of  old and tired!

As you know, the commercial real estate market isn’t what it was a few years ago here in Miami and as the manager of your building, you know that you must do everything in your power to retain your existing tenants and attract new ones.

Budgets are tight though and you don’t have a “lobby makeover” in the budget for quite some time. What to do?

Give us a call right now and we’ll provide you with a complimentary consultation to show you how the addition of some FosterPlants™ and AwesomePlanters™ to your lobby will give you a BIG bang for your buck and show your tenants and prospects that your building intends to do whatever it takes to stay in the game.

Lease or purchase your FosterPlants™ and AwesomePlanters™ and with our Professional & Guaranteed Horticultural Service Program, your Plants will always look as terrific as they did on the day that we installed them. Guaranteed!

For a nominal fee, which will be applied to your installation, we can even provide you with digital imaging of your space that will show you exactly what it will look like with your FosterPlants™ and AwesomePlanters™ installed. How cool is that!

Call now to Make Your Space Green.

Steve Foster / 305.962.0990 Direct

Can you believe it’s almost the first business Day of the New Year!

As we embark on the journey that will be 2010, we’ll also be  embarking on the journey of Blogging.

Our Blog will focus mostly on telling you about new and exciting products and services that we’ll be introducing throughout the year and from time to time we’ll tell you about industry developments that affect the Interior Plantscape Industry and the Design/Architecture Communities in general.

So let’s get going!

For the past several months we’ve been working furiously on our new Online Planter Store that we’ve named Awesome Planters. AwesomePlanters will carry the widest selection of… you guessed it… awesome planters available anywhere!  Shipping on most items will be FREE in the Continental United States. Discounts will range from 10 to 20% off of our list prices and we’ll be constantly adding new items as the shop develops.

AwesomePlanters will also carry cool  site furnishings, accessories, fire pits and water features.

You can take a peek at AwesomePlanters at www.interiorplantscaper.com/planters.htm

Let us know what you think and Happy New Year!