Linnaea Newman

The Guide to Interior Landscape Specifications, 5th Edition, ALCA (PLANET)

Although this drawing depicts how many interior landscapers have been installing interior foliage plants for years, it contains one significant ommission.  It does not depict how to keep plants from sinking into the planters as the well-drained soilless media used in them compacts and decomposes.

It’s springtime, and all the new installations I’m traveling to inspect  look great, with planters full of soilless medium and brand new plants.  However, without a method of preventing the plants from sinking, they AND the soilless medium will be 6" below the planter rim within a year, as in the photo below.  This palm tree has a 14" liner wrapped around its trunks, 4" sticking above the medium, and 10" below the soil, which has sunken beneath the plants.  Duration of installation, 2 years.   

Since exterior landscapers have faced this problem for more years than we’ve been operating indoors, they have devised a method of preventing this problem by using proper planting methods (see previous post).  We can do likewise, so stay tuned for the solution.

Above are photos depicting the proper steps given to exterior landscapers for plant installation.  Simple and direct, the instructions can be followed even without wording as long as the installation person can look at the pictures.  Proper Interior planting is no different, other than we use soilless medium in our interior settings.  What one major flaw could we eliminate in our installations that would give interior plantscape designs a much better chance of survival?  

Spending on Employee Training Remains Stable

According to Leah Carlson,
Employee Benefit News

"Corporate investment in employee training has remained constant, while technology use in training programs has grown, partly due to the expanding size and scope of some businesses.

That’s the main message from the American Society for Training & Development’s latest report. The organization’s survey of 344 employers yielded these key findings:

• Technology-based programs were expected to account for 29.4% of employee training last year, up from 23.6% the previous year.
• Employers expected to spend about $812 per employee on training last year, which is similar to previous years.
• Employers expected to provide about 30 hours of training per employee last year, up from 26 the previous year.
• Management, IT and business practices were among the most common training topics last year.

A recent EBN Quickpoll garnered similar results. About 32% of respondents said they use technology very often to deliver training programs, while 38% said they use it sometimes, and 30% said they don’t use it.

Brenda Sugrue, ASTD’s senior director of research explains, “Investing in employee learning continues to be a priority for business leaders. Organizations are linking learning to performance and the bottom line, and they understand the relationship between creating a skilled workforce and achieving enterprise-wide success. … The perceived and demonstrated value of training is increasing.”

"The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away." 

Dr. Linus Pauling, American theoretical chemist and biologist 1901-94

If you have ever been challenged for a time and cost effective means to relase "Crypts" into large interiorscape plantings, try this: Find a long bamboo or wooden pole with an approximate diameter of three-sixteenths to one-quarter-inch; insert one end of the pole through the pre-manufactured hole in the Green Methods (@ greenmethods.com)  jar lids and into the jar of beetles, being careful not to injure any of them.  The beetles will climb up the pole to the other end, which should be tucked into the target plant or tree’s foliage. 

If it’s not too hot, they may fly off the pole, but should still make it to the foliage — eventually.  Everyone I’ve told of this technique and encouraged  to try it has reported excellent results. I now suggest this dispersal method to everyone.  Now, isn’t this fun?

Last advisory: don’t wear white (or yellow) clothing when you’re releasing C. montrouzieri. They are attracted to white and light colors and may find YOU irresistible.  To avoid catching the beneficial beetles on any yellow sticky traps you may be using, remove traps from the site temporarily.

Tacca chantrieri

Now here’s an exotic flower from TPIE 2007.  As Barb Helfman and I toured the ever expanding show, we both agreed the purplish-black, whiskered "Bat Flower" was one of the more interesting that could be added to a BLOOMING PLANT program.  The Tacca leaves resemble a Spathiphyllum at first glance, but this plant is unrelated, first being given its own class botanically, the Taccaceae, and more recently being added to the yam family, Dioscoreaceae. 

Although the flowers must be staked, like orchids, to remain upright, they will last several months with adequate water and light.  I recommend trying them on Sippers subirrigation pegs to avoid premature wilting.  Currently they are available from sales@greendalenursery.com.  And please let me know what you think!

Fresh attitudes, fresh ideas!  That’s truly the value of TPIE 2007.  Leslie and Stacey from The David J. Frank Company of Milwaukee, WI joined me for questions on the floor at TPIE. 

The topic?  Mealybug and its beneficial predator Cryptolaemus, complete from "Hot Times for Mealybug in the Night." on my web page.  Ah-h-h, the marvel of modern technology!

Drop me a comment and I’ll be happy to fill you in on all the good stuff I saw at the show.

Cheers!

If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."

~Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italian writer, 1896-1957)

The 2007 Tropical Plant Industry Exposition starts tomorrow at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Not only is the timing a shot in the arm after the big, holiday push, but tropical plants and sunshine are a big boost to my creativity in the middle of winter.

Let’s see what new plants are available this year, and maybe a few new twists on old, familiar favorites.  New equipment?  Containers?  Everything a plantscaper needs to kick start the business into the new year.

I will be speaking on "The Fundamentals–what every technician should know" on Friday morning from 9:00-11:00 AM, and I hope to see many of my old friends there, as well as meeting many new ones.  Come up to me and tell me you saw my invitation on this web site, and collect a fantastic prize.  I hope to see you there!