"Hibiscus" by George Eastman House

You have just installed a beautiful plantscape into a new office complex.  The owner is pleased with the new, pleasant, green, atomsphere you have created in their workspace, and is looking forward to the improved morale and health of the employees. However, just two weeks after you have left your plantscape behind, it is looking dingy and dull. It is covered in dust!

It is important that proud new owners of interiorscapes, have a clear understanding of the care involved in including plants in their spaces. One of those aspects of care is fighting dust. Why bother to fight dust on something that grows in soil? It is important in order to maintain the health of the plant, the health of the environment in the building, and  to reflect the beauty that you initially created.

Why Fight Dust?

If the plant is covered in dust, it’s natural processes for survival are hindered. Gardeners.com states this about the negative impact of dust on houseplants,

“Dust and grime on houseplants doesn’t just look bad; it is also bad for the health of the plant. Dust clogs the “pores” of plant leaves, making it difficult for the plant to respirate. In addition, dust filters sunlight before it reaches the plant, decreasing the amount of photosynthesis the plant can undertake. Dust and grime can also attract and harbor spider mites and other insect pests.”

One of the greatest benefits of growing plants indoors is cleaner air.  If the plants are gathering dust, they are having a more difficult time contributing to clean air and can aggrivate dust allergies.

Finally dust will simply make your beautiful plants look dingy. The very thing that is supposed to brighten an indoor environment can suddenly contribute to the feeling of dullness.

How to Fight Dust

So how do you or your client fight the dust on your interior plants? It can be as simple as wiping them off. If the plants have broad, sturdy leaves, you can use a cloth to wipe off the leaves individually. If  the plant has smaller, more delicate leaves, you can use a soft brush to remove the dust.

Newpro Containers has several products that can help you or your clients easily accomplish this. The Cleaning Mitt Mega Paw, can be used to easily wipe away dust from large, broadleaf plants. The Cleaning Mitt Mini Paw can be used on smaller plants. For fast, in between cleanings, and the smaller, more delicate plants you can use a feather duster.  To prevent dust from building up you can use Pokon Leaf Shinning Aerosol Spray.

No matter what tools you use, it is important that your clients understand how to care for their plants. They must know the negative effects of dust on their plants and be informed about the safest ways to clean them.   Clients will continue to be satisfied if their plants continue to be healthy and beautiful.

How do you inform your clients about proper maintenance and care of their plantscapes. What tools do you use to fight dust on your plants?

“Hibiscus” Image courtesy of George Eastman House

Vase avec bouquet courtesy of Bibliothèque de Toulouse

As an interiorscaper, you appeal to people’s senses to create business. You are often hired because people are missing a certain aesthetic quality from their business, office building, meeting room or home.  A challenge to finding new clients may be that potential clients do not know what they are missing, or do not have a vision for how an interior plantscape could drastically improve the quality of their surroundings. This is when you can make pictures work for you.

Taking Pictures

You can start by carefully documenting your previous work. Take detailed pictures of the plantscapes you have designed. Before and after pictures are a great way to show off your skill for transforming spaces from plain to beautiful.  While the focus of your pictures should be the plantscapes you have created, pictures with people that appear happy, content, and productive also send a subtle, yet powerful message to your potential clients.

 Today’s digital camaras make it easy for amatuers to take quality pictures, which makes using pictures a very cost effective marketing tool.  However, you may consider hiring a professional photographer to capture some of your best work.  If you hire a professional, make sure that the photographer agrees to letting you use digital files of the pictures. You will want to be able to use these photos in various media outlets.

Using Your Pictures

How will you pass on these pictures to potential clients?  One option is to have a physical portfolio. You can take a well designed portfolio to potential clients and this will reflect positively on your design skills. While physical photographs should not be neglected and are important for one on one meetings with potential clients, you should also consider using other media outlets to augment your visibility.

Your Website

The most important media outlet is your website. This is your face to the world. Today, many people find what they are looking for on the internet instead of in the yellow pages or through traditional advertising. If you have interesting, unique pictures on your website, this will immediately grab the attention of a potential client.  Consider using different textures, colors, and shapes to convey your versitility to your clients. Here are some other things to consider as you think about your website. Is your contact information clearly visible?  Is it obvious from your home page what your business is and what you do? Are you being found in search engines? If you are having trouble with the last question, this blog post from Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival is an excellent resource. It has great tips for making your business, via your website, visible on the internet. 

Other Media Outlets

Another great place for displaying your pictures to potential clients is Flickr.com you can create albums of your pictures to share with your potential clients and to increase your chances of being found online. Be sure to use your business name and keywords from your industry or location when you are labeling your pictures and albums.

Don’t forget about Facebook. People love the opportunity to see pictures and comment on them on Facebook. If you have a Facebook page for your business, be sure to put up plenty of pictures, and encourage discussion around them by asking questions, and responding to comments made by your fans.

Other potential media outlets include Twitter, blogs, e-mails,  and newsletters. The more your potentail clients are able to see your work and what you do, the more they will understand what they are missing in their spaces.

If you have more questions about marketing on the internet, refer to this previous post.

What have you done to meet potential clients? How have you made pictures work for you? Do you have any pictures you are especially proud of? Send us a link in the comments!

Image “Vase avec bouquet” courtesy of  Bibliothèque de Toulouse.

As an interiorscaper, you are an artist. You transform plain indoor spaces into beautiful and interesting interior landscapes. You create a vision and turn that vision into a reality.  Your canvas is the office building, meeting space, apartment complex, or residential home, and your media are plants and their containers. As a creative individual, there are times when your ideas will run dry. There will be a space that eludes you and you will need inspiration. The following are seven ideas to turn to for inspiration as you seek to bring fresh and creative ideas to your clients.

Conservatory courtesy of The Field Museum Library

1) Conservatories

When is the last time you’ve taken a leisurely walk through your local conservatory? Bring your camera or sketchbook and as you see shapes and colors that catch your eye, record them so that you can remember what you have seen.

2) The Outdoors

When clients want to brighten their spaces with interior landscaping, they often have the idea of bringing the outdoors inside. Many of the plants that you would put indoors are not the same plants that are growing along a trail or in the woods. However, you can glean inspiration from the colors, shapes, smells and feel of the plants growing locally outside.

3) Flickr

Flickr is a website full of amateur photos that can be searched according to topics. Searching for certain plants, or shapes may give you some new ideas to implement..  If you want to inspire a certain geographical feel you could search places such as a mediterranean plants or mountain meadow.

4) Containers

Instead of starting with the plants you want and finding a container, start with your container. Find a container you love and that fits the space you are working with and then design a plantscape based on that particular container. Try starting with a container that is a unique shape or color, something different than what you have worked with in the past.

5) Art Museums

What is your favorite style of art? Is their a particular piece that you enjoy? If you wander around  art museums or galleries, perhaps something new will catch your attention. Can you use plants and containers to emulate the shapes, colors or mood of a certain piece of art.  How would you create a more modern art feel in your interiorscape? How would you emulate an romantic art feel in your interiorscape?

6) The Library

There are all varieties of books and magazines at the library. You can search for informational books on plants, books with pictures and designs, books in other genres that may inspire your work. Often, your home library has been picked over and no longer feels fresh with new ideas. Without spending any money on a new collection or the latest design ideas, you can glean the latest trends from magazines and books for free from your library.

7) Your Journals and Records

Do you have old sketches and designs you’ve kept from the past? Reviewing some of your old, forgotton or unused ideas may give you inspiration for new ideas. How can you use a new angle on something you’ve done in the past? Do you have a journal to keep track of ideas or visions you’ve had? If not, now is the time to start one. Then when inspiration strikes, you will not lose the great ideas you have now, but can’t use yet.

There are many places in the landscaping industry to turn for inspiration. What has inspired you? Where have you found fresh and new ideas?

"Yes! go green" by syahmir

“Go Green” is a popular catch phrase lately. We see it all around us. Large companies are talking about what they are doing to go green. Television commercials are telling us what we can do to be more green and stores are lining their shelves with green products. The public seems to be ready to support taking care of the planet.

What does this mean for the interiorscaping industry? As businesses strive to project a green image, they will turn to interior landscapes to create a healthy, natural ambiance. Indoor plants have many benefits from healthier psychological environments to improved air quality. Plants hold carbon, take in carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen. Whether they are indoors or out, plants are helping to improve our environment.

LEED Certification

One way that a business or organization can prove to the public that they are going green is a LEED certification. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council  (USGBC). According to the USGBC website,

“LEED promotes sustainable building and development practices through a suite of rating systems that recognize projects that implement strategies for better environmental and health performance. The LEED rating systems are developed through an open, consensus-based process led by LEED committees, diverse groups of volunteers representing a cross-section of the building and construction industry.”

Businesses can earn credits towards receiving various levels of LEED certification. The credits come from a variety of initiatives from energy and water conservation to construction materials. According to the USGBC,

“LEED is flexible enough to apply to all building types – commercial as well as residential. It works throughout the building lifecycle – design and construction, operations and maintenance, tenant fitout, and significant retrofit.”

Interiorscapes are one of the building considerations that can earn LEED credits. However, Green Plants for Green Buildings states,

“to date the USGBC’s LEED system does not yet offer a specified direct credit for the inclusion of plant programs. Within the current LEED section titled “Innovation in Design” it is possible for plants to be part of a specially developed use of plants or a the use of plants within a type of educational design.”

Green Plants for Green Buildings includes on their website a narrative regarding the planning and research that was submitted for the first indoor landscape to receive LEED credits.

The future of going green

As interior landscaping gains ground in earning LEED credits, businesses and organizations will benefit from being recognized as environmentally friendly. These businesses and organizations will be more and more likely to turn to interiorscapers to help them put their best green image forward. Interiorscapes not only have the potential to help earn certifications, they project a green image to the visitor and employee in the most literal sense. Beautiful indoor plantscapes will display what businesses and organizations value. Those that value the environment will attract a client base that values the environment and that population is growing considerably.

Have you helped clients earn any environmental certifications? How have you helped clients project a green image?

“Yes! go green” image courtesy of syahmir