The impact of tired office plants

It is commonly accepted that the greening of office interiors has many positive spin-offs for companies. Plants offer physical health benefits as well as emotional and mental health benefits, so it is in the office’s best interests to keep their plants healthy too.

Even though office plant services endeavour to place robust vegetation in buildings, plants can begin to look tired. Just like office employees, if they are not treated in the correct manner they will take strain and signs of stress will become evident with dead leaves, dull colouring and an overall drooped appearance.

In the same way that sitting on a grubby couch makes one feel uncomfortable, being surrounded by plants that look on the verge of collapsing is also highly uninspiring. If the principle of having luscious healthy plants is to promote well being, then the plants best set a good example. Likewise, if the plant is looking ill it is quite likely that it is not adequately performing its roll in providing health benefits either.

Using a professional office plants service ensures that plants do not ever reach such a dire state within your office walls. Servest Office Plant technicians are specifically trained to promote plant health, and as such are very conscious of their particular needs.

The Art of Giving

Humans by nature are giving beings. We like to show our appreciation for people’s efforts by saying thank you, and quite often we like to back up our words with gifts. However, in the corporate realm it can be a little challenging to come up with gift ideas that are appropriate for clients, staff or work acquaintances.

Servest Office Plants’ Alternatives Division offers a corporate gift service that makes the art of giving suitable gifts a breeze for everyone. With a full range of plants, Bonsais, cut flowers and hampers; we have a number of gift ideas that will be fully appreciated by any person on the receiving end.

Different Clients, Different Needs, Different Solutions

At Servest Office Plants our job involves orchestrating the interactions of three main elements: plants, buildings and people. By the very nature of being in the service industry, we deal with a huge variety of clients and their associated office buildings, and it is this diversity that provides scope to be creative in our work. Essentially, our range of clients is a large part of what makes our work so enjoyable.

Every building we deal with is unique, and consequently every potential job is an equally unique case study. Buildings vary in size and shape, can be north or south facing, have poor or strong natural light, offer great ventilation vs. minimal air flow; and all of these factors affect plant health. While our clients may see the office purely as a place of work, we see it as a potential new home for our plants.

To start off each case study we analyse the ambient environment, daytime and night time temperatures, lighting and humidity of the office building. This allows us to make educated recommendations regarding plants and containers, selections of which are chosen through the client’s budget and specific tastes.

Our five favourite office plants

Although we’re a fan of office plants in general and work with over 60 types of plants and trees, when it all comes down to it we have a few that are our ‘go to guys’ in terms of their ability to thrive in office environments as well as being rather easy on the eye.

Starting with the family Dracaena, there are three varieties that have proved incredibly successful in office environments. They are known for their air cleansing properties, in particular for removing formaldehyde from ambient surroundings and are perfectly happy in low and medium light environments.

Interior Plants for special events

Flowers and plants have formed the basis of special events decorating for thousands of years. In fact the earliest record of formal decorative flower use goes back to 2500 BCE and the creative thinking of the ancient Egyptians! Forever a timeless classic, interior plants are appropriate decorations for any occasion.

During the year, the office calendar inevitably becomes packed with events that range from strictly business such as conferences and workshops; to formal and casual social events. Think of a company awards ceremony, the Christmas party, the 20th anniversary of being in business, farewells and retirements.

Indoor Plants for any Office

Although offices in general are corporate spaces, they come in many different shapes and sizes. Each office building has a different feeling, and each room within the building is made unique by people, personalities, interior decorating and of course plants.

Some offices tend to steer towards a very clean, straight down-the-line look and do not want plants to prove distracting. Moreover they may be purely interested in the health benefits of the plants rather than the aesthetics. For a simple solution, choosing something like a Kentia Palm or a Boston Fern are good options, with uncomplicated plant foliage and a single shade of green.

If an office is after something a little more interesting, Syngonium is an understated plant, with delicate heart shaped green and white leaves. While they can still be unobtrusive, they are certainly not dull.

Keeping it local: From the Farm to your Office

“Local is lekker!” An expression usually reserved for promoting South African goods over imported goods, how often do we think of extending this sensible logic to our office greenery? While you’re scanning packaging to make sure your spinach is not from Guatemala, do you know where your office plants really come from?

At Servest Office Plants, we are the proud growers of 65% of the plant material that we supply into your office. In the warm climate of Malelane lies a total of 20 luscious hectares where all our plants are grown, after which they are moved to a 10 hectare acclimatisation facility in Muldersdrift and finally to our regional distribution centres.

Most of the interior plants that we produce are grown from cuttings and live with their roots firmly tucked in the fertile Mpumulanga soil for three to four years. Whilst in the great outdoors they are shaped, then transplanted into containers and acclimatised at our Malelane operation for six to eight months.

Interior Plantscaping - The Art of Office Plants

We love Plantscaping. Plantscaping? Never heard that word before? Don’t worry, it’s not that commonly used outside of the circle of landscaping and interior design, but it is certainly something that gets us at Servest Office Plants very excited!

Plantscaping is used interchangeably with the terms ‘interior landscaping’ and ‘interiorscaping’, but essentially all three of these definitions mean the same thing. Quite literally it is the design, arrangement and care for living plants within a closed environment.

One might think that simply placing indoor plants inside a building and calling it landscaping is a little extreme, but it is actually quite a lot more complicated than that.

The Serious Business of Containers

One of the wonderful things about the myriad different businesses and offices out there is the way in which work spaces all manifest uniquely. Even in an office park where buildings can look identical on the outside, their interiors will be completely different from furniture choices to the container in which the office greenery is planted.

Container or ‘planter’ design is a very unusual and creative sect of interior design. In fact it’s very hard to say what is and isn’t trendy in terms of office style planters, as a business is only limited by its budget and how far it’s willing to push the envelope.

For large companies continuity throughout the office building is important, and as such choosing simple and effective designs is first prize.

Containers are also a way of making subtle statements, especially in South Africa where traditional clay pot work has influenced the aesthetics of the more durable cast pots we use today.

The Language of Flowers

The beauty of flowers has always entranced human beings, eliciting all kinds of emotional responses from people. These emotions are often linked to our most basic psychologies surrounding the meaning associated with colours and shapes. During the Victorian era this emotional element was formalized as flowers became a means of communication known as the language of flowers, or floriography, in which various flowers and floral arrangements were used to send coded messages. This allowed people to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken.

Although many of the intricacies of the language have been lost to time, a lot of the meanings have survived to this day. For instance, red roses still symbolise passionate romance (as any florist will attest to on Valentines Day) daisies signify innocence or purity, and a daffodil represents regard or esteem. According to www.languageofflowers.com, "Today, 'Language of Flowers' brings back the romance, beauty and authenticity of tradition often missing in a fast paced world. Who couldn't use a little more soul calming beautiful flower tradition in their lives to share with friends and loved ones?" And for that matter, work colleagues…