You’ll recall my write-up of Chris Beytes’ and my visit with David Bache, sales director for Garden Industries. We visited the Loxahatchee, Florida, nursery back in January on our way to TPIE. It was a great nursery with a plethora of unique, oh-I-gotta-have-those tropical landscape and patio plants. And David was an entertaining host with as many stories to tell as he had cool specimens to show us.

Maybe I glowed over our visit a little too much. “Due to numerous requests,” a press release from David informs us, Garden Industries has developed a shipping program to get those high-quality, unusual varieties to your doors. It’s not just unusual stuff they have, either. As you’ll remember from a previous Tropical Topics, they focus on rare, uncommon and heirloom varieties. These are tropical varieties not for folks who want to keep up with the Joneses, but who want their landscapes, patios and pools to be adorned with topiaries, aroids, trees, succulents and pollinator plants that their neighbors don’t have.

David Bache shows Laurie Beytes and I some of the cool plants they have in a shadehouse at Garden Industries.

Said David in the press release, “While it was not our original intention to enter the shipping market, the demand from around the world for our plants has been a revelation. It just makes sense to work with clients who appreciate what we do and what we grow.” At the bottom of his email to me with this new shipping information, David wrote, “It’s all your fault.” That was a joke, or at least I think it was.

Garden Industries focuses on providing unique tropicals and other unusual plants to IGCs, botanical gardens and zoos, and is now certified to ship via reputable transport. Interested? Give David a shout at sales@gardenind.com.  

Monstera deliciosa is everywhere. Not just the plant itself, but the images of its Swiss cheese-holed leaves appear on clothing, linens, wallpaper, totes, you name it. Plus its form appears as bookends, paperweights, tchotchkes. I have yet another Chris Beytes reference for you; he just saw monstera leaves decorating the booth of a clothing pill-remover device at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago, Illinois, two weekends ago (click HERE to see it). No relation between monstera and a pill-removing device at all, but the marketing manager just really liked the image. So there.

A monstera we spotted at Garden Industries. Still going strong in 2019!

J Schwanke confirmed that monstera was the foliage plant—both pot form and cut foliage form—for 2018, and continues to rule the roost in 2019 with no end in sight. This week I spoke to J, president of J Schwanke Productions, ubloom.com, and a fourth-generation florist, not about monstera, but what tropical plant might be coming along to knock monstera off its No. 1 perch. Here’s how he positioned monstera’s closest competition:

—Monstera is paving the way for other large-leafed and large-scale tropicals such as banana leaves, elephant ears, selloum, fatsia and large palms such as areca palm and palmetto.

—Ferns are gaining traction. Ones to watch for are Rumohra adiantiformis (aka leatherleaf, which J predicts/hopes will be “rebranded” as R. adiantiformis instead), maiden hair, ostrich plume and Australian umbrella, just to name a few.

—Don’t count out succulents and tillandsias, which are still very strong. J sees these as being very popular with the Generation Z crowd, mainly because you just can’t kill them. Succulents and tillandsias have been popular for going on 10 years now, which means they are beyond trend and now have established traction.

J Schwanke says to keep an eye on the popularity of ferns. Michael's Nursery in Boynton Beach, Florida, had a ton of them when we visited in January.

What do you say about J’s up-and-comers list? Anything to add or knock off? Drop me a line about it at ewells@ballpublishing.com.  

I read a great piece in Business News Daily about the next generation stepping into the U.S. workforce, what we’re calling Generation Z, or Gen Z for short. While you think you’re in the clear because you figured out your Millennial workforce, it’s time to consider how Gen Z is unique and different.

Here are a few points the article makes:

• Gen Z was born between 1997 and 2002. (As an aside, notice how the range of birth years seems to be compressing with each subsequent generation, sort of akin to how technology is advancing more quickly every 18 months.)
• Gen Z will comprise 24% of the global workforce by 2020 (Next year! Wow!)
• 75% expect to be fast-tracked for promotion in their first job after just one year, and 32% expect the promotion within six months.
• 69% say they’d rather work at a stable job than one they are passionate about, which differs from the general Millennial wish to find a job that makes them happy. They also want development opportunities and don’t want to lose time on unrelated/administrative tasks.
• 89% expect constant feedback from managers but 54% were afraid to ask for assistance.
• 26% were afraid they’d make the wrong career choice.
• 80% said they believed they needed a bachelor’s degree to get a job they want and only 30% were confident they could repay their student loans.  

I have a new book to recommend for you on designing with those tropicals and houseplants we love so much. "Living Décor: Plants, Potting and DIY Projects," written by Maria Colletti (available from Cool Springs Press) helps readers take those monsteras and mosses, fiddleleaf figs and ferns, succulents and such and enliven one’s living spaces.

Not only does the book discuss appropriate houseplants, it also has a number of DIY projects, such as hanging houseplant chandeliers, moss jar gardens and succulent centerpieces. As the press release for the book states, “There’s more to living with plants than simply bringing home a houseplant.” For sure! Whether it’s for your own edification or for your customers, there’s a lot to get out of "Living Décor." Wholesale orders can be arranged through Nichole Schiele at The Quarto Group. .. . 

I’ve shared Green Plants for Green Buildings’ The LivingPlant videos here with you a while back. And I have a quick update. The “TedTalk”-style video was selected as one of 11 short films to be screened as part of the Rainforest Partnership’s 2019 Films for the Forest Series at the SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas, earlier in March. Too cool!

GPGB’s president Mike Seneff was there for the screening and reported that, while The LivingPlant video was shown about halfway through the 11 screenings, it was the first one that garnered clapping and cheering. Said GPGB’s Mary Golden about the showing, “When Mike told me this, I felt it validated the approach we took with our message: That humor stimulates the brain in a way that makes our information more memorable.”

Keep that in mind if and when you create your own videos!