When a rockstar interiorscaper gives a talk, you listen. That’s why I attended Cityscapes Founder Jan Goodman’s talk, “What’s Next: Emerging Trends Shaping the Future of Interiorscaping,” at Cultivate’26 in Columbus, Ohio, a couple of weeks ago. I’ve heard versions of this talk before, but new emerging trends are always emerging, right?

Before I share three of those trends with you, I’ll touch briefly on what overall shift Jan has seen over the last two to three years:

1. A reimaging of shared and public spaces
2. The wellness prerogative
3. Educated clients

“Plantscapers who understand will win,” she added.

Immersive wellness rooms/spaces. These are rooms that have been “nature-fied” and turned into lush spaces of greenery with tropical plants, living walls, nature sounds, low lighting and so forth. These have been quite popular within healthcare facilities and corporate offices. Employees can book time in these rooms, and Jan says that they are often fully booked! Top tip: Turn the grow lights on at night when the building is closed.

Plant parties and workshops. You’ve heard of events and companies such as Paint Nights and Plant Nights. Plantscaping companies can get in on this, too. Pitch these parties and workshops to be hosted to your corporate clients. It’s not a huge effort, and Jan said these events brought in an extra $100,000 last year.

Plant-integrated furniture. Jan pointed out that offices are shrinking and plants need to earn their space. Furniture that incorporates plants does double duty. Jan believes in this so much that Cityscapes has created their own line of “Living Fernature”—coffee tables with glass tops and plants underneath and boardroom tables with planting spaces in the middle are just two examples.

I could only stay for half of the session, but I am sure I would have jotted down more gems from Jan had I stayed.

Speaking of interiorscapers, this next item would be a great product for folks supplying the interiorscaping category. While walking the Cultivate trade show floor, I spotted this soilless plug-in for living walls from Heart of Florida Greenhouses. An Oasis product, these are either 3.5- or 5-in. cubes into which you root living wall-appropriate plants. Arrange them in a living wall frame. Here’s the cool thing about it—if something goes awry with the cube or the plants within one cube, simply take one that one cube and replace it.

Heart of Florida’s Austin Bryant told me you can stick about eight cuttings into the 3.5-in. cube and about 12 in the 5-in. cube. Those numbers create a dense canopy that cover the cube surface when grown out.

But wait, there’s another use! Austin sees these as having a florist application, too. He said that you could create a tray-based, three-tiered floral display. First, before I explain the floral display, did you know that many foliage plants have colorful roots? Sansevieria roots, for instance, are orange when they are healthy (who knew?!). With that in mind, the first tier of this floral display would be a row of these cubes showing their roots. The next tier up would be the foliage of those plants, and the third tier, whose cubes would be hidden behind the second tier, would be cut flowers. And when this arrangement has done its job, the plants can be grown on. Just put one 5-in. cube into a 6-in. pot and fill with 1 in. of Vulkaponic media. Voila.

Heart of Florida is still in the testing phase, and Austin said they are trying a number of different plants in these cubes.

Stay tuned—there’s more on this to come!

For you retailers of tropicals and foliage plants, I have a new plant-adjacent product line for you. It’s leafjoy’s houseplant soils. Two of them, in fact.

The Airy Root Blend is formulated for Aroids. In fact, you can’t see it in the photo but at the bottom it says this product is appropriate for monstera, philodendron, alocasia, anthurium and others. The Professional Houseplant Mix lists hoya, fern, pothos, begonia, ficus and more. They are marketing these soils as the stuff the professional growers use—so of course you will be successful with it, too.

Notice the bottom third of the bag. It has a clear window so the consumer can see the product and the difference between the two. Smart move.

I’m also told that a foliar plant food will be joining the “Itt” line of Shine-Itt and Climb-Itt. It’ll be called Feed-Itt.

I’ll have more from Cultivate in the next issue.

I’ve written about my love of the “How I Built This Podcast” here before. So many good business creation stories and so much to apply to one’s own experience! On a recent edition of the show’s “Advice Line” segment—where fairly new business owners call in for advice—I heard the story of Andrew Graff, the founder of PlantAmika and a product that fits into our own tropical plant and foliage industry. At the end of the episode Andrew said he was looking for some honest feedback about his creation from garden retailers and those in the houseplant world. “Hey, I know some people!” I said to myself and reached out.

Adam was thrilled to share the news about his product with all of you. So, I’m going to let Adam describe what he’s offering and how he came up with the idea.

“PlantAmika is a scented plant-care product designed to be sprinkled onto the soil and activated with watering. Made with ingredients including chitosan, sodium alginate, and essential oils, it was created to make plant care feel more sensory, beautiful, and intentional,  while offering garden centers a new kind of add-on product for houseplant customers.

“The idea came from my own experience caring for plants and feeling like the ritual could be more elevated. We spend so much time thinking about how our homes look, but scent and plant care are usually treated separately. PlantAmika brings those two things together in a way that feels natural, simple and beautiful.

“For garden centers, I see PlantAmika as an easy add-on product for houseplant shoppers, gift buyers and customers interested in home fragrance, plant care, and wellness-inspired living. I would especially love feedback from retailers on packaging, scent preferences, display opportunities and whether this feels like a product their houseplant customers would respond to.

“Current scents include Lavender and Lemon Eucalyptus. The product is used by sprinkling it onto the soil, watering it in, and reapplying every 4–6 weeks. It is currently available direct-to-consumer through plantamika.com, and I am open to retailer feedback, wholesale conversations, and guidance from people in the trade as I continue to grow.”

I like the idea of combining houseplants and scents, seeing that not a lot of houseplants have fragrant flowers. And as he said, he’s hoping for some feedback. He just told me he is nearly sold out of stock (good for him!) and will have more available in about a month. And if you can wait even longer, he says he’s hoping to exhibit at PlantCon in Dallas in October.

If you click over to plantamika.com and hit the Contact Us, you can drop him a message that you are interested in testing it out.

If you’re interested in listening to Andrew’s segment on “How I Built This,” you can do so HERE—he’s the third of three that call in.

Good luck, Andrew!