Sometimes there is a topic so important that we repeat it across Ball Publishing’s multiple e-newsletters. COVID-19 has generated at least one issue that seems aptly placed in the “we can’t say this enough” bin of topics, and that issue is greenhouse safety, health and sanitation. Whether during, emerging from or continuing ever onward after this pandemic, the safety of staff and customers has never changed on a dime so dramatically, and has never been as much a matter of life and death as it is now. And that’s even before you start the tow tractor. So, if you’ve seen this in one of our other e-newsletter, good. We’re meaning to hammer home the point of safety and sanitation.

Our own Bill Calkins pulled together some best practices he gleaned on the topic from a variety of sources, including from a conversation he had for a podcast he conducted with folks from some major greenhouse operations—Abe Van Wingerden of Metrolina and Jeff Back of Four Star. Here are some of the major points for your consideration as we work through and work after this virus crisis:

• DO NOT ask your existing staff to do the extra cleaning—hire a crew or talk to your normal cleaning/janitorial crew to add additional staff. They will most likely have people available with so many other businesses closed.
• Keep in mind that if you try to rely on your staff to clean up or delegate, it may not last long.
• Have isopropyl alcohol and hand sanitizer/cleaner available for human use.
• Use Quat disinfectant cleaner or 3% bleach solution for surfaces and equipment.
• Watch all touchpoints—handles, seats, knobs, microwaves and time clocks.
• Remove lids from trash cans and prop open doors.
• Limit the number of people in bathrooms.
• Reduce chairs in your break room to nine or fewer.
• Use tape on the floor to indicate safe distancing.
• Best practices should start with management, who should wear masks and eliminate face-to-face meetings with multiple people.
• Encourage staff to clean all personal tools, including phones, frequently.
• Ask your staff to give input on areas to be cleaned.
• Encourage managers to check in with employees frequently—how are they feeling?
• Don’t punish staff for missing work if they feel ill, or they won’t take precautions.
• Hand out masks, bandanas, face coverings—don’t make staff buy their own.
• Many of these precautions should stay in place past the pandemic.
• Operations should expect to answer questions from prospective employees about their health and safety measures now and into the future.

That podcast I mentioned above is actually a video podcast (ESPN style) and is available for watching on the GrowerTalks YouTube channel HERE. It’s got a great PowerPoint, too, as evidenced here.

Bill conducted this podcast interview as part of the Greenhouse Tech Team, a private Facebook group moderated by Ball Horticultural Co. Are you a member? If you have a production greenhouse, then you should be. Search for Greenhouse Tech Team on Facebook and send a request to join the collaboration.

This just in: Chris Beytes conducted his own video podcast interview about greenhouse/COVID sanitation tools, techniques and tips with Kurt Becker of Dramm. You can watch it HERE.

A few weeks ago I asked about your top-selling houseplants as part of some research for someone. Gary Hunter of Gary’s Specialty Plants wrote in with his 10 top sellers for 2019. Those are:

• String of Dolphins
• Chinese Money Plant
• String of Peas Senecio
• Peperomia Raindrop
• Aloe
• Peperomia Hope
• String of Hearts
• Blue Job’s Tears
• Neanthe Bella Palm
• Watermelon Peperomia

Gary grows these as 2 ½-in. pots and sells them wholesale to upscale IGCs and e-commerce outlets.

What’s selling now? Not a heck of a lot, Gary said. Business dropped off when the stay-at-home orders began nationwide. That’s especially true of the brick-and-mortar customers. His online customers have the problem of not being able to keep up with demand, so those have been his major orders. Once garden retailers open to (socially distanced) foot traffic, Gary suspects those houseplant sales will pick back up. Houseplants are different from a flat of pansies, after all. Folks like to touch them, gauge the size and all the rest. They’ll be housemates with the houseplants, after all.

Anyone out there that can speak to Gary’s experience? Or counter it? Drop me a line about it at ewells@ballpublishing.com.

I tuned into AmericanHort’s Women In Horticulture webinar series this week to listen to an interview with recently retired interior planstscaper and businesswoman Kathy Fediw. During the interview I learned that she is one of two 2020 inductees into the Interior Plantscape Hall of Fame. Kathy had been in the industry as an interiorscape consultant, author, trainer and speaker for 40 years until her retirement in 2019. Her love of plants started at Penn State University and after that she worked for Plantscape, Inc. in Pittsburgh, then Nature in Texas. She eventually became a consultant and also editor of the I-Plants online magazine while also writing for other trade journals and penning several training manuals and books for the trade. Kathy gave back to the industry in another form, too—serving on the boards of OFA/AmericanHort, Green Plants for Green Buildings and a number of others.

What struck me about Kathy’s interview was the selflessness in her response to the question, “What would bring you out of retirement?” She’s given everything she can, she said, and in order for younger industry members to truly shine it was time for her to step aside. As for advice she’d give her 25 year-old self, she was quick with a response: “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes.” I ditto that!

You can listen to the archived version HERE. Scroll down beneath the "upcoming webinars" section to find it.

The other 2020 Hall of Fame inductee is David Korstad, another 40+ year veteran of the industry. David joined the family business Sedgefield Landscape Nursery, which eventually became Sedgefield Interior Landscape, with its first client being a Westinghouse Corporation facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1969. In 1976 he moved to Georgia to open another division of Sedgefield Landscape Nursery, at which he worked his way up to president. Semi-retired today, David has served on a number of industry boards—AILA, ALCA-ILD/IPD—alphabet soup! He was also instrumental in the creation of the Foliage Clean Air Council, the forerunner of Green Plants for Green Buildings.

Congratulations, you two! It’s so awesome that you’re receiving this recognition for your contributions to this industry. Well deserved!

The above is an excellent segue to a video that Mary Golden of the Green Plants for Green Buildings organization shared with me this week. The video shows the reaction of a woman—a frontline health care worker—as she receives her very first houseplant during a plant giveaway. Take a look and see if you don’t smile (click on the image to watch).

Cool, huh? Her enthusiasm for her first plant is contagious. The giveaway was coordinated by the San Diego-based plantscaping company The Good Earth Plant Company with product from growers Olive Hill Greenhouses, Leucadia Nursery and Florabunda Nursery as a day-brightener for healthcare workers at Grossmont Healthcare District. And it looks like it was part of the #StayPlanted plant giveaway campaign that I told you folks about in the April 22 edition of Tropical Topics. They gave away about $35,000 worth of product, too! Way to get in on the campaign, Good Earth!

Have you seen the May issues of GrowerTalks and Green Profit? We coordinated both sides of the magazine—grower and retailer—around the topic of houseplants! Right up your alley, for sure.

If it hasn’t dropped into your physical mailbox yet, you can access the digital versions by clicking on the images above. And please do send me your feedback! Drop me a note at ewells@ballpublishing.com.