For areas prone to drought, low water use plants could provide growers, retailers and landscapers with a steady revenue stream. An uncommon and valuable trial at the University of California, Davis provides the data needed to know which plants use the least amount of water in the landscape.

The UC Landscape Plant Irrigation Trial (UC LPIT) evaluates perennial landscape plants for two years and the plants’ performance is based on varied levels of reduced irrigation. Planted in the fall, the trial plants are established the first year with regular irrigation – roughly weekly during the summer with 8.3 gallons applied during each irrigation event.

By the second spring, the crew begins deficit irrigation at three levels based on percentages of what a well-watered, full-cover turfgrass surface 8-15cm in height uses (also called reference evapotranspiration or ETo), explains Karrie Reid, environmental horticulture advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension.

“We don’t let them dry out and the plants are watered deep that first year,” she says. “Our target is a ½ meter deep. And in the second year we only irrigate in the summer.”

During that second season, plants are irrigated with one of three different irrigation frequencies that correspond to the Water Use Classification of Landscape Species (WUCOLS IV, https://ucanr.edu/sites/WUCOLS) categories of low, moderate and high. These categories are based on percentages of reference evapotranspiration with local weather station data used for estimates.

In the second season, the crew waits to irrigate until 50% of the plant’s available water in the soil has been used up. The highest irrigation treatment in the heavy clay soil averages around every 10-14 days, Reid explains. And the lowest irrigation treatment typically equals about twice a summer.

“For a sandy soil, that irrigation treatment would be more frequent,” she adds.

At the end of two years, plants are rated for foliage quality, flower quantity, vigor, health and overall appearance. Height and width are measured monthly to calculate a growth index for each species at each irrigation level. Monthly plant growth measurements (l x h x w) are used to calculate a Plant Growth Index (PGI= [(l+w)/2 + h]/2).

Overall appearance, flowering time and duration, and pest or disease problems are rated monthly to provide a comprehensive assessment of performance, allowing the trial managers to make irrigation recommendations for these plants.

Plants are deemed low water use (20% ETo), moderate water use (50% ETo) and high water use (80% ETo).

The trial and the recommendations are a boon to green industry professionals in California because of the strict water use laws.

“The California state ordinance regarding landscape water conservation says that if you build a new landscape or renovate a landscape over a certain size, you have to calculate an estimate of the annual water use for that landscape,” says Loren Oki, UC Davis Plant Sciences faculty and Cooperative Extension Specialist. “To do that, you need species coefficients for irrigation management, but those coefficients exist for just over 4,000 plants, and there are an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 cultivars being used in California landscapes.”

There are currently two trial sites – the original at UC Davis and a second at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine. A Specialty Crops Block Grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture provided the funds to set up the duplicate trial in Southern California. The trial team was recently awarded a grant from the Horticultural Research Institute, the research arm of AmericanHort.

The Davis trials are in USDA Hardiness Zone 9b in full sun. All plants are trialed in silty, clay-loam soil, Reid says. Each plant is spaced either 2 or 3 meters apart based on planting recommendations from the breeder. Plants are protected by 3 inches of mulch and all are on drip irrigation. There are eight plants of each variety in the trials. In Irvine, the trials are made up of sandy soil and plants are irrigated with reclaimed water.

Photo courtesy of UC Davis

“We’re conducing the only irrigation-based plant trials,” Reid says. “In California, any time a new development or a permitted new landscape is approved, that project has to create a water budget based on the types of plants they use. WUCOLS is helpful, but it’s a static list as of now,” she says. “When the industry comes out with new plants every year, how can the developers and landscape professionals spec that plant if they don’t know its water needs?”

The trial staff wants to get the word to the green industry and explain the value of these ratings.

“There is tremendous value in identifying low water use plants that provide low water use lush to landscapes,” she says.

A more detailed website dedicated to the trials is in the works. For now, the industry and consumers can visit the UCLPIT Facebook page at www.facebook.com/UCLPIT.

Photo courtesy of UC Davis

Recently, five plants received the UC LPIT Blue Ribbon designation, the trial’s highest award for plants that consistently performed at a very high level on low water, or 20% of ETo. The Blue Ribbon goes to: Dietes ‘African Gold’, Lagerstroemia Delta Eclipse, Lagerstroemia ‘Purple Magic’, Rosa Pink Knock Out and Vitex Delta Blues. These plants received only two irrigations between April and October – on June 25 and August 20 – for a total of 5.6 inches of applied water, or 29 gallons per plant. On this sparse irrigation treatment, these plants rated at least 4 out of 5 possible points in the category Overall Appearance over the entire period.

You know you have a great product or service. And you may have lots of facts and figures and benefits to back up why you’re the best. But just throwing data at potential customers (even if it’s truly impressive data) won’t move them to buy. That’s because people don’t respond to logic. They respond to emotion. That’s why you’d better get good at storytelling — fast.

Stories create emotion, and emotion is what people remember. They help you engage and, more importantly, teach your audience. If you don’t tell a good story, your message will be lost in the media jungle.

Google processes more than 3.8 million searches per minute. That’s a lot of people looking for answers. This is happening because the way people buy has changed. People no longer respond to outbound tactics like spamming and cold calling. Instead, they research products and services and find what they’re looking for on their own.

The message for companies is clear: You must provide lots and lots of content that’s engaging and persuasive enough to pull in readers and win their business. This is called inbound marketing, and it’s the way businesses today “get found”— by helping, educating and entertaining prospects with valuable, relevant, and consistent content.

Content pulls customers through the four stages of HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Methodology: Attract, Convert, Close and Delight. In other words, you create and share content — through blog posts, emails, videos, case studies, guides, etc. — that attracts the right people to your site, converts them into leads, helps close them into customers and delights them so they’ll become promoters of your brand.

Your goal is to make a human connection, and storytelling is how you do this. It’s about resonating with people who need your help and guidance. A well-crafted story helps you create contrast between choices. It helps prospects make sense of the decision they’re about to make, whether it’s deciding on a product or service or making a purchase.

Here are tips for discovering the story you want to share with the world.

First, know what your story is not

It’s not data and assertions about ROI. It’s not just your business’s history. It’s also not cliché, and it’s not what everyone else is saying. Sure, you may think you provide the best customer service in your industry, but that’s not your story. Storytelling is about standing out, not blending in.

Focus on your why

Here’s a concept ex-advertising executive and author Simon Sinek is known for: his Golden Circle concept. The Golden Circle is all about starting with why. Sinek says most people communicate by starting with what they do and eventually work their way back to talk about how and why they do what they do. But unique and successful companies like Apple or Google communicate with an “inside-out” type of thinking. They start with the why and only then do they talk about the how and what portions of what they do.

To really connect with your prospects and customers, you must express the why of your story. Tap into the emotional side and begin to educate or build awareness from there. Ask yourself: “Why do I do what I do? How will this help my audience? And what am I actually offering?”

Know your characters

All stories have characters. With content marketing, the people — or characters — are your readers. Good storytelling can’t happen without valuing and understanding your audience and responding to their wants and needs. When potential customers can get the answers to their questions and see themselves as characters in your story, they’ll be more likely to use your product or service and experience the happy ending you offer.

Start with your buyer persona, the semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. This can help guide you through understanding the goals and challenges your character will face. No matter who your buyer persona is, the art of storytelling is making sure you empathize with and relate to your audience.

Choose your point of view

While keeping your buyer persona in mind, you should also determine the point of view your story will have. Will it be first person, second person or third person? There’s no right or wrong option. It will depend on your buyer persona, the story you’re trying to tell, and the format of the story.

In the first-person point of view, the character is yourself. When you say, “I saw this,” or, “I learned that,” you’re speaking in the first person. This type of language is more confessional. It can help you establish a personal connection with the reader or build authority. Try using first person when there’s a known person, an author, behind the content. This could work for a blog post, video or even an ebook if the author is noted.

In the second-person point of view, the character is your audience. It’s when you say things like, “You’ll see,” or, “You’ll learn.” When using “you” language, it’s important to understand your buyer personas and know their pain points and goals. Tell the story in a way that shows empathy.

The third person is the “he said/she said” type of language. Case studies about your customers are a good example of using the third-person point of view. These stories can be fictional or nonfictional.

Present, and resolve, your conflict.

Once you know who the character is for your story, it’s important to understand the conflict they face. If your story lacks conflict, you’re probably not telling a story. Instead, you’re telling a pitch, a tagline, a unique selling point or a plain statement. This approach won’t resonate with your audience, and from a content marketing perspective, it won’t get you views, shares, conversions or customers.

You need to understand the buyer’s journey and the conflicts they might face at each stage. What problems are your buyer personas facing in the awareness stage? Those are the conflicts that should be in your story.

Wistia provides professional video hosting. Its purpose is to empower everybody to get more out of video, and all of its content and storytelling — which is done through funny, engaging educational videos along with blog posts, guides, help articles and webinars — circles back to this purpose. One blog post is titled ‘Improve Your Audio: How to Reduce Echo in Your Video.’ In this case, the reader’s battle with ‘echo’ is the conflict, and it’s stated right there in the headline. The rest of the blog post explains how to resolve the conflict.

Finally, get to the resolution

Where there’s conflict, your audience will naturally want some sort of resolution. It should wrap up the story but should also clearly call your audience to action. It should fulfill the story’s purpose. For content marketing, a resolution could be next steps or even a call to action for more content. Either way, don’t leave the audience hanging.

In the case of Wistia, the aforementioned blog post provides the resolution to the “echo” conflict — step-by-step instructions for soundproofing a video.

Find a way to connect to your audience on an emotional level

TOMS is a slip-on shoe company that focuses on spreading social good. Here is its powerful story: Everyone needs shoes, but not everyone has the money to pay for them. So, with each product you purchase, TOMS donates a pair of shoes to a child in need. This strikes an emotional chord with their audience and compels them to buy.

This is how a shoe retailer created a much bigger story that makes their customers feel like they’re changing the world by simply purchasing a pair of shoes. And they’ve sold more than 75 million pairs, which means they’ve also given over 75 million pairs of shoes to needy children.

Justin Champion is the author of Inbound Content: A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing Content Marketing the Inbound Way.

Astilbe is a classic perennial that gives low-light areas a boost. Also known as false spirea, it provides the perfect punch of color for shade and even partial shade spots, though it is happiest in the deepest of shade. Astilbe is a gorgeous shade-loving perennial that produces upright, tight clusters of colorful blooms that open slowly to present feathery plumes. Contrasting nicely are its toothed, compound leaves that create a fern-like appearance.

Astilbe’s high impact flower spikes provide shady gardens with extended color from spring into autumn. It is eye catching at every stage of maturity, part of what makes it so appealing. The varietal color palette ranges from lilac and pinky-purple to magenta, apricot and garnet. Waxy foliage is often covered with a silver-lacey overlay.

Plants form attractive clumps or mounds and can grow as tall as 3 feet and stay as petite as just 12 inches. A tough, deer resistant choice that is not a favorite of rabbits, Astilbe is hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-9. It is stunningly beautiful when used alone or in combinations in the landscape. In addition, its clusters often dry in place, and the dried plumes can last well into fall. Their durability and showiness also makes them great cut flowers.

Varietal favorites

The ‘Vision’ varieties showcase gorgeous bronze-green foliage contrasting with clear white, pink or raspberry purple plumes. These varieties are also some of the more sun tolerant in the class. The collection includes ‘Vision in White’, ‘Vision in Pink’, ‘Little Vision in Purple’, ‘Little Vision in Pink’ and ‘Little Vision in White’, each with its own benefits. ‘Vision in Pink’ requires less moisture than other varieties, while ‘Vision in White’ provides a more compact option.

‘Look at Me’ is one of our favorites, sporting an eye-catching combination of rich red stems that hold bubblegum pink flowers, while ‘Delft Lace’ displays soft apricot-pink blooms held high above foliage on candy apple red stems. ‘Erika’ features triangular-shaped plumes of clear pink flowers, and ‘Montgomery’ offers wine-red plumes that appear mid-summer. And of course no Astilbe article would be complete without the mention of ‘Sprite’, a Perennial Plant of the Year that is definitely worthy of consideration with its shell pink plumes and exceptionally petite habit.

Culture tips

Astilbe is an easy-growing, low-maintenance plant, as long as you understand its preferences. From a 38 liner planted into a 1-gallon pot, plants will finish for spring sales in approximately eight to 10 weeks. Maintain greenhouses at 65°-75°F for daytime and 55°-65°F at night.

Choose a well-draining commercial media. Astilbe prefers slightly acidic media, so aim for soil pH between 5.8 and 6.2. Maintain electrical conductivity (EC) at 1.8 to 2.2 mS/cm using the 2:1 extraction method. Above this, leach with clear water.

Grow plants evenly moist, and remember they are moisture lovers, so don’t let Astilbe dry out. If they do, foliage may turn up or become brown. This is a risk especially in times of intense heat or drought, making them unsalable. Still, avoid letting water stand on the foliage, or you risk crown and root rot.

Astilbe has moderate fertilization requirements and will not need fertilizer for the first few weeks, until active growth begins. Provide a constant liquid feed at low levels of 100 to 150 ppm nitrogen. Note that Astilbe does have some salt sensitivity, so monitor levels carefully.

Provide shade to partial shade. No more than 1,800 foot candles of light and probably closer to 1,000 foot candles is better. These long-day plants should not need supplemental lighting.

Astilbe benefits from plant growth regulators (PGRs) for consistency and to prevent too much stem elongation. After blooms appear, apply approximately 5,000 ppm of a PGR such as B-Nine. No pinching required.

Cold treatment is required for flowering in Astilbe. Plan to provide approximately 10 to 12 weeks of 41°F or less, depending on the cultivar. Remember to decrease irrigation to accommodate dormancy and die back.

Scout and monitor regularly for pests such as whiteflies and powdery mildew. A good preventive program is key. Maintain proper sanitation procedures, including humidity control and spacing for good air circulation (though pot to pot spacing is fine until growth extends past the pot edge). Consider a preventive fungicide drench at transplant and follow a monthly broad-spectrum fungicide control program.

Josiah Raymer is head grower and general manager for Emerald Coast Growers, one of the country’s largest liner producers. www.ecgrowers.com

In early April, a team of ambassadors representing the Society of American Florists (SAF) trekked through the Pacific Northwest in a vintage-style van — "The Flower Power Mobile" — offering unsuspecting people free flowers and tips to alleviate stress. Their journey from San Francisco to Portland, Ore., to Seattle received a flurry of press coverage not just because of the rad van, but also because SAF was telling the story of how scientific research proves the stress-reducing powers of flowers.

SAF Vice President of Marketing Jennifer Sparks was quoted on “Afternoon Live” on Portland’s ABC affiliate.

“We are providing a solution that helps people cope with stress in little ways throughout the day.”

During the live broadcast, Sparks introduced April as Stress Awareness Month, and shared statistics from Wakefield Research (68 percent of Americans report feeling stressed on a weekly basis; 32 percent endure it every day).

Sparks then dove into results from the University of North Florida's recent research study, "The Impact of Flowers on Perceived Stress Among Women."

"It's that contact with nature so many of us crave. The really great thing about flowers is that they bring the beauty of nature indoors. Simply having them on your desk or nightstand can significantly improve your wellbeing."

Two anchors from Portland’s NBC affiliate helped SAF distribute flowers, both of whom experienced the recipients’ joyful reactions when handed a bouquet.

Prior to the #StressLess Tour, SAF sent a press release to news organizations nationwide. SAF followed up with a nationwide media blast after the San Francisco events with pictures and video footage to carry the flower power message far beyond the three cities visited during the tour.

To take the message even further and to reach the millennial audience, SAF partnered with key social influencers with large, dedicated followings. Portland fashion blogger Kristina McInness joined SAF on location and spread flower power to her 87,000 Instagram followers and 5,000 blog subscribers.

[For more information on social influencers, revisit our story in the February 2019 issue, “Screen time sway.”]

McInness’ April 20 Instagram post, which featured a photo of the Flower Power Mobile and facts from the UNF study, got nearly 1,000 likes and more than 100 comments, including:

“Love this! I believe it too. Flowers are just too beautiful, so it makes sense they reduce stress.”

“What a happy soul – this is why I always have flowers around.”

“Definitely agree that flowers help relieve stress.”

“I completely agree! Love my flowers.”

In Seattle, YouTube star Monica Church, whose channel “Millennial Life Crisis” has more than 350,000 subscribers, joined the effort and vlogged about the experience as she counted flowers as a top way to relieve stress. Her video, “6 Ways to Destress Your Life This Spring” has more than 18,500 views and counting.

Source: SAF

The #StressLess Tour is another fun and clever example of how to get green industry products in front of consumers and in the news. In next month’s issue, I’ll give you more inspiration from a group of your peers giving away plants and spreading joy.