Magazine Publications

“It was a time when businesspeople were really conscious of making their offices look beautiful and fresh,” he said.

Publication: Herald Sun

Date Printed: 6 June 2007
Subject: Business Tenders - Budding Recruits

Walking into any of the gleaming office towers along Collins St in the early '80s, visitors would be greeted by a veritable forest of plants.

Peter Gerraty, chairman of Frenchams, an indoor plant hire and maintenance company, remembers the era fondly as the heyday of his industry.

"It was a time when businesspeople were really conscious of making their offices look beautiful and fresh," he said.

Over the next decade, as the minimal aesthetic took hold, the abundance of indoor office plants disappeared, replaced by a minimum of foliage complemented by pebbles, stainless steel and glass.

Interior designers and architects, keen to maintain their minimalist lines, consciously designed office interiors leaving no space or nooks for plants, Gerraty said.

"Nobody was thinking about the benefits of plants, people were just thinking space equals money," he said.

A decade on, the wheel - and the fortunes of the indoor plant industry - looks set to turn full circle. Growing concern for the environment and demand for environmentally friendly buildings has cast office plants back into the spotlight.

The Green Building Council of Australia's green star office interiors rating tool, which evaluates environmental initiatives for green star ratings, now awards up to two points for the use of plants in an office fitout.

Its purpose is to encourage the installation of indoor plants that improve the indoor environment. Two points are awarded where the office incorporates one large plant or two small plants per office setting.

The City of Melbourne's six greenstar office building, CH2, also uses plants to filter the light.

Mr Gerraty, who won the tender to supply plants for the CH2 building, said he believed people were beginning to understand that plants had a function beyond looking good.

"They break up the clinical look of an office setting which is great, but they also provide so many more benefits," he said.

(Copy from the article printed in the Herald Sun.)

Publication: The Australian Financial Review

Date Printed: 3 October 2007
Subject: Nurture creativity and health with plants.
Office flora help clear stale air and turn a sterile workplace into a tranquil oasis.

Peter Gerraty is the owner of Frenchams, a nursery started by his grandfather in 1889.

The group operates 30 franchises in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. It provided the plants for Council House 2, the City of Melbourne building regarded as Australia's greenest and healthiest purpose built office building. Recycled water from the building is used in the vertical gardens that run the full height of the northern facade.

The vertical gardens assist with shading, glare and air quality and the 695 plants are grown from special planter boxes built into the balconies on every storey. Vines grow up the facade via stainless steel mesh.

The building uses philodendrons, dracaena and kentia palms, among others, says Gerraty.

(Copy from the article printed in the The Australian Financial Review.)