Free Plant Madness: Here’s How To Get Some

When commercial landscaping company Outside In announced its plan to give away hundreds of free plants, they anticipated interest, but not so much.

People have been appearing at the company’s Penrose offices “non-stop” since Wednesday afternoon, only to be rejected. Some people showed up with trailers, hoping to carry hundreds for them, others parked on the trail or crossed the road to get there, and some even asked if they could have a plant reserved because they wanted to drive to Auckland for several hours. far.

“We are absolutely impressed,” said creative director Ryan McQuerry.

The Auckland company, which experienced an increase in Instagram followers from 1,000 to 20,000 overnight, had initially planned to give away several hundred plants at a time on its premise after an initial online announcement.

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Those plants will now be gifted online.

“We have had so many people showing up, knocking on doors that we care about the safety of the general public and hate that someone is hurt,” McQuerry said.

The company said on Instagram Thursday morning that it was “” excited that there are so many like-minded plant lovers. We have had overwhelming acceptance of this offer and have had to adjust how lottery compliance works. “

“Our goal is to have as many plants as possible on your hands, but we want to do it safely under Alert Level 2, avoiding any situation similar to the crowd.”

The company is requesting that no one personally appear at its Penrose facility to order plants. Instead, the first-come, first-served model will be operated online.

“Starting next week, we will be giving away 100 plants per day, until it’s over. Every day of the week at 8 am, we will post an Instagram post and the first 50 people to respond will be able to collect two plants that way. day, one for them and one for a friend, “reads his latest post.

McQuerry will send a private message to all 50 people each day with the location and times of collection, including guidelines for safe collection.

“We need to do this in a systematic way and we think Instagram is a fair way, so that we can spread love to as many people as possible,” he said.

Posters have been placed around the Penrose warehouse to remind people that the draw has moved online.

“People have been very good with the rejection. Some have tried to be persistent with the skeleton staff I have, but I would like to reiterate that we are not going to give away any plants today or tomorrow. It will be next week, and it will be through Instagram” .

The company, which is generally a commercial supplier, is not configured to ship or sell individual plants. Kiwis living in Florida, Virginia and Los Angeles have asked if they can send them plants. Others who lived three or four hours away left notes asking if they should make the trip to Auckland. The answer is no.

“Please don’t drive to our office from far away, we would feel horrible,” said McQuerry.

Outside In generally does custom vegetation displays for the hospitality and retail industries. Most Westfield shopping centers rent plants from their nursery, as do Spark retail, Vodafone headquarters, joint workspaces at Smales Farm, and bank branches.

The business is growing beautiful houseplants and hiring them in shopping malls, restaurants, and trendy brunch venues. However, the coronavirus epidemic has meant that many nursery plants grew too large and many were returned by companies that closed.

McQuerry would usually give his staff extras, but there are simply too many for him to remove this time. “We will continue giving away 100 a day until there is nothing left. That could be for several weeks,” he said.

“The only thing we regret is that we cannot give one to all.”