Meaning Behind The Color Of The Rose, this Valentine’s Day, or any day for that matter, make sure the rose you are giving conveys the message you desire. It may seem a little crazy to complicate something as pure and simple as giving roses, but the symbolism of the color of rose you are giving makes a big difference in the meaning. Keep this guide close to make sure the rose or flower you give has a meaning consistent with the message you want to convey.
Meaning Behind The Color Of The Rose
If your loved one tells you they don’t want anything for Valentine’s Day, don’t believe it. Almost 200 million roses are produced for giving on Valentine’s Day.
The traditional red rose – Says you are passionately in love with them. The meaning of a dozen red roses – a simple way to ask them to be yours. Give one red rose, and you provide the most beautiful and romantic gift, love at first sight or you are still the one for me.
Pink roses – The pink rose describes admiration, grace, and sweetness.
White roses – Often used for weddings because they signify new beginnings. White is one of the purest colors representing purity and innocence.
Yellow roses – This bright and cheery rose lets someone know the happiness they bring you and your friendship is strong.
Peach roses – These are an excellent choice for saying thank you.
Orange roses – Can you see the burning flame in this color? Are you burning with passion for someone right now? Let them know it with some orange roses.
Hopefully, this information helps you provide the correct message with your next gift of roses. Roses or flowers are simple, inexpensive, meaningful gifts and we often underestimate their power.
Water use for Agriculture in California is estimated to be 80% of the total amount of water used in the state. Other states in the West have similar percentages. For example, 85% of the water used in Utah is for Agriculture, Arizona 74%, New Mexico 80%, and Colorado 89%. Yet, with all this water used for agriculture, most of the water conservation and sustainability programs are for landscape irrigation.
The landscape industry should do its part to conserve, but to be clear a reduction of landscape irrigation to zero will not solve the water issues. There is a lot of pressure on the landscape industry right now to save, but this laser focus will result in failure. Wasting water is an issue for the country and there is an invisible gun pointed at the landscape industry’s head right now. In life when someone points a gun at your head you either figure the problem out or you die.
In this case, if you are a landscaper, an irrigation manufacturer, a property manager, a homeowner, or a commercial property owner you need to solve the wasting water problem or the landscape industry is going to die.
Who is pointing the gun at us for wasting water?
The drought in California is real and severe. The recent rains will relieve some of the pressure near term, but the West is still in a drought. Recently the Governor asked everyone to pitch in and reduce water use by 25%. In this announcement, almost 60% of the water uses now prohibited were for landscape irrigation. That is the gun and even though there are literally 100s of ways to save water the finger has been pointed predominately at the landscape industry. When it comes down to food or plants for aesthetic purposes, food is always going to win out.
The other term we hear often now is, water security, as in a lack of water, is a threat to homeland security. This is a real danger and so far the best way to save water has been to paint a bull’s eye on the back of the landscape industry. According to this article $390 million was allocated in just Southern California for turf replacement rebates in 2015. Turf replacement rebates have continued for years and have spread to other states. Landscape water waste is obvious to everyone when there is water running down the gutters or misting away into the atmosphere.
As a result, the landscape industry has been quick to respond positively. I am proud the industry has taken responsibility for the water waste and is working to change. It is one of the rare instances where someone has pointed a finger and the response has been positive. However, I do find it funny that with hundreds of other ways to save, the major focus has been on landscape irrigation.
We need to push back
I get it, the focus is on landscape because it has been a big source of waste, and a very high percentage of water used in urban areas is for landscape irrigation. However, it seems to me the amount of attention compared to other industries is not appropriate.
80% of the water used in California is for agriculture. According to a 2010 study done by the Department of Water Resources 43% of the crops in California were being watered with by flood irrigation. Gravity irrigation is an imprecise method of irrigation that uses large amounts of fresh water. Many environmental advocates are quick to point out drip irrigation on farms could go a long water in solving the state’s water crisis. Why don’t we see more funds for drip irrigation on farms? What about incentives for technology to manage water on farms instead of rebates for reducing turf? Rebates in San Diego can me as high as $174,000 to take out an acre of turf. We can add technology, or drip irrigation to a farm at a fraction of the cost and have a much bigger reduction in water waste.
How many of you celebrate the mowing of your lawns with a cold beer. It takes about 20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer. Nobody is asking you or telling you to drink less beer or regulating the beer industry on how much beer they can produce. The same goes for soft drinks and soft drinks and beer are about as vital to our survival as aesthetically pleasing landscape.
We have water cops patrolling to see if you are watering your lawn on the wrong day or if water is running off into the gutter, yet most other waste goes unnoticed. Today a new home in California can only plant 30% of its landscape with turf. Imagine if there was a regulation on what percent of red meat you could eat during a week, or how much alcohol is consumable.
We need to keep doing what’s right
Absolutely we need to do everything we can to conserve more water in landscapes. Educating clients and the industry is the first step. We know how to manage and conserve water, but first we have to be able to help consumers understand why we need to conserve.
We also as an industry need to make sure others are pitching in and doing their part too. Are you aware of what the Irrigation Association is doing for water management? How about your local contractor’s association or property management association? The gun is to our heads, part of solving the problem is to lead the industry and others to find better and more ways to conserve.
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Irrigation systems can be complicated and expensive. Once you decide to install a system, you want to ensure it is done right, so you don’t have to spend time and money on it again. Here are questions to ask before getting started to ensure your system does what you need to do.
Do I Need An Irrigation Designer?
Irrigation systems are technical. Moving water from point a to point b is challenging because it needs to move at a certain speed (so you don’t’ break things. Water is heavy), and you need to move enough to satisfy your crop or landscape requirements. A certified irrigation designer establishes specifications and design drawings for irrigation projects. This is a map of what needs to be accomplished and provides the following:
An evaluation of site conditions and water availability, and use requirements.
Selection of the most effective irrigation equipment, methods, and materials for the application.
Irrigation designs that meet the plant or crop’s wagering requirements.
Comprehensive plans and specifications that include construction details, equipment or materials, and appropriate irrigation schedules.
Direction to end users on system use, scheduling and maintenance.
Depending on the size of the project and your knowledge of irrigation, a designer is often a good investment.
Where Do I Purchase Irrigation Components?
Many home improvement stores sell irrigation equipment. Occasionally, there may be a good choice when needing repair equipment or small additions to a system. However, for new installations or significant updates (think three valves or more), a distributor or dealer specializing in irrigation or landscaping is the best choice. These dealers have experience in irrigation, a wide variety of products to meet your specific project needs, and access to the manufacturers who supply a ton of knowledge, often for no additional charge. In addition, with several manufacturers, the quality provided to professional contractors is better than the quality of the products supplied to the DIY crowd. Sometimes at a better price.
You can visit the dealer locator here type in your address, and a map populates with all the professional irrigation dealers near you. If there are no dealers near, you can always try on an online store specializing in irrigation.
Who Installs The System?
When it comes to drilling wells, installing large filters, tapping into municipal water systems, and trenching, these activities are best done by someone who does them every day. An irrigation contractor with the right tools, equipment, and experience to handle these projects’ challenges. Mistakes are expensive in irrigation, and the best and safest bet is to hire a certified professional.
Here is a link from the Irrigation Association to help you find certified irrigation professional to install your job.
Finally, A Question To Ask Yourself -What Are My Expectations?
It’s impossible to think about irrigation anymore and not conservation, sustainability, and water cost. Your system should last 20 years. The system design should include as many micro and drip irrigation options as possible. This is the only way to reach a high distribution uniformity which helps you save water and money. Irrigation automation should also be included to save water and money. Both Jain Unity and Jain Logic help with automation and conservation. These smart controllers create water schedules for you based on the weather, ET, soil moisture sensors, and satellite imaging based on scientific calculations.
Please use this list of questions as a good start. You will have more specific to your site. Below is an excellent discussion of the questions and a few other essential factors to consider.
Rainwater harvesting is rapidly becoming a standard process for many homeowners, institutions, and industrial plants to collect a natural resource and use it to reduce the amount and cost of purchased treated water. Rainwater reuse entails storing stormwater runoff and then using it as a source of irrigation water. There are many design considerations to examine to ensure success, as well as operation and maintenance considerations.
Stormwater Management
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), stormwater management is the effort to reduce runoff of rainwater or melted snow into streets, lawns, and other sites and improve water quality, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Often rainwater harvesting for irrigation is not practical yet, and stormwater management is essential to reduce pollutants moving into groundwater. Stormwater often carries bacteria, chemicals, eroded soil, and other contaminants into rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans. It also puts a significant financial demand on cities to manage the stormwater. It is best to place the responsibility of managing stormwater on home and building owners. They can develop and implement practices specific to each property.
Proper design and appropriate installation of systems providing rainwater harvesting and stormwater management will save you money, time, and labor for years to come. Here are some factors to consider when designing your systems.
Rain barrels, planter boxes, rain gardens, dry wells, and permeable pavement help keep stormwater on your property.
In each of these situations, water is directed into the ground. Every project in Los Angeles now has a stormwater component.
Gravity feed systems are preferred by builders now because they have no health department-required permit. If your project has a pump on it, often the health department requires a permit.
Pumps help move the water greater distances so you can distribute the rainwater over the entire site instead of concentrating it on one location. This reduces the amount of water you put on the landscape in any one place. Distributing water across an entire property often makes more sense than trying to disperse the water in a limited area.
For low-impact development, stormwater storage containers are often used and the most significant expense for the system. Tanks are not intended to store water for a month. The idea is to have the container empty for the next rain event. So you need to design your system to move water every few days.
The first flush diverter moves pollutants away from your storage container when pollutants are the highest. This keeps the water in your tank cleaner, improves your pump’s life, and reduces tank maintenance.
There are sanitary issues with water stored for more than just a few days. You can use UV filters for your water or other ways to sanitize the water, but these get expensive.
Return on investment from the system can be in as few as seven years when you don’t use a UV filter.
When Rainwater Harvesting Does Not Work
In places like Southern California, rainfall occurs typically between late October and April, and no supplemental water is needed at this time. So when you have water, you don’t need it, and storing the water for months is not practical.
How To Make A Pump System Work
Using a three-way valve system is an excellent practice. Install a cistern with a submersible pump and a three-way valve from the residence. Here is a diagram.
The three-way valve is an electric valve. When the system is told to run, the water is taken from the cistern first. When the water is low (during the summer), the system automatically switches back to the potable supply. This is a simple system that works very well. Water travels to all irrigated areas on the property, providing greater water disbarment across the property. This is great to prevent slope damage or runoff.
Water tanks can be above ground or below grade. Cisterns can be almost anything. In the middle east, they use concrete tanks below the ground, and they look to accumulate three days of water in a tank.
Be sure to match the need of your system to the output of your pump. If the pump delivers 10 gallons per minute, the system needs to be designed for that amount.
How Much Maintenance Do These Systems Need
The amount of maintenance depends on the cleanliness of the water. The cistern may need cleaning every few years, or sometimes never if the water is clean. The pump needs to take water from above the bottom of the tank. The bottom of the tank is where the debris in the water settles. It would be best if you had filtration, more critical with this water. More common to have debris and organic products in the water.
Package systems are available and an excellent place to start. This eliminates redesigning the storage.
To learn more about these systems, watch this training video featuring Lance Sweeney.
Lance is the President of Sweeney & Associates, Inc and has over 35 years of experience in design, installation, and maintenance. He is a strong proponent for water conservation and has been a certified irrigation auditor since 1991, a long time before it was cool to support water conservation. Lance has managed projects in the United States, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. He is truly a person who takes pride in doing a job “right” and has a reputation of high quality in the industry. Sweeney & Associates, Inc. is a full-service consulting firm specializing in landscape and golf course irrigation design.
Weather information beyond temperature and simple devices like rain sensors are critical for precise irrigation water management success. Plant scientists teach us to balance the amount of water depleting from the landscape due to weather, the amount of water applied via irrigation, and free water from the heavens (rainfall!).
Keeping the balance is key to minimizing water use and ensuring your plant and landscape assets are healthy and happy. Once you know the inches of water a plant needs to be healthy, the inches of water depleting from the landscape, and the inches of water applied by irrigation and rainfall, you can dial in precise watering control. You can’t do this without weather data gathered, analyzed, and distributed automatically.
Truth 1 – Different plants use water at different rates.
Knowing how much water your plant needs is key to proper water management. There are many places to learn the water requirement of plants. Knowing the plant’s water requirement and the evapotranspiration for the day is the first step of precision water management.
The easiest way to understand evapotranspiration is to think the opposite of rain. ET is the amount of water that evaporates from the soil and plant surface plus transpiration through the plant. Temperature, solar radiation, humidity, and wind velocity all affect ET daily. Knowing when plants need water and knowing when they are full is the first step to a healthy, thriving landscape.
ET is almost always discussed in terms of a reference crop, alfalfa, or grass. When reported, today’s ET was .2, or this week’s ET was 1 inch consider this is for alfalfa ETr or grass ETo. The plants in our landscapes may need more or less water depending on several factors, one important factor being the plant species.
Reference ET is a measurement of water use for a specific grass or crop, this is a very important water management variable. The plants in your landscape mostly have different water requirements than alfalfa or grass. This is where the plant species factor becomes essential. Knowing your plant species factor allows watering for a specific plant. By multiplying the reference ET by the plant factor, we determine the specific plant’s water requirement. Here is a link to a site that has the most comprehensive database of plant factors for California landscapes.
Truth 2 – If you use a standard sprinkler timer, most likely, you are overwatering.
Intuitively when we see a plant not doing well, we give the plant more water. Often this is the incorrect thing to do. When we don’t know how much water is in the soil, we overwater because we don’t want the plant to run dry. If it runs dry, we kill it immediately. If we overwater, we probably kill it slowly over time. If you drive a car without a gas gauge, you will most likely fill up the tank too often because you know if you run out of gas, you have a real problem.
ETwater smart controllers using Jain Unity software set up an irrigation schedule for you. Using many factors, including how much water your plants use, soil type, wind, solar radiation, temperature, shade, slopes, and cloud cover, to name a few. Once the schedule is scientifically established, it is adjusted daily based on ET’s hourly calculation specific to the controller site. No wild guesses, pure science.
Truth 3 – Rainfall is money.
To maximize savings, evaluate rainfall two ways. First, actual rain is based on how much of the rain is useable. If the average rainfall is 10 inches a year and it rains 9 inches in one day, most of the water is not used by plants. It runs off the landscape or pushes past roots in the soil. It’s good to get rain, but often only a fraction of the rain is usable. Jain Unity software measures effective rainfall and enters the amount into your water calculation and schedule.
Also, Jain Unity using predictive analytics to adjust your watering schedule based on future weather and rain. Why water a half-inch today if you are going to receive a quarter-inch of rain tomorrow. Unity will reduce the water today, evaluate tomorrow how much rain was usable and schedule the next irrigation accordingly. Using a standard sprinkler configuration costs around $10K a year in Northern California to water an acre of turf. In Southern California, the number is around $17K a year. Using a controller that calculates rainfall and future ET is a huge money saver.
The three truths are not magic. Plants need different amounts of water, and the amounts are known. We measure ET to know how much water the plant needs to replace. Finally, use rain to supplement your irrigation and save money. This is most efficiently done using a smart controller. Considering the water cost today and many water agencies are offering rebates for smart controllers, the time to make the switch is now.
Request A Demo
Interested in learning more about Jain Unity and ETwater Controllers.
Request A Demo Today and Our Water Management Experts Will Contact You.
Prices in the plastic resin market continue to soar in significant percentages jumps, and the impact is felt throughout the irrigation industry. In addition to high resin prices, the industry is hit hard with record historically high rates for containerized freight (up over 150% from a year ago), and spot truckload pricing hit an all time high as well.
Many irrigation products are injection molded or extruded. In the case of supply tubing or emitterline, 60% -70% of the product’s cost is the resin. Because resin makes up such a large percentage of the cost of irrigation products when resin prices increase rapidly manufactures, dealers, distributors and end users need to react quickly or business will suffer.
How High Is The Price of Plastic Resin
In April 2020, the U.S. spot price for resin in the plastic resin market (LLDPE – Inj) touched $.38/lb. Today the same product is up 95% to $.74/lb. in nine months. COVID’s impact on the economy and the uncertainty ahead for the world economy contributed to the low price last April. This rapid acceleration causes issues for anyone manufacturing plastic products or products packaged in plastic. Manufactures without a process to increase costs as the resin price explodes to the upside will be challenged to operate at a profit.
Why Are Plastic Resin Market Prices So High
It’s hard to keep track of all the major news in 2020, but remember, the U.S. experienced the most active and fifth costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record. Hurricane Hanna made landfall in Texas, and a couple of others impacted the gulf coast and Louisiana. Since the significant manufacturers are in the states with exposure to hurricanes, plant closures are expected. Most years, the increase in pricing is due to supply issues as a result of the closures.
However, this year the hurricanes were only part of the story. There we also several turnarounds in 2020. A turnaround – which is sometimes referred to as a TAR – is a highly-expensive planned regeneration period in a plant or refinery. During this time, an entire part of the operation is taken out of production while plants are inspected and revamped.
In late November early December, there was a surge in orders for resin from Asia, catching most suppliers by surprise. Also, a primary PE plant in Mexico shut down in December. This is important because the ocean freight prices put resin prices from Asia out of reach for Mexico, so they turned to the U.S. for resin, which caused supplies to get even tighter.
If you aren’t feeling bad enough, there is one additional notable issue. When COVID hit, most producers sold off what they had because they, like many others at the time, thought the economy would spiral down quickly.
What We Can Do About It
Unfortunately, we can’t do much about the soaring plastic resin market prices. As demand increases and supplies decrease, the price goes up, and when demand decreases and supplies increase, the price goes down. Resin prices change, and we have no way to impact these price changes, but what we do control is how we respond to them.
If you are an irrigation dealer or distributor of plastic products that have 60% – 70% of the cost tied up in plastic resin’s price, work to negotiate a contract based on agreeable profit to the producer. The agreement should allow regular (think monthly) price adjustments, both up and down, to ensure you have an adequate supply of products. When prices are high, keeping customers happy is primarily a function of getting them good product on time.
The price of plastic resin is just one of many increases we are experiencing as consumers. The freight and container prices are hitting everyone. How much did you spend at the grocery store in February last year compared to this year? I know my bill is up over 30%. Good business managers will evaluate where increases are coming and where shortages may occur and take steps to ensure they can get a consistent product at a fair price.
There are more than 700 plants toxic to pets and produce physiologically active or toxic substances dangerous to dogs and cats if ingested. Many of these plants are popular common plants found in many gardens. Animals in the wild have instincts, experience and training helping them to know what plants to avoid.
Our domestic pets are not as well trained and lack experience with many plants, and we all know a dog or two that will eat anything you put in front of them. Cats are more selective, but still can be attracted to and will eat Easter Lilies for example.
Signs of Toxicity
If your pet eats a toxic plant the effect of toxins may range from mild nausea to death. Some of the signs your pet has eating a toxic plant include:
Excessive salivation
Vomiting
Racing or irregular pulse
Lethargy
Rapid Breathing
Cold extremities
Your pet’s species, amount digested and size of your pet will all make a difference in how they respond to plant toxicities. If you suspect your pet has ingested a toxic plant call your veterinarian immediately. Gather up a sample of the plant and try to determine how much your pet ate. This will help your veterinarian make the best decision on how to treat the problem.
Some Popular Plants Toxic to Pets Include:
Azalea
Callaligy
Day Lily
Easter Lily
Oleander
Tiger Lily
Foxglove
Sago Palm
Rhododendron
Elephants Ear.
You can find an extensive list of plants toxic to your pets here.
Our pets make a significant difference in our lives and can have a place in our gardens too. We need to watch out for our friends and help keep them safe in the garden. We can do this several ways including being mindful about what plants we grow and keeping watch on our pets and make sure they don’t eat any toxic plants.
The contractors who are successfully promote water conservation and explaining them to customers are doing the best job today. If a customer or prospect does not understand the importance of saving water, they simply will not care about how you will save them water. Make sure you have the following marketing tools in your tool kit and you are well on your way to explaining the why, not the how.
A Simple Leave – Behind: The Simplest Way To Promote Water Conservation
A leave behind is exactly what it sounds like: a physical object that you leave behind to help remind your customer about your company and the service you provide. Your leave behind needs to help customers understand why they need to save water. It’s also important to present a positive image of your company too. A simple message works well too. For example – Saving water saves money and improves the look of your landscape.
If you can show them, preferably with a picture, what a water-efficient landscape looks like even better. Please don’t forget your call to action. A simple call to action – “call me for more information on how to save water, save money and improve your landscape” – provides an opportunity to further explain why your customer should want to save water. Be sure to include your contact information and website address.
Water use analysis To Promote Water Conservation
Your analysis should include a minimum three-year history of water use on your customer’s property. The fastest way to get historic water use information is by presenting a letter from your customer authorizing you to access their water bills. Most water agencies will accept this and give the data to you.
The next step is calculating the proper amount of water the customer should have used based on their landscape and historical evapotranspiration. If it is a current customer you should have the square footage information and breakdown of percentages of groundcover, shrubs and turf. If it is a new customer, you may have to measure or use Google Earth or Bing maps for square footage information. These web services aren’t always perfect, but don’t let perfection get in the way of progress. A solid estimate can accurately forecast water savings.
Once you have the square footage and plant material estimates, you will need ET data for the property. There are a number of websites providing ET data for cities or whole ZIP codes. You will also need to estimate or calculate the efficiency of the irrigation system. If this is for a current customer you should have a good idea of this already. With a new customer you should gain permission to turn the system on and take some measurements.
Once you have gathered all this information, you will be able to put together your water use analysis and have something that looks like the table above.
This is a simple example of a water use analysis, and you have the opportunity to make it more specific based on the data available and time you spend on the analysis.
I would also include a monthly bar chart of projected water use compared to historical water use and a discussion of water price trends.
ROI calculation
Instead of selling water management as the “right” thing to do to protect the environment and ensure the long term aesthetic of your landscape, the industry decided to sell the dollar savings.
As a result, customers won’t invest in water savings unless they see a return on their investment in less than two years. I’ve worked with some customers who won’t make an investment in saving water unless the ROI is less than a year. I have met with several who accept three years, but almost none who will agree to make changes if the ROI is more than four years.
When presenting winning water management concepts to our customers, it is important to remember that they are asking one question: So what? Keep this in mind and you will never find yourself straying into the world of distribution uniformity, Water Use Classification of Landscape Species or crop coefficients when trying to make a sale. That “so what” often leads to questions like, Why should I save water? How much money will I save? Will I have a better-looking landscape? The three tools help answer these key questions from your customers. Answering these questions for your customers is the first step to saving more water and increasing sales with water management services.
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