When the managing director of a Gloucestershire business brought a cutting from a pot plant into the office 15 years ago, little did he know that it would dominate the building and become a talking point.
Des Brennan, managing director of Protective Solutions Limited, a company that specialises on packaging solutions and stationery based in Oldends Lane, Stonehouse, believes the fluorescent lights and the warmth of the building are ideal conditions for the ivy plant.
Account Manager, Dean Seawert, said: “It has gone mad, it loves this environment, and of course we absolutely love it as well. Some people put it at a couple of hundred feet [in length] but because it goes round and round we don’t really know where you would measure it from, but it is huge.
“It’s a shock when you first come in – it’s a bit like Day of the Triffids – but I haven’t been attacked or killed yet and we haven’t lost any members of staff because of it.
“It’s absolutely fantastic, everybody loves it, and it’s really, really good for our mental health and air purification. Customers come in and they always want to talk about it and always want to see it.”
The ivy plant has been dubbed Audrey after the plant in Little Shop of Horrors, and even secured a sponsorship deal with Gardening Naturally, supplying natural plant feed.
Pictures and video by Matt Bigwood
