We enhance the quality of life… Period.  Another great blog post from Charlie Hall and his Making Cents of Green Industry Economics Blog:  The plethora of benefits provided by flowers, shrubs, and trees is not common knowledge, let alone ingrained in modern day American culture. Humans often have difficulty in even seeing flowers or plants in their own environment, much less connecting plants to tangible benefits – a phenomenon called plant blindness. For most people, flowers and other plants are a part of the subconscious sector of mental life, perceived as the backdrop, not the main actors in the playing out of our everyday lives.  All industry firms need to emphasize these types of “benefits” messages in the marketing efforts of their individual companies. A new publication that summarizes these benefits is entitled Economic, Environmental, and Health/Well-Being Benefits Associated with Green Industry Products and Services: A Review and was published in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture (Issue 29(2):96-103) thanks to the Horticultural Research Institute. Since previous efforts on the part of the industry to provide a united voice through a generic advertising campaign (e.g. Got Milk) have been met with a less-than-enthusiastic response, firm-level marketing of these benefits may be the best alternative (in the short run) to propagate the quality of life value proposition. To view the entire post and the Making Cents of Green Industry Economics Blog click here.