Office plant potted 14 years ago has grown into a 600ft monster
An office plant has grown at such a rapid rate over the last 14 years that it is now an ‘absolutely massive’ 600-foot monster.
Allie Brennan, 51, and her husband, Des, 57, bought the ivy in 2009, hoping the greenery would brighten up their packaging company’s workplace in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.
The plant has clearly taken its role at Protective Solutions Ltd very seriously, and has somewhat overperformed.
It now goes around the 50-foot-long by 25-foot-wide open-plan office several times and then crisscrosses along the ceiling.
It grows at an impressive rate of six inches per month, sprouting new shoots which need pinning up every day.
Allie said: ‘It changes daily. Sometimes it’s a bit creepy coming in and seeing it changing again.
‘We try to keep it off the desks so it doesn’t get in the way but it hangs down and is joined onto the monitors.
‘It makes a massive difference to the office. We can’t envision the place without it – it would be dire.
‘It started off as a bit of a laugh but we wouldn’t be without it now. We’d have to get another one if it ever went.’
The plant has even received a sponsorship from the company Gardening Naturally, which provides seaweed extract food to the office.
But Allie stressed that the ivy is ‘very low maintenance’, only requiring feeding and watering once a week.
‘The most time it takes up is taking the time to pin up the new shoots,’ she added.
The ivy was able to keep growing throughout Covid lockdowns because the office was ‘manned the whole time, according to guidelines’.
Allie said: ‘It’s a big talking point when customers come in as well. People ask if it’s real but I’m not sure where we’d get a fake one this size.
‘Staff love it. If it was gone we’d all notice it and we’d just have to get another.’
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