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FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
What you need to know within the first few months of your plant delivery.
We are looking at our business sustainability, how can Funky Yukka help with this? As a sustainable supplier, we offer products and services designed with environmental and social impact in mind. By choosing us as your supplier, you can automatically reduce your own footprint and contribute to a more sustainable value chain.
What should I expect from my displays? Congratulations on your decision to install plant displays into your workplace. You have made the right choice as plants will help improve the quality of the air in the office, reduce absenteeism, reduce health ailments like headaches and help increase productivity. You have invested in living breathing oxygen producing plants and this is a great choice. Look on the plants as an extra staff member in charge of health, welfare and productivity. As with every living thing, plants have up days and down days. Plants have cycles of active periods and cycles of rest periods. Plants have days they look great and days they don’t. Plants can be full of life and unfortunately plants can die. During the time your plants are on our site you will see all aspects of each of the cycles described above. Plants change over time and there may not be a period where you ever see the plant looking the same twice. This is completely natural part of having plants in your workplace and nothing to worry about. Funky Yukka is here to help guide, love, feed, train, coach and provide care for the plants in your office and ultimately if the worst was to happen we provide plant replacement guarantee meaning any dead or dying plant will be replaced in most scenarios completely free of charge.
Do plants need to acclimatise? We all feel a little lost and nervous in new spaces or when joining a new company. You may find it difficult to believe but this is true for your new plants as well. Plants need time to acclimatise to their new environment. They need to learn which angle the light comes from, where their next meal is coming from and adjust to a change in temperature. During the first few months of your plants being on site they may show signs of one or all of the following symptoms. • Dropping leaves • Brown leaves • Drooping leaves • Leaning • Leaf discolouration • Alternate proportions The first thing to do if this happens is……..DON’T WORRY. Your plants are simply adapting to their new surroundings and adjusting to the new light levels within your offices. Many of the plants that are now living in your offices may have been settled in our nursery for a few months before delivery. As they have now been moved to your offices they can literally become ‘homesick’. Please be patient at this time. The plants will often pick up again in a matter of weeks, however this can take a few months.
Plants love water………….right? The biggest killer in plants is over watering. You may feel a plant wants water but so may someone else in the office. Sometimes we find over 5 people have been watering the plants in addition to ourselves without each other knowing. The best way to avoid this situation from occurring is to leave the watering to Funky Yukka. On rare occasions during the summer months we may ask for your assistance however for the rest of the year please do not add any additional water to the displays.
I’m not sure on the displays I have rented/purchased. A great deal of time will have been taken to provide an as accurate as possible display schedule detailing all dimensions and specifications as possible. All displays are specifically produced and assembled on a one by one individual basis and are solely supplied for you. Alongside this onsite visits, pictures of displays and photo merges are also available allowing you to visualise as best as possible exactly how the display will look. With this in mind and at this very early stage of a rental / purchase agreement we are not able to accept returns. We can however make various changes for you including container colour and plant type. These changes will be dealt with on an individual basis and priced accordingly. Plant changes can usually be made in around 14 working days. Fees for plant changes are usually approximately £50 - £150 per plant. Container and colour changes can usually be performed in 4 – 8 weeks depending on style, size, shape and colour. Fees for container changes are approximately £50 - £150 per container. Fees will be charged in addition to your agreed purchase /rental fees and existing charges will remain.
Why did I see the maintenance technician so quickly after the first visit but I haven’t’ seen them for a while. We operate our maintenance services on a geographically based cycle. It may be just by chance the technician is in the area and able to visit almost immediately after your displays are installed. Following this your account will be added to the agreed maintenance cycle and maintenance visits will become more regular.
How can I help the plants thrive in my office? Make sure the plants have plenty of light. Plants feed from light and this helps them grow. Keeping plants in rooms where the temperature is comfortable for you to work in. Offices that are too hot can damage plants to look lack lustier. Offices that are too cold cause plants to enter hibernation mode and permanent damage to the plant. Never let room temperatures to fall below 10 degrees centigrade. You may want to consider adding additional growing lights into the space focused directly on the space. A simple angle poise or clip on lamp and special LED bulb is all this is required.
What shall we do when the technician arrives for the first time ? Your technician will be new to your site and your offices. Please feel free to introduce them to the offices and highlight the areas where the displays have been placed. Although they will have all the relative information as to what displays you have on site their location will mean little to them without small bit of guidance from yourselves. If you have any site specific rules or induction plans feel free to take them through these. If you would like the technician to notify a specific member of staff of their arrival then please make them aware of this. It would be of great help if you could show the technician the best watering outlets so they can fill their equipment. Often kitchen and cleaners cupboards have much deeper sinks which cater for large buckets which are also ideal for watering cans. In addition to this if you have any onsite parking the technician can use we would be very grateful if you could make them aware of this. If you building uses access control cards or key cards to access public areas we would be grateful if you could set the technician up on the system to be able to get around the non private areas of the building.
What will the technician do when they get here ? After the technician has been introduced to the site and inducted (as described above) the technician will then make their own way around each display performing the maintenance services. This will include cleaning the plants, feeding, watering and pruning. Please don’t be alarmed if the plants are not watering on each visit or water level indicators are not reset to show ‘full.’ As discussed in the previous section “Plants love water………….right?” Watering may not be required. At the end of each visit we will request either a physical or digital signature authorising the work that has been undertaken. We would be grateful if you were available to sign this and leave any comments. If no one is available to sign for the visits we will sign on your behalf stating ‘customer not present.’
What about plants attracting insects? Every growing plant attracts organisms that feed from it. This is a completely natural occurrence and is nothing to worry about. Some pests actually help the plant to grow whilst others negatively impact the growth of the plant. Pest control is used to help keep plants healthy and boost their natural immune system. 95% of the pesticides Funky Yukka uses are biological pesticides which means the pest control is made from natural ingredients such as garlic which improves the plants resistance to pests. In addition, company policy states that no “Restricted Use” pest controls are used on any of Funky Yukka’s displays. Funky Yukka will never offer a guarantee to irradiate 100% of pests from your offices as pests can be introduced in to the offices in some many different ways. Often pests come from outside sources and are temporarily using the plants as a home during their short life cycle. A strategy of control and management can be offered as part of your regular maintenance package. • Control moisture - fix leaky taps and blocked drains where water can gather. Flies need moisture to multiply. • Keep food covered - any type of food, even crumbs, can attract flies and encourage them to lay eggs nearby. Leftovers should be carefully covered up. Their contact with your food is also main cause of food contamination. • Stay hygienic - keep your bins, sinks and food areas clean. • Cover entry points - fit fly screens to windows, keep windows and doors shut at night and consider installing a fly killer unit. • Bird feeders - keep bird feeders clean and remove bird food before dusk. • Remove clutter - eliminate clutter inside the house and in the garden. Messy sites could be a potential breeding site.
What are the benefits of having plant displays in my office? Biophilic Design is a well known practice that incorporates nature, the concept is based on 'Biophilia' which translates to 'the love of nature'. Humans are hardwired to find nature relaxing and enjoyable. Being outdoors has multiple bnefits on both physical and mental wellbeing, so it makes absolute sense that bringing nature indoors will have similar effects on our wellbeing. Multiple research studies demonstrate how office plants boost well-being at work. "Office plants can assist in boosting staff well-being by up to 47% according to workplace research carried out at the Chelsea Flower Show 2022. The results showed that allowing staff to make design decisions in a workspace enhanced with office plants can increase well-being by 47%, increase creativity by 45% and increase productivity by 38%." Adding plants to a working environment makes it much more pleasurable, healthy and certainly more welcoming as you approach through the doors or walk into the interior. Research found that the presence of pot plants in offices reduced fatigue, stress, dry throats, headaches, coughs and dry skin among workers. One study confirms that 'common house plants can contribute to lower stress levels,' says Dr Virginia Lohr, who led the research. Her study also proved that dust levels in the workplace can be reduced by up to 20 per cent when foliage plants are introduced. Indoor plants do not only look and smell nice, they could save your life, claim scientists from research by the World Health Organisation. Prof Kays said: "As well as the obvious health benefits, the increased use of indoor plants in both 'green' and traditional buildings could have a tremendous positive impact on the ornamental plant industry by increasing customer demand and sales." Adding these plants to indoor spaces can reduce stress, increase performance at work and reduce symptoms of ill health. Read more about this research here. Part of our human make up is to enjoy nature and this includes the presence of plants. Plants show that your company cares about the office environment, its staff and corporate image.
Why do my plant start to lean slightly? All plants consume light to survive. Many will bend themselves outside of their natural growth habit to reach towards light. A plant on a windowsill will turn to face the sun. In one sense, it seems almost a conscious reaction that a plant would bend to move shaded parts of itself into light so that it can continue to photosynthesize at its full potential.
I love my plants. How do I get some more? Call us on 0800 587 46 72 and choose option 1. Alternately email us on info@funkyyukka.co.uk
I have a query about my bill. Who shall contact? Call us on 0800 587 46 72 and choose option 2. Alternately email us on accounts@funkyyukka.co.uk I have a query regarding the maintenance visits. Who shall I contact? Call us on 0800 587 46 72 and choose option 3. Alternately email us on operations@funkyyukka.co.uk
I have a complaint or issue. What shall I do? Without your feedback we can’t fix issues that we are unaware of. If you have a complaint or specific issue please contact our Operations department who will endeavor to do everything we can to resolve any problems you may have.
What will happen during bank holiday, public holidays and extended periods when the offices are closed ? Please rest assured that we will make every effort to attend your site as normal; however there may be irregular intervals between your visits. We hope you understand these circumstances are beyond our control and this will have very limited or no impact on your plant displays. We would appreciate your help over this period by NOT turning the heating off in rooms in which plants are present and maintaining good levels of light by not closing blinds or curtains.
Moss walls, what are the requirements and expectations? • Moss walls use natural moss effectively frozen in time through a ‘mummification’ process and does not require watering or maintenance. • Any natural product is subject to change in size, colour, look, density and overall appearance. • In addition to these changes over time moss may detach from the wall and may create debris from shedding foliage. • Please note the moss wall is for display purposes only. • The moss wall is not designed for very high traffic and footfall areas. • The wall is designed for minimal contact and should not have any other items attached or used within its structure. • The moss wall is not designed for continual tactile usage and therefore once installed should be left untouched by users. Colour maximiser maybe present which can transfer to surrounding objects. • Moss has a natural smell (the small of nature) in it’s natural environment sometimes this isn’t noticeable however once isolated in an internal environment the smell can become noticeable. The larger the wall the more intense the smell. This smell will settle and dissipate over time. • Not suitable for use in close proximity to water. • Not suitable for high moisture environments. • Due to the 100% unique and individual nature of moss produced on a batch by batch basis no COSHH or Fire Safety or Data Sheets are available for this product. • Curved walls built using individual panels and not one continual piece. Edges, lines and gaps between panels maybe visible. Site Specific Notes • Existing Electrical Sockets maybe be covered up with new moss wall installation. No cut outs have been allowed. • Wall battening maybe required to provide level surface. • Usually floor skirting / upstand not covered by wall for cleaning purposes. • Decorative returns maybe required on each side. • It is the clients responsibility to ensure walls are suitable for mounting fixing and loading. • Walls may be installed in one piece or several. Clear access must be available via lifts, stairs and corridors.