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A small plant put in an office ten years ago has turned into this 300FT monster – filling the entire building and hanging over every desk.
Boss Des Brennan, 54, bought the ivy as a small potted cutting a decade ago to brighten up his work space.
He says he placed it in the corner of the office of his company and it quickly grew to around 3ft.
But it then “absolutely flourished” – apparently boosted by the florescent lights and warm air.
It now trails up the walls and along the ceiling – dangling an incredible 300ft around the office building – adorning most desks.
The epic plant now fills the office of Protective Solutions Ltd. in Stonehouse, Glos. – the packaging company Des founded in 2006.
And Des said that the plant is still growing at a rate of around six inches every month.
He said: “It’s done really well. We put it in the corner of the office in the pot that it came in, and it just flourished.
“I think it likes the fluorescent lights in here, and the heat. In the summer, when the leaves all come out, it’s more like a canopy in here.”
And Des added that the plant is very low-maintenance, requiring almost no looking after at all.
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Image by: Jon Mills
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He said: “It takes almost nothing. In the winter months, when all the leaves die off, we don’t have to do anything with it.
“We only water it once every couple of days, about half a pint of water. It does cost a fortune in elastic bands though, to pin it onto the roof.
“It’s a very defiant plant. If you happen to catch a bit of branch in a door, and break it off the plant, it seems to grow a few more shoots in its place.”
He added: “It’s a big talking point. A lot of people know our office as the one with the big plant.
“There’s a team of eight of us here. Some of the girls talk to the plant, but I don’t believe in all that stuff.
“We do get quite a few spiders hiding in the plant, but I don’t blame the plant for that.
We have a lot of fun at Christmas – we hang lights and baubles from it.
“When it grows too big to fit in the office, we’ll have to punch a hole in the roof and let it grow up on the mezzanine.
“We’ve got an open-plan office, it’s about 50 foot long by about 25 foot wide.
“It goes round our office a couple of times, and then criss-crosses across the ceiling too. It’s absolutely massive.”
Des added: ”I think between the server heat, and the computers, and the nature of the people working here, and their good will, it’s absolutely thrived.
”It’s well over 300ft long – I think it calms people down. i think it’s nice to have something green, something living in the office, and I think it’s very therapeutic.”
One worker, a sales executive called Charlotte, said: ”I don’t really like spiders and we have a few spiders that hide in the plant.
”We do have a good laugh about it. We keep threatening to cut it and prune it for Des, but he won’t let us.
”I think he measures it before he goes away to make sure we haven’t done anything to it.”
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