By Ebele Orakpo
Ornamental plants do not only beautify our homes and landscape, and make the environment more friendly as they absorb most of the harmful gases, giving out life-giving oxygen in the process, they are also a good source of foreign exchange.

Ornamental plants

In a chat with Vanguard recently in the Rayfield area of Jos, Plateau State, Mrs. Happiness Agyeno, a law student/horticulturist and the Managing Director of Lush Exteriors, stated that the world demand for roses alone is up to $7.5 billion annually and as at 2004/2005, the world producers could only meet $2.5b of that demand with the remaining $5b waiting to be tapped into and she believes  Nigeria can gain from that. Excerpts:

According to Mrs Happiness Agyeno, the company which was started by her husband, Mr. Otuwose Agyeno about 10 years ago, deals mainly on horticulture and landscaping as well as consultancy services. Mr. Agyeno ran the outfit until a few years ago when he handed over to his wife to pursue further studies and later got employed in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Jos as an assistant lecturer.

Said Mr. Agyeno: “I ventured into this business after my service year. Before my service year, I picked interest in botany but before then, I had done my industrial attachment in a horticultural firm close to my house. And from then, I became interested in the nature of plants. I then became an apprentice in that same firm before my graduation from the university. During my service year, I saved about N5,500.00  a friend provided the land so I used the money to buy cow dung, soil, polythene bags and other materials.

It’s all about growing plants – from the nursery, we transplant to bigger bags for display. The owner of the firm where I did my apprenticeship was so nice she gave me an outright permission to come to her place and get cuttings and seeds from any plant that is ready for pruning or trimming so that I can go and propagate on my own. So getting the mother plant was not a problem.”

Mr. Agyeno who described horticulture as the art and science of propagating and cultivating ornamental plants, orchards or economic trees and other flowers, said: “ Horticulture is a broad field. You can narrow it down to the growth of economic trees, flowers, especially cut flowers like roses. And then you can go into landscaping and utilise a lot of shrubs, hedges, and trees. It is an art because it involves design and creativity and it is a science because you have to understand the physiology, geography and the botany of plants.”

Speaking on the initial problems encountered by the outfit which has six employees, Mr Agyeno who has a master’s degree in  Cytogenetics and Plant Breeding, pointed out that water was the major problem. “At the beginning, I did not have money to get connected to the water board or to dig a well. It was after a year that I was able to save some money to dig a well and get a pumping machine and things became easier.

But within that one year, I had to walk more than a hundred metres to a neighbour’s well to fetch water for the plants.”
According to him, in 2005 while pursuing his master’s degree at the University of Jos, the job became too tedious so he had to introduce his wife to the business because of the interest she had shown.

Lush Exteriors which offers a list of services ranging from designing, landscaping, fumigation, supply of plants, seedlings and then planting them on site and routine maintenance, has clients cut across the private and public sectors. “We offer advice to local government on the kinds of plants that would be suitable for the different areas and suggest trees based on the nature of the soil around the area because  some of these plants are not suitable for some soils,” said Mrs Agyeno.

On prices of the plants, Mrs Agyeno noted that prices vary depending on the type of plant and the size. She said they grow special hybrid roses. “A seedling of the grafted roses goes for N350.00 without pot. There are plants that go for N25 or N30.00 like the popular yellow bush or the station master used in designs. So we sell them as low as N20, N30.00 per seedling whereas plants like palms, masquerade trees, pines, the conifers, etc, go for between N300 and N500.00 depending on the size. We have satellite plants which fall in this category.

Then there are special shrubs like ice plants, Ficus Benjamina or the Weeping Fig etc. They are special because you can use them as specimens in landscaping and also for hedging. They are beautiful on their own and when combined so they go for between N150 and N300. 00.

Then some clients come to either buy plants or take us to their sites. We look at the site, design and recommend the plants, then supply the plants; while some clients prefer to choose their own plants while others give us the privilege to do as we deem fit so the price will vary.”

Mr Agyeno informed that roses are peculiar to Plateau State and appealed to the government to do something urgently about it, saying that countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Israel and Holland earn foreign exchange from it. “Roses are very important economically.

The temperate nature of Plateau State encourages the growth of roses. You know they prefer temperate climate and there are roses of export standard. We usually import such from France and England and grow them here. They are special because they have no thorns so you can easily work with them.

I wish the government, especially the Plateau State Government, would develop interest in roses. There used to be a rose exporting company, one Helena Farms but it has been closed down now due to management problems.”

Mrs Agyeno noted that though she could not tell exactly how much they make annually without consulting her books,  but said emphatically that the business is profitable. “In the last three weeks, we did a contract of  N135,000 and I am sure before the rainy season is over, we might get more.”