Green Gifting: How Promoplants Grows Brands by Printing on Plants

Editor's Note: This article was written for Promo Impressions. For more content on promotional products decoration, be sure to subscribe to the biweekly newsletter at PromoImpressions.com. 

Pens, notebooks, drinkware – these are the types of items you think of when someone brings up promotional products. Printed plants wouldn’t usually be on that list, but that’s what Promoplants brings to the market. The Netherlands-based company not only prints on plant boxes and flowerpots, but it also prints directly to plant leaves and bulbs, offering specialty gifts to the promotional products market, without harming the living plant.

Perry Grootscholten, co-founder of Promoplants, holding the Smylieplant. | Credit: Promoplants

“We are the only one who personalizes flowers, plants, and flower bulbs like this,” Perry Grootscholten, co-founder of Promoplants, tells Promo Impressions. “We distinguish ourselves by really applying a personalization to the product, the plant or flower bulb itself. In addition, we can of course provide personalized packaging, cards and plant labels, because this completes the concept. But what distinguishes us and makes us unique is really the personalization on the product.”

Planting a New Idea in Promo 

The company’s owners have been in the plant business for many years but are new to the corporate gifting and promotional products space, Grootscholten shares.  

“Over the years, we gained more and more experience with printing flowers and plants; we did this with our other company, Greencre8,” Grootscholten says.  

Promoplants, which got its start in 2022, is the promotional gift division of Greencre8, a flower and plant company founded in 2012 that specializes in creating innovative plant products for wholesalers and retailers. Greencre8 works with local growers to create specialty plant and flower offerings for consumers. The partners it works with are all MPS-certified, meaning they meet requirements for traceability, environment, and crop protection. 

“We add value to the plant,” he continues. “For example, the heartplant — we print with texts like ‘I love you,’ ‘For the best mom,’ ‘Wonderful Christmas.’ The plants with the texts or other added value go back to the grower, and they sell these to the garden centre and flower shops.” 

After years of R&D, the team perfected plant printing and launched Promoplants to serve the promotional products industry. 

“The business of gifts, promotional items, etc. was totally new for us,” Grootscholten adds. “We are still learning, listening, and growing. We want to be the address for personalized flowers and plants in Europe. If we want this, we have to be able to offer everything, from a print on the plant to personalized packaging. This takes a lot of time, but we are well on our way.” 

Promoplants offerings span several unique concepts and different collections, including:  

• Message Printz 

• No Water Flowers 

• Smylieplant 

• Congreet plant pots 

Message Printz comes in a few varieties, including a heart-shaped Hoya Kerri plant, a cut anthurium, and a Singolo orchid. Each can be customized with a print on the plant or flower petals.  

No Water Flowers live up to their name! The flowers don’t require water, featuring a handmade wax amaryllis bulb that’s fully customizable with a logo or slogan. The Amaryllis bulbs don’t require any care, so it’s a no-strings-attached kind of gift.  

The Smylieplant is a Pilea peperomioides, also known as the pancake plant, featuring three smiley faces on individual leaves. It can also be customized with a logo or slogan.  

And products like the Congreet plant pots offer opportunities for additional customization – engraving the concrete pot and/or printing directly on the leaves. This is another minimal-maintenance option.

“From low budget to high budget, for on the desk or as a luxury gift, we try to use flowers and plants, which are easy to care [for] and which can stay for a long time to stay visible on the desk,” Grootscholten shares. Whether a company wants to show a token of appreciation for its employees, welcome a new hire, or thank a client, promotional plants provide a fresh alternative to traditional promo products.  

Promoplants has a 50-piece minimum, and customers can personalize gift sets even further with extras like chocolates, cards, or other items supplied by the distributor or client. 

The Smylieplant (left) and Heartplant (right) are some of Promoplants most requested personalized products. | Credit: Promoplants

Taking Special Care 

While Grootscholten can't reveal the exact techniques Promoplants uses to decorate its plants, he says the special technique “doesn’t affect the lifespan of the plants,” but it does pose some unique challenges. 

“Plants are all different – different shapes, sizes, etc.,” he explains. “Sometimes plants are wet or greasy, which makes it not easy. I think our biggest serious challenge is to make everything clear to our resellers (and their customers), because resellers normally work with hardware and not with living and fresh products.” 

Logistically, it takes some planning. Unlike hard goods, these can’t be stocked in advance. “Communication is so incredibly important for our trade with living flowers and plants,” Grootscholten says, noting that strategic planning around in-hand dates and careful delivery is essential.

“We then have to make good planning together with our resellers because we do not have a company hall full of stock flowers and plants,” he explains. “The plants grow at the growers, and when we need plants, they are delivered to us, and we will have to process those within a day or a few days. They are fresh products, so we cannot start personalizing them two weeks in advance.” 

To ensure safe shipping, it works with a reliable partner who understands the fragility of the products. They must remain upright and at safe temperatures to ensure quality is maintained. “That is why it is usually necessary to ship our products by pallet, even for low quantities,” the company website states. “There are a few exceptions, but if pallet transport is always assumed, it can only be better than expected.” 

When the plants are well-maintained, Promoplants assures the personalization will stay on the plants as long as they're cared for and well-maintained. The print won’t disappear or fade from the plant over time, making for a long-lasting, unique corporate gift or promotional product. 

Asking what he envisions for the future of Promoplants, Grootscholten says the company wants to see more “green gifts” in the market rather than “casual gifts." With hopes of expanding in Germany and a mission to cultivate green gifting across Europe, Promoplants is poised to grow far beyond its roots.