One of the recent projects we completed was for a premier shopping center located in Del Mar, a beautiful beach city in San Diego, California. The Flower Hill Promenade houses a network of high-end shops and restaurants. This sophisticated area needed a sign that reflected its grandeur, which is why their design team approached us to create a monument sign that matched their brand. Read on to see what happened next. 

ENVISIONING A SIGN MADE OF FLOWERS 

Since the Flower Hill shopping center's theme is flowers, they wanted a brand-centric sign that both welcomed and wowed shoppers. With this in mind, we set about creating a sign that perfectly reflected this theme, and one that also fit our client's upscale reputation. On top of that, the sign also had to be durable enough to withstand an outdoor environment open to the elements, and a high traffic area where there was the potential for damage. 

At Planters Unlimited, we take all of these things—brand personality, pleasing aesthetics, and long-lasting durability—into consideration when working with our clients on commercial projects. For Flower Hill Promenade, this meant creating a large enough sign so that it could be seen by all shoppers arriving and exiting, as well as by passersby on the main street. After some deliberation, our design team came up with a sketch for a 40-foot monument sign constructed of five 8-foot "sections" of fiberglass planters. Not only are fiberglass planters lightweight and easy to move, but they also weather heat and cold conditions beautifully and their commercial-grade construct makes them ideal for high-traffic areas. Our clients loved our design! So we set to work. 

BUILDING A 40-FOOT LIVING SIGN 

Our team custom-built each of the eight rectangular Modern fiberglass planters so that their profiles angled down from the back of the planter towards the front, creating a horizontal surface that made the sign highly visible to the center's entrance and to the street. 

The planters themselves were made with false bottoms, leaving about 10" of space—the perfect amount to house shallow plants, their roots, and soil. By constructing the planters in such a way, we were able to save our clients time and money on extra soil and the care needed for a deeper planting arrangement. All of this was accomplished without sacrificing the overall look. Shallow-rooted plants like succulents and perennials—the types of plants our clients would use—would thrive in this planter-sign. 

The planters would, when placed all together, create a 40-foot sign that spelled "Flower Hill" in plants and flowers. To accomplish this, our team created drop-in PVC stencils of these letters. The client could then easily drop in flowers within the letters of the stencils, and greenery around them, creating a visual of the words popping with color from a lush, green background. 

A DESIGN AS CHANGEABLE AS THE SEASONS 

When designing the drop-in stencils for the planters, our goal was to make something that could easily be switched out with other stencils—giving our client the option of changing their sign with the season or when promoting special events. Can you imagine driving into a shopping center around the holidays and seeing a 40-foot display of Santa and his reindeer, made entirely of flowers? 

Anything is possible with this planter-sign that is so easily changeable that all you do is drop in a stencil and fill in and around it with the plants and flowers of your choice! What a simple—and cost-effective—way to instantly refresh your design! And if you don't want the cost and maintenance of live plants, you can always use lifelike, outdoor-rated faux flowers that look fresh all year long! 

WHAT CUSTOM PROJECTS ARE YOU STARTING? 

Do you have an idea for a commercial project of your own? We can help! With over three decades' experience in the commercial design and manufacturing space, we know the ins and outs of commercial landscape design and what it takes to make products that last for years—and maintain their beauty—in public areas. 

Our custom manufacturing capabilities know no limits—not only can we design and build custom, commercial-grade fiberglass planters to your exact specifications (including oversized and odd shapes), but our team will provide assistance from the planning steps all the way through to installation. 

Some samples of our custom projects: 

What ideas do you have in mind to make your business stand out? Whatever the idea, we can help you achieve it! Call us today at 1-888-320-0626 and let's get started!