Sick of the same old flowerbeds and containers? This spring, don’t just
update your landscape. Wavescape it. Wavescaping — adding Wave^® petunias
outdoors — can improve any space, no matter how big or small. The
all-around, up-and-down planting of vibrant Wave petunias adds dynamic
curb appeal and stylish décor to home gardens, patios or balconies.

Arrange a mixture of hanging baskets with Easy Wave(R) burgundy star and white petunias for a gorgeous summer display. (Photo: Business Wire)

“As the weather begins to warm up, many homeowners and apartment and
condo dwellers are looking for simple, low-cost projects to spruce up,
add color and bring new life to their spaces, indoor and out,” says
Claire Watson, Wave brand manager and Wavescaping Wizard. “Wavescaping
is the perfect weekend DIY project for those looking to renew their
outdoor spaces. It’s like remodeling your living room outside.”

Whether you’re a novice or an expert, Wavescaping gives gardeners the
opportunity to get creative and revitalize existing areas. And because
Wave petunias are available in five easy, spreading habits and more than
50 colors and mixes, the Wavescaping options are endless.

“Gardeners in small, urban spaces can add a pop of vibrant color by
Wavescaping their balconies with a trendy container display, and those
with more room can add larger, trailing Wave petunias to a window box or
front flowerbed,” Watson says. “If it has a Wave petunia, it’s a
Wavescape.”

There’s no project too big or too small for the Wave family. So what
kind of garden challenge can Wavescaping solve for you?

• You want to impress the neighbors …take advantage of the
  beautiful, spreading and trailing habit of traditional Wave
  petunias by creating vibrant, ground-hugging carpets of color
  throughout your yard. Make a statement by lining the walkway to your
  front door. Increase curb appeal with petunias cascading over your
  landscaping. Park a wagon in your front yard and fill it with a bed of
  your favorite color bloom. These dramatic, living displays are sure to
  impress the neighbors!
• You want to try something new … grow “up” with your garden. Break
  the traditional mold and maximize your garden space by creating
  vertical planters and living walls of color using mounding Tidal
  Wave petunias. With a few supplies, a simple wire frame and a
  variety of your favorite Wave petunias, you’ll be able to cover up an
  unsightly space in your yard, like an air conditioner or old fence,
  with a unique wall.
  Or, create a tower
  or
  tree that will outshine any flowering tree. If you want to try
  something different, fill your tower with mixed herbs or compact
  growing vegetables to make it edible. To add flair, try incorporating
  other warm-season plants, such as calibrachoa, verbena or vinca.
• You have limited space … adorn your front porch and create a lush
  hanging basket by placing three 4-inch petite blooming Shock
  Wave petunia plants in a 10- or 12-inch basket or container. Don’t
  over pack your container. Your plants shouldn’t fight for the
  nutrients they need to spread and cascade over the sides. Give these
  compact plants space to grow and watch how fast they fill in! For
  added flair, incorporate other warm-season varieties for a mixed
  container, or add seasonal items from the craft store, such as
  American flags, citrus fruit or ornamental birds.
• You’re not a gardener … but rather a decorator at heart, so
  beautify your backyard while shedding a little light in your garden.
  Try a simple project for your outdoor patio. Turn a hanging basket of Easy
  Wave petunias into an elegant candelabra
  with a few simple steps. Insert four tapered candles directly into the
  soil of your 12-inch hanging basket of petunias straight and securely,
  letting them burn until just above the flowers. Your guests will be
  impressed with this touch of sophistication at your next outdoor
  dinner party.
• You need a gift in a snap … give the gift of growing,festive
  planters of colorful Easy
  Wave petunias. They make the perfect gift for the girl who has
  everything! Whether it’s for your mom this Mother’s Day or the hostess
  of the next backyard barbeque you attend, a basket of blooming
  petunias is a pleasant surprise that keeps on giving. If you are the
  hostess, give away pink or blue bundles of petunias in pots as door
  prizes for the next baby shower you throw. Or, you can delight a bride
  with a spread of take-home centerpieces in the theme of her wedding
  palette.

For a library of Wavescaping imagery, click
here.

Find more warm-season ideas and inspiration on the newly redesigned www.Wave-Rave.com,
or m.Wave-Rave.com
on your mobile device. There, you’ll find videos, photos and music to
provide motivation, as well as a retail locator to find Wave near you.

ABOUT WAVE™: The Wave^™ Family has provided gardeners
with easy-spreading color since the introduction of Wave^™
petunias in 1995. The five types of petunias — Original Wave^™,
Tidal Wave^™, Double Wave^™, Easy Wave^™
and Shock Wave^™ — offers dramatic color, exceptionally long
bloom time, and fantastic mounding and trailing habits for garden beds
and containers. Joining the Wave Family in 2012, Cool Wave pansies
provide the same vigorous spreading and trailing habits with the
addition of hardiness and vibrant color during the cool seasons. For
more information, visit wave-rave.com.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130506006236/en/

Contacts

Bader Rutter
Mary Anderson, 262-938-5425
manderson@bader-rutter.com

Sick of the same old flowerbeds and containers? This spring, don’t just
update your landscape. Wavescape it. Wavescaping — adding Wave^® petunias
outdoors — can improve any space, no matter how big or small. The
all-around, up-and-down planting of vibrant Wave petunias adds dynamic
curb appeal and stylish décor to home gardens, patios or balconies.

Arrange a mixture of hanging baskets with Easy Wave(R) burgundy star and white petunias for a gorgeous summer display. (Photo: Business Wire)

“As the weather begins to warm up, many homeowners and apartment and
condo dwellers are looking for simple, low-cost projects to spruce up,
add color and bring new life to their spaces, indoor and out,” says
Claire Watson, Wave brand manager and Wavescaping Wizard. “Wavescaping
is the perfect weekend DIY project for those looking to renew their
outdoor spaces. It’s like remodeling your living room outside.”

Whether you’re a novice or an expert, Wavescaping gives gardeners the
opportunity to get creative and revitalize existing areas. And because
Wave petunias are available in five easy, spreading habits and more than
50 colors and mixes, the Wavescaping options are endless.

“Gardeners in small, urban spaces can add a pop of vibrant color by
Wavescaping their balconies with a trendy container display, and those
with more room can add larger, trailing Wave petunias to a window box or
front flowerbed,” Watson says. “If it has a Wave petunia, it’s a
Wavescape.”

There’s no project too big or too small for the Wave family. So what
kind of garden challenge can Wavescaping solve for you?

• You want to impress the neighbors …take advantage of the
  beautiful, spreading and trailing habit of traditional Wave
  petunias by creating vibrant, ground-hugging carpets of color
  throughout your yard. Make a statement by lining the walkway to your
  front door. Increase curb appeal with petunias cascading over your
  landscaping. Park a wagon in your front yard and fill it with a bed of
  your favorite color bloom. These dramatic, living displays are sure to
  impress the neighbors!
• You want to try something new … grow “up” with your garden. Break
  the traditional mold and maximize your garden space by creating
  vertical planters and living walls of color using mounding Tidal
  Wave petunias. With a few supplies, a simple wire frame and a
  variety of your favorite Wave petunias, you’ll be able to cover up an
  unsightly space in your yard, like an air conditioner or old fence,
  with a unique wall.
  Or, create a tower
  or
  tree that will outshine any flowering tree. If you want to try
  something different, fill your tower with mixed herbs or compact
  growing vegetables to make it edible. To add flair, try incorporating
  other warm-season plants, such as calibrachoa, verbena or vinca.
• You have limited space … adorn your front porch and create a lush
  hanging basket by placing three 4-inch petite blooming Shock
  Wave petunia plants in a 10- or 12-inch basket or container. Don’t
  over pack your container. Your plants shouldn’t fight for the
  nutrients they need to spread and cascade over the sides. Give these
  compact plants space to grow and watch how fast they fill in! For
  added flair, incorporate other warm-season varieties for a mixed
  container, or add seasonal items from the craft store, such as
  American flags, citrus fruit or ornamental birds.
• You’re not a gardener … but rather a decorator at heart, so
  beautify your backyard while shedding a little light in your garden.
  Try a simple project for your outdoor patio. Turn a hanging basket of Easy
  Wave petunias into an elegant candelabra
  with a few simple steps. Insert four tapered candles directly into the
  soil of your 12-inch hanging basket of petunias straight and securely,
  letting them burn until just above the flowers. Your guests will be
  impressed with this touch of sophistication at your next outdoor
  dinner party.
• You need a gift in a snap … give the gift of growing,festive
  planters of colorful Easy
  Wave petunias. They make the perfect gift for the girl who has
  everything! Whether it’s for your mom this Mother’s Day or the hostess
  of the next backyard barbeque you attend, a basket of blooming
  petunias is a pleasant surprise that keeps on giving. If you are the
  hostess, give away pink or blue bundles of petunias in pots as door
  prizes for the next baby shower you throw. Or, you can delight a bride
  with a spread of take-home centerpieces in the theme of her wedding
  palette.

For a library of Wavescaping imagery, click
here.

Find more warm-season ideas and inspiration on the newly redesigned www.Wave-Rave.com,
or m.Wave-Rave.com
on your mobile device. There, you’ll find videos, photos and music to
provide motivation, as well as a retail locator to find Wave near you.

ABOUT WAVE™: The Wave^™ Family has provided gardeners
with easy-spreading color since the introduction of Wave^™
petunias in 1995. The five types of petunias — Original Wave^™,
Tidal Wave^™, Double Wave^™, Easy Wave^™
and Shock Wave^™ — offers dramatic color, exceptionally long
bloom time, and fantastic mounding and trailing habits for garden beds
and containers. Joining the Wave Family in 2012, Cool Wave pansies
provide the same vigorous spreading and trailing habits with the
addition of hardiness and vibrant color during the cool seasons. For
more information, visit wave-rave.com.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130506006236/en/

Contacts

Bader Rutter
Mary Anderson, 262-938-5425
manderson@bader-rutter.com

TIMMINS – 

There was really something for everyone at the 24 Annual Timmins Home Show at the McIntyre Arena all weekend long.

“We have such a great variety of participants this year,” explained Home Show co-ordinator Caroline Mallette. “We’ve got everything from home improvement, we have landscaping, we have home-based business. Those are really big this year, they really came out and wanted to promote themselves, which is great. We’ve got vendors from Southern Ontario, of course our local vendors, right down to the Farmer’s Market. There’s stuff for kids. There’s something for everybody.”

Just hours away from tear-down on Sunday, Mallette said she expected the final tally of people attending the event to be in the high thousands.

“It’s been excellent,” she said. “We’ve had an absolutely fantastic turn-out, especially considering the flooding that’s going on. It’s the second beautiful weekend we’ve had since our very long winter. There’s other events going on in the community right now, but the attendance hasn’t tapered off at all.

“We made some changes this year with the layout just to spice it up a little bit. Before we had a traditional layout where everybody walked in a circle and we had people down the middle and all around. Now we’re kind of snaking around, so we’re calling it ‘the IKEA layout.’ It seems to be going great, we’ve had some great reviews on it.”

Residents seemed to make a point of visiting the event at least once during the course of the weekend. Mallette explained how it’s one of the best opportunities for local and small businesses to strut their stuff. She added that she already had big ideas in mind for next year’s big 25th anniversary.

“We’ll be closing this event later today, and by next week, I’m planning next year’s Home Show,” said Mallette, clearly looking forward to the challenge.

“We take all the feedback seriously and we’ll build from that to make it a better experience for people in Timmins and the surrounding area.”

Among the close to 100 booths set up at the Home Show, Michael Bellmore of Shoppers Home Health Care was showing off the benefits of one of the company’s mini-vans converted for wheelchair accessibility.

Though based in Sudbury, Bellmore said the Home Show is one the premier opportunities in the North for sales representatives like him to show off their product.

“This van has a lowered floor and it kind of kneels so that slope is only 9.2 degrees at any time and can be easily accessed by a wheelchair,” explained Bellmore.

“When we get up every morning, we go for a pee by ourselves, we make our own cup of coffee, we feed ourselves, we shower and dress ourselves, and we get ourselves to work. A lot of my clients would kill to be able to do any of those things. We take it for granted every day.”

Northern Marble and Granite’s Barb Pandolfo said she was busy throughout the week talking about some of the giant slabs of colourful granite she had on display.

“Every slab is like a snowflake,” she commented. “My favourite is when you see the finished product in somebody’s house. The slabs are beautiful, but when it gets made into a counter-top, it’s so impressive.”

Timmins resident Chris Wylie leaned back in a solid wood Muskoka chair while his wife looked at some of the items in another booth nearby. Wylie said he was simply taking a break from touring the many booths set up throughout the arena.

“It’s been going well, it’s been good so far,” he said. “We’ve got renovations coming up soon, so we’re seeing what there is out there. It’s a good event to see what’s new. It’s not just for show, you can get stuff done here.”

Four months later, David Sardinas of Central Florida Electric was fine-tuning the electrical connections to provide power and sound throughout a brick and sod-lined courtyard.

“It’s beautiful,” Principal Donna Dunson said of the new entrance area.

A student plaza has taken shape, part of what Dunson calls a three-year “evolution of change” with academic, teaching, environment and technology improvements to create a school where students want to excel.

Robin Gibson, chair of the Lake Wales Charter Schools Foundation, said the plaza cost a bit more than $200,000, all from community donations.

The design was pulled together by Lake Wales landscape architect Marshall S. Whidden and Parlier Architects of Lake Wales, based on ideas Gibson brought from public parks during a visit to New York City.

Gibson said he liked having steps as seating areas and having the planters low enough to sit on.

“It’s really a multipurpose gathering place,” he said.

Positioned in front of the high school at 1 Highlander Way in Lake Wales, the new student plaza has a curved stage and steps on the east end, a backdrop of young Muskogee crape myrtle trees, five entrances, brick paver sections separated by sod and four trapezoid planters flanking a round platform in the center.

“If you make it all pavement and all bricks in the Florida heat, it becomes a frying pan,” Gibson said.

He said the sod will soften and cool the surface as well as provide natural drainage for rain.

A gentle slope down from the stage helps set the stage above the rest of the plaza. The planters will hold stands of bamboo — Dunson’s favorite, Gibson said.

And as planned, the platform will eventually house a human sundial: A place for people to stand to let their shadows tell the time, he said.

Gibson said a dedication ceremony will wait for the start of the next school year, after the bamboo is growing and concrete-sphere bollards in “Highlander orange” are installed at the site entrances.

The bollards are on order and should take about three weeks to arrive, Gibson said.

“It exceeded my expectations,” Gibson said. “I’m usually pretty good at visualizing from plans. (But) to be at ground level and see what it could do, was really more than I expected.”

General contractor Vincent Coconato of Oakwood Builders Inc. in Lake Wales said some of the subcontractors had workers there every day during the excavating and cement-pouring process.

“A lot of hard-working people did this,” Coconato said.

In addition to his respect for Level Line Concrete and Paradise Landscaping, Coconato also said he’d gained a new respect for electrical contractors.

Each planter has a sound and electrical outlet set into poured concrete walls, and the electrical workers were present through each step to set conduits with wire into the forms before the concrete was poured, he said.

Whidden was also there during each step to check the alignment, Coconato said.

Chris Reams, assistant principal of testing and facilities, said all wires will run to a pole at the school’s main entrance to hook into a sound board.

He also said each planter will have a faux rock speaker to provide background music or public addresses.

When asked if the curved stage and steps would work for graduation, Reams laughed.

“There’s not enough seating for that,” he said.

Phil Attinger may be reached at phil.attinger@newschief.com or 863-401-6981 and followed on Twitter at @PhilAttinger.

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) –

Over a thousand people went to Mesker Park Zoo this weekend for the annual Bloomin’ Zoo Garden festival. 

“Everybody likes to do their own landscape, so we like to give them good options here for in our climate. We’re growing a lot more heat-tolerant plants and it’s great to come out to the zoo and get ideas for your own landscape,” said Paul Bouseman, the Botanical Curator at Mesker Park Zoo. 

This marks the 12th year for the event.

Copyright 2013 WFIE. All rights reserved. 

 

A young Jack Russell terrier mix nearly died in San Marcos, Calif., after ingesting a toxic plant, and now, her concerned guardian wants to warn other pet owners of the danger, reported Thursday’s ABC 10 News.

Recently, Mitchell Woolsey’s 14-month-old pup named “Lily,” ate part of a Sago Palm, a plant commonly used for landscaping in southern states.

The toxic effect of the deadly plant quickly took effect on the young dog, who began to display symptoms of lethargy.

Her alert guardians recognized that there was a problem and she was rushed to a veterinary clinic where she fought to recover for three days.

Lily managed to pull through, thanks to the prompt veterinary attention, but things could have ended much differently if the Woolseys would have waited.

Woolsey stated:

“They basically told us this is deadly,”

Every guardian should be aware that all portions of this plant are toxic to dogs, and if they fail to vomit what they consume back up, the risk of dying is high. In fact, dogs who have consumed a portion of this toxic plant have only a 50 percent chance of survival, even with treatment.

According to Pet Poison Hotline, the following are symptoms which dogs may exhibit if they ingest the Sago Palm:

• Diarrhea or vomiting
• Lethargy
• Inappetance
• Abnormal fluid accumulation in the abdomen
• Abdominal pain
• Jaundice
• Black-tarry stool

If you suspect that your dog has ingested any portion of the Sago Palm, please seek immediate veterinary care.

If you would like to continue receiving the latest dog related news, tips and advice, please click the “Subscribe” icon which is located at the top of this column. It is free and anonymous to sign up

For updates and further discussion, follow the National Dog News Examiner on Facebook and Twitter!

I am human, if you see a typo, please let me know. Questions, comments or story ideas can be emailed to Eims1@live.com.

Monmouth College’s Center for Science and Business was designed to integrate the science and business disciplines for innovative teaching and learning opportunities. A $40 million project, the building will be formally dedicated on Friday, May 10.

Monmouth, Illinois (PRWEB) May 03, 2013

At the heart of the picturesque, 106-year-old campus of Monmouth College is the new $40 million Center for Science and Business, a 138,000-sq.-ft. building that integrates science and business in a way that will provide unique learning and teaching opportunities for students and faculty.

The Center will be formally dedicated with a ceremony on May 10 at 3 p.m. with veteran WGN Radio agribusiness reporter Orion Samuelson providing the keynote address.

“Monmouth College has audacious goals,” said President Mauri Ditzler. “We expect that the Center for Science and Business is going to produce graduates who will change the world. It seems entirely appropriate that our keynote speaker Orion Samuelson’s recent autobiography is titled ‘You Can’t Dream Big Enough,’ and that he has also happened to spend his career at the intersection of science and business.”

The Center for Science and Business is the first new building totally dedicated to academics to be built on campus in four decades and is now the College’s largest structure. Students will begin taking classes in the Center at the start of the fall semester in August.

The design of the building was driven by the belief that an education for the 21st century must highlight the integration of knowledge, and that excellent colleges go beyond offering good courses by helping students understand how all their courses fit together.

“When we designed our building, we didn’t want to focus on intersections, such as having biology next to chemistry, and where the two departments touch, that’s biochemistry,” Ditzler said. “We wanted to get all the students and faculty in the building to mix – not just a few. That’s why we put in the Great Room, which will provide what I like to call ‘serendipitous learning spaces’ – places where students and faculty will casually and accidentally interact.”

Under development for more than seven years, the project began to take shape in 2007 with a major gift from the Edward Arthur Mellinger Educational Foundation, which funded the development of building plans by the award-winning international architectural firm Burt Hill, a specialist in scientific and academic facilities. Ground was broken in the summer of 2011 and construction has continued steadily over the ensuing months.

In December, a time capsule was placed in a wall near the building’s main entrance. Inside the capsule were items from each of the nine majors that will be housed inside the new building – accounting, biology, biochemistry, biopsychology, business, chemistry, mathematics and computer science, physics and psychology – as well as other official college documents.

At the May 10 dedication, students representing each of the disciplines that will be housed in the Center will deposit soil samples into containers, to be used in the landscaping of the grounds. The samples were collected in 2011 from the hometowns of members of the current sophomore class, who presented them on the day of the building’s cornerstone dedication that year.

The opening of the Center for Science and Business symbolizes the central nature of science and business in Monmouth College’s curriculum and reflects the College’s vision to provide a space that will produce graduates who are well prepared for success in a global economy.

“We want our business students to leave here with a real knowledge of what’s happening on the cutting edge of science,” Ditzler said. “We want them to be comfortable talking to science students. We want them to form contacts they will use later in life. And the reverse – we want our science students to be comfortable with ideas of business.”

# # #

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/5/prweb10696829.htm

FLORENCE, S.C. — Hard hats have been the fashion trend in downtown Florence for the year or so.

And now, after years of preparation, Florentines are about to find out what all the fuss is about.

Later this month, the Hotel Florence, plus a half dozen or so complementary projects, will open the doors on phase I of what is arguably the biggest redevelopment project in city history.

The opening of the new, 49-room boutique hotel on West Evans, along with a dozen or more other projects that will debut simultaneously or over the next few months, signals the beginning of what planners and city leaders hope is a downtown renaissance that will spread and grow.

Mayor Stephen J. Wukela, who has led the charge in recent months, said, as he toured the area one afternoon this week, that it can’t happen soon enough.

“It’s been a long time coming and it’s an exciting month and everything seems to be hitting at the same time and we’re excited,” Wukela said. “It’s been a lot of work and there’s a lot of people that have invested, time, money, effort and it’s coming to fruition, so it’s exciting. Just walk down Evans Street and you’ll see people are rubbernecking, trying to see what’s going on, and the other good thing is you see developers and realtors milling about and looking at properties, which is obviously a very good sign.”

Florence Downtown Development Manager Ray Reich, who arrived a little more than a year ago and has helped shepherd many of the projects, said this month’s big openings are really just the beginning. Momentum will grow as projects are completed and more businesses are lured to the area by the finished projects, and by the area’s new look, fostered by the city’s aggressive new appearance codes.

“We’re working with a lot of different people who are trying to put projects together from restaurants to apartments,” said Reich. “This is the kind of momentum that you get when you start dealing with appearance issues that we put emphasis on.

“Our number one priority is adding more restaurants,” said Reich. “We really want downtown to become a culinary district. … Retail will follow as we create more spaces for retailers to operate. We have three different entities looking at possibly doing housing (i.e, condos, extended-stay apartments), four to five entities for five restaurant projects and we know all these things won’t come to fruition, but working with this many different people, the hope is that multiple projects will come to reality.”

Reich said interested parties are still doing their due diligence and looking into financing, which can still be difficult to obtain.

The linchpin of the first wave of revitalization is clearly the Hotel Florence, and the new Victor’s Bistro on its first floor. When it opens — some furniture could be moved in early this week — the combo figures to be a hive of activity. The new Victor’s will be open for breakfast, creating a new business meeting place. The hotel will offer a high-end hospitality option, heretofore unavailable in Florence.

When coupled with other big projects that are also ready to open or on the way in the near future, like the new Florence Museum just across the rear parking lot from the hotel/restaurant, the sort of magnetic momentum that Reich is talking about will take hold.

Some of it is actually under way already.

Culinary district

The culinary district that Reich and others envision is already moving forward.

A significant boost will come from the city-built courtyard behind “restaurant row” on Dargan. The patio affords diners at Max Borghesi’s Da Massimo Ristorante Italiano, the Thai House 2, the Clay Pot and at Josh Keith’s chocolate shop and wine tasting room, Dolce Vita, an al fresco experience that’s not currently on Florence menu. It will be mirrored, of course, by Victor’s outdoor dining area across Dargan.

Keith’s new offering is nearly ready. He said this week that small, invitation only, soft openings are set for May 13-18 in a completely renovated, contemporary space with references to the building’s past. Keith, who finished seven months of training under top chocolatiers in Belgium last year, will bring his mastery to the delicacy to Florence’s newest sweet niche, where he will prepare and package a variety of white, milk and dark chocolate truffles, bonbons, ganache from fine Belgium chocolate and ingredients. The fine chocolates will be paired with a wide selection of wine for tasting and purchase. A unique feature at Dolce Vita — another first in the area — will be its two, eight-bottle machines (one red, one white) that allow patrons to insert a prepaid card, which then lets them dispense tastes, half pours and full pours of moderate to higher-end wine at their leisure. Bottles of dispensed wine will also be available for purchase.

“I can basically claim that I grew up downtown simply because my mother had a salon (Mahogany) here right on the corner for over 20-plus years,” Keith said. “So day in day and day out after school, I was here, downtown every day. I’ve and seen where it’s been and where it’s going, so that’s one reason why I’m so passionate about downtown.”

More restaurants are on the way. Bo Osborne’s Boxcar 9 restaurant is under construction on West Evans. Osborne is currently gutting what used to be the City Grill and Sports Bar and has plans to begin inside construction soon. Boxcar 9 will be a wood-fired, brick oven restaurant that will serve pizza, sandwiches, salads and other food for lunch and dinner. Osborne has retained chef Tommy Crayton and expects to have the project completed in the next two to three months. That timeframe is much later than he intended. It is the result, according to Osborne, of unforeseen obstacles, which typically occur in such projects.

Two more new restaurants are set to open a few blocks away on West Palmetto. And the same development group that is behind Hotel Florence has a 2,500-square-foot space next door to the hotel that it hopes to lease to a restauranteur, possible a chain deli like Jason’s or McAlister’s.

Small retail

August Langley is one of downtown’s newest tenants — one of it’s youngest, too. He recently opened his SMART Phone Repair shop with his wife, Whitney, and Michael Shaw at 190 W. Evans St. The space is leased from Andy Blakely and Robert C. Watford. Langley’s focus now is fixing broken iPhones, iPads and iPods, but he plans to expand to other products and classes on those products. He waxed philosophic on the interplay between a new tech business in an old-fashioned setting.

“We love the dichotomy of everything that SMART Phone Repair is,” Langley said. “It’s a repair shop that revitalizes devices in a downtown area that’s looking back historically, but pulling toward the future.”

Traffic for entrepreneurs like Langley could arrive next year after renovations at the Waters building — aka. the Kimbrell’s building — are complete. The hotel group — Chris Scott of Pearce Land Company, Grey Raines of Raines Development Group Inc., Randy Key of Key Architecture Inc., and Tim Norwood — is doing this one, too. Leases are already in place with investment firm Hilliard Lyons for the second floor and South Carolina-based law firm Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A., on the top floor of the building. A contract for the mezzanine and first floor of the building is nearly complete.

That business traffic will be meshed with entertainment crowds from the Florence Little Theatre, the Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center and, early next year, the new Florence Museum. Museum executive director Andrew Stout said the 28,000-square-foot museum has been delay free and is ahead of schedule with construction completion set for July. Stout said that prep work for exhibits and the task of actually moving and installing exhibits will run into early 2014.

“There’s been a lot of work and progress to the building,” said Stout. “But there has been substantial work being completed behind the scenes, especially relating to the trustees of the Florence Museum’s collections they have cared for, for many, many years.”

Adding to the mid-May festivities will be the opening of the Dargan Street breezeway, created this winter when two buildings were demolished to open a “hole” from Dargan Street to the hotel/restaurant. Landscaping and paving of the space is nearly complete.

More changes

Other changes in the works, or on the drawing board, include completion of the streetscape work by the city — new pavement went down on West Evans in the past week — and facade improvements on a half dozen buildings that do not have tenants. The city’s new code required facade upgrades. City grants helped pay for some of that work, but the cost has given some property owners pause.

On the other hand, several tenants — Phillip Nofal Jr., who owns the space at 127 W. Evans, said the façade work has increased tenant interest in their spaces.

The Florence Downtown Development Corporation, which recently purchased the Bo Smith building on the corner of Irby and West Evans, is looking hard for a tenant for the Royal Knight building at the Dargan/Evans intersection. Reich said the old formal wear shop had an interested party exploring several ideas on the property, but their option expired. That same party, said Reich, is still interested. That’s one of the spaces were longer-term living quarters are being contemplated.

Henry Alfred Revell, late owner of the shop, passed away in June. His wife of 53 years, Sherrelle Humphries Revell, decided to close the shop and the West Palmetto Street shop.

Also new is the expanded police substation on Dargan. Owner Dr. John Keith said an additional 25 officers are now located in the downtown substation that has expanded into an additional 3,000 square feet of space that also accommodates the Community Action Taskforce unit.

“Within the coming weeks, there will be an officer on duty from 12 midnight to 7 a.m., patrolling the downtown area,” said Keith.

That security presence is just one more piece of what is, suddenly, a fast-developing puzzle.

There’s a lot of talk about Pinterest and Instagram today, and for good reason. For many businesses, it’s possible to develop a following on these image-based sites and drive high amounts of traffic to your site. It isn’t as difficult as you may think, either.

Consider the following example.

If a mom-and-daughter-run website can harness the power of pinned images on Pinterest, your business and well-planned strategy can too. As reported by Entrepreneur.com, a mom and her then-15-year-old daughter started PopCosmo — a site they envisioned as being a teen trend spotting site focusing on their local area.

A single image mashup the daughter posted on Pinterest drove 10,000 visitors to their website in a single month. Now, they’re averaging 120,000 page views per month:

It’s true that they had a website that would naturally appeal to the demographics of Pinterest. If you don’t think your site would quite fit in, maybe you’re right, but there’s still benefit to be had. I’ve even seen pins of products as mundane as portable storage containers go viral on social media channels; it really comes down to creativity and effort behind the campaign. Social media marketing is one of the three pillars of a successful SEO campaign, and Pinterest is a big player in the social media realm right now.

There are many ways to use Pinterest for positive-ROI benefit. If you want to get started with it, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Be Selective: Don’t pin every single product in your store, every image from your blog, etc… Pin the best ones.

Use Teasers: Don’t give all the goodies away in one image or one image description. Create pins that relate to your products or service and give just a little info to guide them to your site for more.

Add ‘Pin It’ Buttons: Just as you integrate social networks and sharing buttons on your website, be sure to add buttons that make it easy for other people to pin your images. Add a follow button for your Pinterest profile, too.

Use Lots of Images: Use lots of images on your site so there’s more for people to pin. Remember that you can pin videos, too!

Pin Often, Pin Variety: Pin often. The more you pin, the more people who are likely to see one they like and re-pin, like, follow or comment. Remember that unlike other social networks, images on your boards have a long shelf-life. They aren’t buried as easily as a Tweet. Don’t just pin your own images, though. Repin, like, follow and comment other pins/pinners that are relevant to your industry or might be interested in your business at some point. Be personable.

Pin Interests: Most people on Pinterest don’t want to “see marketing”. They want to find what they’re interested in and they want to “see people”. So as you have time, make boards on topics that interest you and pin and interact on those boards too.

Pin Vertically: By vertically, I mean that literally… use images that are taller than they are wide. Because of Pinterest’s layout, it will attract more eyeballs. Using dark borders on your image or adding text (think memes) can also help.

Pin Mashups: Take several examples of something and combine them into a vertical image showing each on in a different block. Great for grouping favorite items, how-to steps, etc.

Feature Customers: Make your customers feel special and they’ll keep coming back. You can do that in many ways on Pinterest. You could create a board where you feature a particular customer each week. You can hold contests that require repinning (or whatever you like) for an entry.

Secret Boards: A new feature to Pinterest is secret boards. These can be used in many ways. You could offer a membership type board where only VIP members are invited to view and contribute to the board. You can even use it as a collaboration area for your employees. You could use it for private clippings and viewings of ideas for your landscaping, interior decorating, wedding planner customers (so many possibilities!).

Tools for Pinterest:

There seem to be new tools sprouting up for Pinterest each week and lots of current social media tools are integrating Pinterest. Some are paid tools, but there are lots of free ones. While you may want to invest in some of the more robust paid ones in the future, here are just a few free ones that you can consider using when getting started:

ShareAsImage (Was previously PinAQuote): Quotes and sayings are popular on Pinterest. If you aren’t a graphics person it can be a challenge even to create a basic, good-looking quote. It’s easy with this tool. Here you can easily create word-based images to share on Pinterest. Simply drag their button to your bookmark bar and it’s ready to use whenever you are.

WiseStamp: This is a really cool one, especially for a business. You can display your latest pins in emails that you send. This is a great way to gain new followers. Do you send out a newsletter? By all means, add this to it!

PinPuff: Pin Puff is similar to Klout, but only used for Pinterest. It measures a user’s influential potential and even assigns a monetary value to your pins.

Reachli: With Reachli you can actually track the effectiveness of each pin. Social media analytics are important for a successful social media marketing initiative. You simply set up your pin through the website and it’ll show you how many repins and likes it gets. You’ll see the potential number of people that pin reaches. But what I really like about this is that you can track the number of clicks that the pin has received. Here’s an example from the dashboard:

PinReach: I’ve saved my favorite free Pinterest tool for last. This one is incredible and something that they could easily charge for, in my opinion. The amount of data you can get is incredible, whether you’re tracking your own profile and campaigns or you want to spy on other people.

It assigns a score, kind of like PinPuff, but seems much more detailed and accurate. They have a ‘guide’ to their scoring system that kind of lets you know where stand in comparison to other users. The higher your score, the more influential or popular you are on Pinterest.

Example: only 3 percent of users have a PinReach score of 40. The majority (45.7 percent) fall between a 20 and 29. And only .04 percent have fall between 60 and 69.

Here are just a few screenshots that show just how robust this free tool is:

Trending pins: Here you can see pins that are trending right now. This shot has been cropped to keep it short, but they show way more than this.

This is for trending pins overall. But if you look on your dashboard, you can also look at only your pins to identify your best performing pins (the ones with the most repins). If you click on a particular pin it will take you to the analytics page for that individual pin.

In your dashboard, you can also identify your influential followers (if any). Here are a few of the other really cool reasons I like PinReach…

• Find the highest reaching members with one click
• Find the most popular pins
• Not only find trending pins, but trending members

There are many things on this site that make it my favorite free tool for Pinterest.

Conclusion

I hope this look at Pinterest and the tools available are helpful as you move forward with your online marketing initiative. Pinterest isn’t meant for everyone, but it sure can be helpful if your business is visually-oriented. Do you have any other tips for marketing on Pinterest? Let me know in the comments!

Follow Jayson DeMers on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/jaysondemers

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