World’s largest cruise ship will include an oasis of foliage plants

Royal Caribbean Cruises is spending $1.5 billion on its new Oasis of the Seas, which is the world’s largest cruise ship. When the ship departs on Dec. 1 for its first cruise to Haiti, it will be carrying more than 12,000 plants of over 100 species (check out the Final Preparations video Gardens at Sea).

According to the Miami Herald, a majority of those plants will come from Florida growers Michaels Nursery in Boynton Beach and Southeast Growers in Wellington. The plants will be part of one of seven themed “neighborhoods” that include parks, squares and arenas. The plants were installed in Fort Lauderdale where the boat is currently docked at Port Everglades.

Bill Churchill, general manger at Michaels, told the newspaper that the cruise ship project couldn’t have come at a better time since business is down 10% from last year. He said the Oasis project is the company’s single biggest project this year. Churchill said many of the area nurseries are looking for new business. The cost of the plants alone was around $15,000. The plants will be installed into aluminum plant modules that are part of raised beds equipped with a below deck irrigation system. Rich Kern, president of Southeast Growers, told the newspaper that producing the plants for the ship has been especially helpful in these tough economic times. He said sales this year are down about 30% from last year, which was a record year for the company. Five temporary employees were hired to handle the additional work created by the job. The nurseries are hoping that they will be able to do additional business with the cruise line, including the Oasis’ sister ship, Allure of the Seas. Churchill said companies that are looking to survive can’t expect to be doing the same thing they were doing 5 years ago.