Passion Serves As the Root of Buckingham, Va.-Based Interior Landscaping Firm

Jul. 12–You could say that the idea for Buckingham Greenery Inc. sprouted from a Kentia palm Connie Hom bought to fill a space in her apartment in New York.

What began as a palm tree grew into a company.

Hom is the founder and president of Buckingham Greenery Inc., an interior-landscaping firm with 45 employees and offices in Richmond, Charlottesville, Buckingham, Roanoke and Virginia Beach. The firm designs interior landscapes, supplies the plants and maintains them for offices, hospitals, shopping centers and other commercial clients. It also does special events and seasonal decor.

After graduating with a degree in sociology from the College of New Rochelle in New York, Hom worked for several telecommunications companies specializing in servicing small businesses. With the government’s imminent breakup of the Bell System of AT&T, Hom rethought her career direction.

“I would listen to people say, ‘This is just a job,’” Hom said.

For Hom, it had to be more than a job. She will be the first to tell you — do what you love and everything will fall into place.

She started a small sideline business helping some architect friends in Manhattan with live plants for their designs. It was a small beginning.

She and her two sisters had bought “a gentleman’s farm” in Buckingham County, Va., for family gatherings. Hom and her family are from New Jersey. Her two sisters are now in Virginia, while her brother and mother remain in the Garden State.

“It is so beautiful,” Hom said of Buckingham County, a natural starting point for her firm. After a market analysis of the Virginia region, Hom took the plunge and started her company in 1982.

The first year was the hardest.

“You have to have an opportunity,” a chance to prove her company could do the job, Hom said.

That opportunity came through Lynchburg General Hospital. After the successful completion of that job, she met the manager of a J.C. Penney store in Roanoke.

He wanted new ideas for plants inside the store. She designed it, installed it on time, and the design became the prototype for 10 other stores in the Penney chain throughout Virginia.

Hom’s affinity for plants is a family tradition. Her father, born in Pittsburgh but raised in China, farmed Chinese vegetables. Her mother was a cancer researcher with a green thumb.

When she attended college, her dorm room was conspicuous from the outside by the plants that filled her window. “Everyone knew our room.”

Hom believes her employees have the same commitment to plants and the company that she has. Many of her associates have been with the company more than 10 years.

She finds it hard to walk past a plant in an office or shopping center or airport and not assess its care and health. Dusty plants and discolored plants, according to Hom, say something unflattering about their owners.

For Hom, plants are more than office dressing. She believes they contribute in myriad ways, from improving work conditions and appearances to the overall health of the environment. They are working decorations.

“It’s the earth’s technology for cleaning the air,” Hom said.

In 1998, Hom helped form Plants at Work, a marketing initiative to educate businesses and property managers about the benefits of plants beyond their obvious decorating utility. The group financed an extensive marketing study to understand the needs of the market. The Web site, Plantsatwork.org, offers plant solutions for industries such as malls, health care and professional properties.

“I am always looking for new plants,” said Hom, whose company works with five different growers. She experiments with different plant combinations.

“She has all the new ideas,” said Melissa Ziglar, assistant property manager for Boston Properties, which operates Riverfront Plaza.

Buckingham Greenery designed the landscaping for the buildings when they opened in 1990 and managed the account for several years. When the contract went up for bid, a lower bidder won. But three years ago, Buckingham Greenery regained the contract.

Ziglar said Hom recently suggested changing the brass pots to pots with a textured black finish, to complement the marble. The simple idea really made the marble inside “pop out,” Ziglar said. “She brought us into the new millennium.”

This year, Hom received the Employee Development Award for a small business at the All Star Awards given by the Richmond Human Resources Management Association and the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce. A year ago, Hom was recognized as professional of the year by Interior Business Magazine.

After 23 years at the helm of her firm, her passion has not dwindled. She visits schools to talk about the benefits of plants. She marvels at how much sixth- and seventh-graders know about plants. And she finds that age group the most fun to work with.

It’s a passion she is cultivating with the next generation.

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T, JCP,