AU8444598A - Device for making islands and floral designs - Google Patents

Description

WO 00/00013 - 1 - PCT/FR98/01395 Device for producing floral beds and displays The present invention relates to a technical device intended to ease the task of producing beds, 5 flower beds and other floral displays of all shapes and sizes and on all types of land, whether this be sloping, such as embankments, or roughly horizontal. Floral decoration is currently performed by professionals. They usually determine the location of 10 each plant using lines and rules, so as to reproduce the desired design, previously defined on a reduced scale drawing. This conventional method requires a very great many manual measurements to be taken, something which 15 is difficult to perform accurately, and which are taken by highly varying and sometimes cumbersome methods. In consequence, the complexity of the design chosen can only be limited. The work is all the trickier because the 20 gardener, positioned at a point in the floral bed that is to be produced, has not got a general overview of this bed. Even if he moves away from the bed, the gardener cannot have a general overview, especially at the beginning of producing said bed. 25 The high level of professionalism and the time necessary to realize such floral beds and displays make their cost high, and therefore not very accessible particularly to small companies or communities. In addition, if the same design has to be 30 reproduced in several places, the work to be carried out will be just as long and painstaking each time. Finally, floral decoration can currently be carried out only in flower beds designed for this purpose, hence introducing a definite limitation as 35 regards the choice and number of locations that can be decorated in such a way.

-2 A number of documents already describe devices which. are supposed to ease the task of producing floral displays, but the solutions proposed hitherto are still partial and unsuitable. 5 Thus, French Patent Application No. 2604332 and German Patent No. 4419402 merely. disclose perforated plates or cases allowing pots of flowers to be positioned at height, these pots having their axis horizontal. It is therefore necessary to provide LO special means for holding the pots in, and the decorative effect obtained remains very haphazard because the plants have a natural tendency to grow upward. In addition, as it has to support the entire weight of the pots and plants, the device has to be .5 thick and heavy, or even three dimensional, and it cannot be in the form of a simple foldable or rollable lightweight sheet. Patent Application WO 94/19926 and French Patent Application No. 2726968 relate to devices for 0 assisting with planting, which are in the form of very large-sized groundsheets with markers, which are either drawn on or in the form of slits. These devices cover, for example, the extent of an entire garden and are rather intended for planting trees. Such devices seem 5 to be practically impossible to handle, particularly to unfold and set in place, and using them is less rational and more expensive than marking out and planting directly onto the ground. 0 European Patent Application No. 0448153 describes a complex assembly comprising a sheet and plant trays anchored to the sheet. An assembly such as this is also particularly heavy and difficult to handle and to put in place. In addition, it is not designed 5 for producing highly varied floral designs, and its field of application is restricted to plant trays which are aligned or arranged in a regular grid design.

-3 Finally, European Patent Application No. 0285202 relates to a groundsheet for holding artificial soil in place, which is not at all the purpose of the present invention. 5 The present invention sets out to eliminate all the aforementioned drawbacks or inadequacies by supplying a device which is designed to ease the task of producing floral beds and displays so as to allow these to be produced more quickly and always 0 accurately, even with less well-qualified personnel, and therefore with a definite saving of money and without reducing the quality of the result, regardless of the design that is to be produced, and even in the case of complex designs. 5 To this end, the subject of the invention is essentially a device for producing floral beds and displays, using plants grown in pots or tubs, which essentially consists of at least one plate or sheet of predetermined outline designed to be laid out flat on 0 the ground, which plate or sheet has, over its extent, a set of openings of predetermined arrangement and size, each opening being designed to take a pot or tub and hold it in place. Thus, the idea underlying the invention is to 5 provide a preperforated plate or sheet allowing plants in pots or tubs to be positioned and held in place in a predefined design, the openings made in said plate or sheet depending on the size and shape of the pot coresonding to each plant-, 'nd the spacing of these 0 openings depending on the space necessary for . each plant to mature. Said plate or sheet is placed directly on the ground, whether the latter is horizontal or sloping. As.a preference, the plate or sheet has, on its 5 opposite face to the one that rests on the ground, colored lines and/or zones to correspond with the floral design that is to be reproduced. All that is thus required is for each plant in a pot or tub, of a -4 given color, to be placed in an opening in the zone of the plate or sheet that is identified by the same color. This allows an immediate/ choice of plant, and greater accuracy and certainty of exactly reproducing 5 the desired design and allows the production of designs which are more complex, particularly as regards the color combinations. The presence of distinctive colored zones thus allows a good overview of the design that is being LO reproduced, whether viewed from close up or from afar, for those employed in producing the floral bed or display in question. It also provides an understanding of the design before the plants reach maturity and therefore plays a part in the visual effect, given that 5 the colored zones remain visible for as long as the plants have not, having reached their full spread, covered the plate or sheet. This plate may be in the form of a perforated rigid panel. As an alternative, it could just as easily 0 be a more or less flexible sheet, which on the one hand, allows it to be stored or transported in a less bulky form, the sheet being folded or rolled, and, on the other hand, allows said sheet, placed on the ground, to adapt to any unevennesses of the ground. 5 Other properties may advantageously be sought after for the plate or sheet in question. In particular, this plate or sheet may be water permeable, for example being made of a microporous material, so that it does not. impede the penetration of rainwater or ) runoff water into the soil underneath the plate. If this plate is covered with paint forming the colored zones, this paint must also be permeable or porous. It is also advantageous for said plate or sheet to be made of a biodegradable material, this being for ecological i reasons. The plate or sheet may also have thermal insulating properties, and may even, by its mere presence, constitute a "barrier" preventing excessively swift evaporation of the water contained in the soil.

-5 Finally, said plate or sheet may contain and diffuse a product for treating the soil, such as a fertilizer or an insecticide. Particularly in the case of a device according 5 to the invention intended especially for producing floral beds and displays on sloping ground, such as an embankment, the openings in the plate or sheet may have edges belonging to a cylindrical surface, the generatrices of which are oriented in a direction 10 forming, with the plane of the plate or sheet, an angle other than 900. Thus, the pots or tubs containing the plants can be positioned at an inclination different than that of the plate. In particular, the arrangement may be such that the pots or tubs are positioned 15 upright, that is to say with their axes directed vertically, while the plate or sheet is inclined at the slope of the embankment. The device thus effectively holds the pots or tubs in place on inclined ground; in addition, it can even out and stabilize the embankment 20. itself. In this last application, the device that is the subject of the invention can advantageously be used with tubs of cylindrical overall shape but having an upper retaining rim located in an inclined plane, that 25 is to say a plane forming an angle other than 900 with respect to the central axis of the tub. Overall, there is thus obtained a device which allows simpler and quicker setting out of floral beds and displays which need no 1ongr therefore he the 30 preserve of highLy qualified professionals. By virtue of this device, all designs, even the most complicated ones, can be produced quickly and reliably, which makes it possible to envisage new applications, for example in the area of publicity or advertising. The designs 35 reproduced may cover a large area, it always being possible for a number of elementary plates to be placed side by side to cover a large area without there being a need to transport and handle excessively bulky or -6 excessively heavy plates. Furthermore, a plate with openings in a defined arrangement can be reproduced on an industrial scale into any number of copies, using modern methods such as laser cutting and ink-jet 5 printing, which results in an appreciable saving of time and money, where similar plant displays are to be produced at various places. Finally, that part of the plate or sheet located between the sites of the pots of flowers may prevent grass or other undesirable plants LO from growing. The full practical, esthetic and economical benefit of the device which is the subject of the present invention will thus be appreciated. The invention will be better understood with the aid of the description which follows, with .5 reference to the appended diagrammatic drawing which, by way of example, depicts one embodiment of this device for producing floral beds and displays: Figure 1 is a front view of a device according to the invention; o Figure 2 depicts the device that is the subject of the invention, viewed in vertical section, laid on inclined ground; Figure 3 is a view in vertical section, on an enlarged scale, of a detail of Figure 2. 5 As Figure 1 shows, the device that is the subject of the invention, denoted overall by the reference 1, is in the form of a plate which has an outline 2 of predetermined shape, which may be a simple geomet$ric -shape sucrh as a rp-rtatng1e. or anV pnIygqnnaI 0 or curved shape. Across the extent of the plate 1 are formed openings 3 of arbitrary number, of predetermined arrangement and size. The upper face 4 of the plate 1 has colored zones 5 separated from one another by straight or curved lines 6 drawn onto this face 4. The 5 lines 6 delimit, for example, with the outline 2 of the plate 1, three zones 5a, 5b, and 5c designed respectively to take pots or tubs of blue, red and yellow flowers. The device thus features in advance the -7 floral design that is to be reproduced, both in terms of the positions of the flowers that make up this design and in terms of the colors of these flowers. More particularly, in the zone 5a which here is 5 in the form of a curved band,- the openings 3a are pierced along the line 6 which delimits this zone 5a. In the zone 5b, the openings 3b are pierced along lines 6 which delimit this zone 5b, and other openings 3c are pierced, in a staggered configuration, over the LO remainder of this zone 5b. In the zone 5c, openings 3d are also pierced along lines 6 which delimit this zone 5c, and other openings 3c are pierced in a grid configuration over the remainder of this zone 5c. The openings 3a, 3b and 3d may be pre-pierced 5 using a tracking laser which tracks the lines 6. The colored zones 5 and the lines 6 may be made with an ink-jet printer associated with a computerized control system. The plate 1 can thus be produced economically, even if it is a one-off or short-run manufacture. 0 Figure 2, of which Figure 3 shows an enlarged detail, illustrates the use of the device and, more particularly, its application to the producing of a floral display on inclined ground 7 which may, in particular, be an embankment 8, the slope of which is 5 defined by an angle A. The plate 1 is laid out flat on the ground 7, its colored face 4 visible and its opposite face 9 resting .against the ground 7. In the red zone 5 of the plate 1, each opening 3~ ~ takt or~ tub 10 co~ntainfg patht 0 produces one or more red flowers 11. Similarly, in the blue zone 6 of the plate 1, each opening 3 takes a pot or tub 12 containing a plant that produces one or more blue flowers 13. The plants are thus positioned and held in place according to the floral design that is to 15 be reproduced. As shown more particularly in Figure 3, each opening 3 in the plate 1 here advantageously has an elliptical shape, the edge 14 of the opening 3 -8 belonging to a cylindrical surface, the generatrices of which form, with the plane of the plate 1, an angle B that is the complementary angle of the slope A of the embankment 8. Thus, when the plate 1 is placed on the 5 inclined ground 7, these generatrices are vertical, which allows a tub 10 to be positioned with its central axis 15 directed vertically. In order to fit in an opening 3 in the plate 1, each tub 10 or 12 has a cylindrical overall shape but 10 has an upper retaining rim 16 located in an inclined plane forming an angle C (equal to the angle B defined earlier) with respect to the central axis 15 of this tub 10 or 12. A tub 10 or 12 such as this, attached to the 15 plate 1, constitutes the equivalent of a flower pot and contains a certain amount of potting compost 17 which may lie on top of a lower layer 18 of mineral salts, also forming a water reservoir. The plate 1 can be made of a water-permeable 20 and biodegradable material, of the paper pulp or cardboard pulp type. Advantageously, the tubs 10 and 12 are made of a material of the same kind. Although a device consisting of a single plate 1 has been described hereinabove, it must be noted that 25 in order to produce floral beds or designs of large size, the device that is the subject of the present invention may be made up of several perforated plates or sheets that can be placed side by side. Thp following would not constitute a departure 30 from the scope of the invention: - if the shape and/or material of which the perforated plate or sheet is made were to be modified; - if the number and distribution of the colored zones of this plate were to be modified; 35 - if the device were to be used not placed on inclined ground but laid out flat on roughly horizontal ground, to assist in the production of a simple flower bed, in which case the edges of the openings would not -9 need to be inclined with respect to the plane of the plate or sheet.

Claims (12)

1. A device for producing floral beds and displays on roughly horizontal or sloping ground, using plants 5 grown in pots or tubs, characterized in that it consists of at least one plate or sheet (1) of predetermined outline (2) designed to be laid out flat on the ground (7), which plate or sheet (1) has, over its extent, a set of openings (3) of predetermined 0 arrangement and size , each opening (3) being designed to take a pot or tub (10, 12) and hold it in place.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the plate or sheet (1) has, on its opposite face (4) to the one (9) that rests on the ground (7), 5 colored lines and/or zones (5, 6) to correspond with the floral design that is to be reproduced.

3. The device as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the plate or sheet (1) has openings (3a, .3b, 3d) arranged along the lines (6), and/or openings (3c, 0 3d) distributed, particularly in a grid or staggered configuration, over the extent of the colored zones (5).

4. The device as claimed in claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the or each plate (1) is in the 5 form of a perforated rigid panel.

5. The device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the or each sheet (1) is a flexible sheet capable of being folded or rolled.

6. The device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, D -characterized in that the plate or sheet (1) is water permeable, this. plate or sheet being made, in particular, of a microporous material.

7. The device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the plate or sheet (1) is made of 5 a biodegradable material.

8. The device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the plate or sheet (1) contains -11 and diffuses a product for treating the ground (7), such as a fertilizer or an insecticide.

9. The device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 8, more particularly intended for producing floral beds 5 and displays on sloping ground (7), such as an embankment (8), characterized in that the openings (3) in the plate or sheet (1) have edges (14) belonging to a cylindrical surface, the generatrices of which form, with the plane of the plate or sheet (1), an angle (B) ) other than 90*.

10. The device as claimed in .claim 9, characterized in that the edges (14) of the openings (3) are arranged in such a way that the pots or tubs (10, 12) are positioned with their axes (15) directed vertically, 5 whereas the plate or sheet (1) is inclined at the slope (A) of the embankment (8).

11. The device as claimed in claim 9 or 10, characterized in that it is used with tubs (10, 12) of cylindrical overall shape but having an upper retaining rim (16) located in an inclined plane forming an angle (C) other than 90* with respect: to the central axis (15) of the tub (10, 12).

12. The device as claimed in any of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that it consists of a number of plates or sheets that can be placed side by side to produce floral beds or designs of large size.