Everything is Coming Up Roses at GIYP.com

Woodbine, MD - July 2004 - Green Industry Yellow Pages (GIYP.com) has taken a giant step toward its goal of becoming the leader in providing the most comprehensive searchable databases and interactive tools to the green industry by announcing its most recent partnership with the American Rose Society (ARS).

ARS eventually plans to provide information on over 4000 varieties of roses to GIYP’s groundbreaking sales and marketing search tool, the Virtual Plant Tag (VPT).

“We are very pleased to make this announcement,” says GIYP founder and CEO Steve Cissel. “The American Rose Society has been a parental figure in the rose community for many years. We are grateful and honored to carry the ARS flag as a chosen distributor of the ARS rose data."

The ARS, founded in 1892, is an educational, non-profit organization of 20,000 members and 360 chapters and affiliates throughout the country. The organization’s mission states that they are “dedicated to the enjoyment, enhancement and promotion of America's Floral Emblem.”

“We are thrilled that GIYP has invited us to become part of its exciting VPT program,” says ARS president Marilyn Wellan. “This is a fabulous opportunity to display our rose "portraits" and supply plant characteristics of the most popular and commercially viable roses from our database of over 30,000 varieties.”

According to the terms of the new agreement, ARS's experienced rose-growing volunteers are already at work providing the first 200 rose varieties to the VPT database. It will be completed this July, at which time ARS will begin a more aggressive effort to provide an additional 1000-2000 varieties.

“When we’re finished, we hope to have selected the top four or five thousand most popular varieties from our own database and make them part of the VPT program,” says Wellan.

Wellan stated that what impressed her and her ARS board most about GIYP’s VPT program and its website was how effective GIYP was in providing plant information in such a well structured and easy-to-access manner.

“The GIYP plant search website is the best and classiest we’ve seen,” notes Wellan. Using the Virtual Plant Tags, rose lovers will be able to learn about different varieties and will be able to find out where they can be purchased. That is not something ARS has been able to provide on its own. We’ve already dubbed GIYP the “rose yellow pages.”

According to Cissel, Virtual Plant Tags are designed to provide standard plant tag information along with great photographs and expert plant speak– all developed by leading green goods authorities, such as the American Rose Society. GIYP.com currently hosts over 25,000 plants in its database.

“The VPT database is a comprehensive research tool and certainly is far more nimble than thumbing through printed catalogues or relying on word of mouth, which is what rosarians have had at their disposal to date,” explains Wellan. “Plus we will be able to constantly update the latest varieties and characteristics so that the information we provide will never be out of date.”

Wellan says that while the ARS is the international registrar for all roses, ARS will be focusing its efforts on the most popular roses and on the organization’s partnerships with growers and suppliers.

“With GIYP we believe we are partnering with a wonderful and exciting new idea that will benefit the rose industry and rose lovers everywhere, by providing the kind of detailed information on roses that hasn’t been available before. We’re thrilled to have been discovered by them.”

GIYP.com was founded in 1999 as a directory utility for the green industry and has a database of 150,000 listings and 25,000 plants. Visit www.giyp.com or e-mail at info@giyp.com. Phone: 888-999-5133 or call the Garden Media Group at (610) 388-9330 for more information.