Of course not everyone has a “green thumb.” And when the Ficus starts to lose its leaves, or pests burrow through the potting soil and the orchid behaves like a temperamental diva, many of us have no time or patience to care for the office greenery. “But for decades there’s been a great alternative that guarantees success even for the ‘black thumbs’ among us. It’s called hydroponics,” says Hans-Karl Soest. And he should know. At LANXESS, he’s responsible for a product that’s a key to planting methods that are as easy as riding a bike or watching television. The technique uses little balls of expanded clay instead of soil.