2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Landscape plants need water to become established in the landscape and vary widely in their water needs after establishment. In drought conductions, consumer behavior may vary widely. Consumers may buy fewer plants, select plants that use less water, or opt out of landscaping. Previous studies have shown that factors contributing to outdoor residential water use include social norms, size of landscape, garden type and importance, and aesthetic affordance. Yet, more recent work suggests that attitudes and behavior towards potable water supplies are changing with greater social awareness and increasingly widespread exposure to drought conditions. We conducted an online national survey with 1543 subjects to assess their perceptions of water use, especially as their attitudes relate to landscape plants. Survey questions were adapted from prior consumer surveys and included measures of water conservation knowledge and involvement or interest. Factor analysis is helpful in reducing the number of attitudinal questions to a subset of more meaningful key themes or factors. Using SPSS principal component factor analysis with a Promax rotation, we identified four key factors related to consumers' water conservation attitudes: Knowledge, Involvement, Importance, and Impact. Ten items were substantially related to water conservation Knowledge, 5 were related to water conservation Involvement, 3 to water conservation Importance and 3 to water conservation Impact. Combined the four factors explained 96.2% of the variance in the 21 items. The factors show key dimensions in water conservation attitudes and provide a helpful basis for future cluster analyses.