FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, is creating a wave of business for landscaping nurseries hurt by the recession and the dismal housing market.

More than 12,000 plants will be used in Central Park, an elaborate, open-air green space that spans more than a football field in the heart of the 5,400-passenger ship. Michaels Nursery of Boynton Beach, Fla., and Southeast Growers of Wellington, Fla., are growing most of the plants.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is spending $1.5 billion on Oasis, which will arrive Nov. 11 at Port Everglades, and some of that money is trickling down to small businesses in South Florida.

Growers say the once-thriving South Florida industry has shrunk during the past year and a half as customers have cut back and new housing construction has nearly frozen.

"This is a real big thing for us, a real shot in the arm," Bill Churchill, general manager of Michaels, said of the Oasis project.

Business at the nursery is down about 10 percent from last year, he said. Michaels has not hired to replace several workers who left the company in the past year.

Nurseries throughout the region are looking for new revenue streams to stay afloat, Churchill said. Michaels, which used to provide interior plants for malls and offices, now sells plants to mega-retailers such as Costco.

However, the nursery's biggest single project this year is growing and holding plants for Oasis. Churchill declined to estimate profits but said the cost of the plants alone is about $15,000.

Central Park will be open to the sky and feature paved pathways, scenic flower gardens and 25-foot "green walls" that span four stories.

Project managers at Ambius, a global interior landscaping company with offices in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, will coordinate and install the multimillion-dollar park.

"It's going to be an instant 'wow' effect," said Denise Eichmann, senior project manager for Ambius.

During the next few weeks, growers will be transferring the plants from their nursery containers into hundreds of custom-designed aluminum plant modules that fit into raised plant beds built into the ship and aligned with an elaborate under-deck irrigation system. The odd-shaped modules — more than 2,000 in all — are numbered and color-coded, and will fit together like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle to form Central Park, Eichmann said.

South Florida nurseries say getting the plants ship-shape has been logistically challenging. Moving the greenery into modules is laborious and time-intensive, owners say.

"It's been a very unusual project," said Southeast Growers President Rich Kern. "It's something we've never done before."

The nursery, which laid off a dozen employees last year to cut operating costs, temporarily hired five employees to assist with the increased workload, Kern said.

Oasis is not the biggest single job in the nursery's more than 30-year history, Kern said. "But it's been very helpful (financially), especially with business being so slow," he said. Sales are down about 30 percent from last year, which was a record year despite dismal business in November and December.

Churchill, who has been on a few cruises, says Central Park is so "ambitious" that it will defy perceptions about what is possible at sea. "I've never seen anything like it," he said.

One garden will have vegetation native to Caribbean destinations, so guests will see shade-grown coffee plants, budding pineapple plants and learn about the origin of spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg. The park's horticulturalist will give tours and offer passengers gardening tips.

As they prepare for the ship's arrival, nurseries and project managers are already hoping to secure future business with Royal Caribbean, including Oasis' sister vessel, Allure of the Seas, set to sail from Port Everglades late next year.

"If you think you're going to survive doing what you were doing five years ago, you're going to be out of business," Churchill said.