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Plants for living wall


Living wall ideas: Creative ways to plant a green wall garden

(Image credit: Future / Alun Callender)

Looking for living wall ideas? It’s never been easier to create a living wall in your garden. 

Living, or green, walls, were once the domain of temporary, designer installations. Now, pioneering commercial sites, where tapestries of plants can be seen adorning the sides of prestigious hotels, shops and office buildings, have become the must-have decorative design solution for residential gardens.

Colorful, verdant and providing aesthetic and ecological benefits, they make use of vertical surfaces for planting. They are a particularly useful garden idea where space may be limited, but are worthy as an impactful design feature in their own right.

A natural and growing garden decor idea, in urban areas living walls can also help keep buildings cool and reduce noise pollution, as well as provide a habitat for wildlife, too. They also help keep rain water away from exterior walls and provide insulation.

To create these vertical gardens, plants are rooted into a structure which is then attached to an interior, exterior or freestanding wall.

Systems can range from something as simple as plant pots hung on a vertical wall, to highly sophisticated modular, hydroponic panels, where all the water and nutrient requirements of the plants are precision delivered and monitored electronically.

Living wall ideas

1. Make your living wall a focal feature

(Image credit: Future / Alun Callender)

Luxuriant and dramatic, these vertical garden wall ideas also help to insulate buildings, improve air quality and attract birds and insects to urban environments.

Here, modular panels are pre-planted with plugs on a support structure, which allows walls of all sizes to be covered with greenery.

2. Take it indoors

(Image credit: Future / Anthropologie)

This striking living wall, which includes the fern Asplenium nidus obtusifolia ‘Crispy Wave’, Peperomia obtusifolia, Pilea cadiereiand Fittonia, was created for Anthropologie by Biotecture, biotecture. uk.com.

Biotecture offers a sophisticated and highly precise, monitored irrigation system. Walls are pre-grown vertically offsite and installed semi-mature, creating instant visual impact.

3. Create a vertical attraction 

Garden designed by Stephen Woodhams, stephenwoodhams.com

(Image credit: Future / James Merrell)

A limited palette of carefully selected plants (Adiantum capillus-veneris, Asplenium scolopendrium, Carex Irish Green, Hebe pagei ‘Sutherlandii’, Heuchera ‘Marmalade’, Lavandula ‘Hidcote’, Polypodium vulgare, Polystichum polyblepharum, Soleirola solierolii, Uncinia rubra, Vinca minor Alba) are woven together to create texture and pattern.

4. Take inspiration from nature

Roof garden, John Lewis

(Image credit: Annaick Guitteny/Future PLC)

'There are lots of green wall systems on the market, but I think the units by Treebox are among the best. They are made up of deep pockets that provide plenty of space for compost and plant roots.

I would also advise installing an irrigation system to ensure your plants are well watered from top to bottom. In this wall, I have chosen a range of leafy and flowering plants, including heucheras, Helianthemum (rock roses) and thyme,' says garden designer Tony Woods.

5. Use the right planting system

(Image credit: Future / Mark Bolton)

Successful systems for living walls and vertical gardens need to provide an upright support, a substrate for plants to root into and a means of meeting all their water and nutrient needs, usually via drip-irrigation.

Many garden designers and all-in-one companies offer a range of solutions.

6. Pick the perfect spot for a living wall

(Image credit: Future / Polly Wreford)

When considering how to plan a garden that incorporates a living wall, it's important to install your green wall on a sunny or partly-shaded surface, where the widest range of plants will thrive.

We suggest using leafy evergreens for year-round cover, such as Siberian bugloss (Brunnera), small ferns, heucheras and sedges, or plant lettuces, thyme, chives, marjoram and strawberries for an edible wall or sensory garden idea.

7. Use the best plants for your garden wall

(Image credit: Future / Amateur Gardening)

In colors ranging from dark burgundy to lime green and pink, the must-have Coral Bells (Heuchera) is ideal for sun or part-shade.

Its compact size means it will never outgrow its wall planter and the overwintering leaves provide continuous color. Just snip off old foliage in spring to make way for new growth. 

8. Opt for drought-tolerant plants

(Image credit: Future)

Carex is another excellent addition to a living wall. This drought-tolerant sedge has evergreen grass-like leaves and will provide color all year round on your wall.

It also produces dainty white flower spikes in spring, and will grow happily in the shadier areas at the bottom of a living wall, making it a good choice if you're looking for garden shade ideas, too. 

The striped Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance’ is one of the best.

How do you decorate a living wall?

Where space is tight, planting vertical surfaces offers a great way to introduce color into you garden and is a handy idea for small gardens. Living wall units are an easy solution, covering surfaces with flowers and foliage to disguise fences, sheds, or even your bins.

Add pollinator-friendly flowers and your living wall will feed the bees, too, or try edible plants for fresh ingredients right outside your door.

What are the best plants for a living wall?

A large range of herbaceous perennials, grasses, small shrubs, herbs and even fruit and vegetables can be used on your living wall idea.

Be creative and experimental. Try including scented plants, seasonal flowers and bulbs, but check your chosen plants will suit the aspect, microclimate and conditions of your living wall.

Jennifer is the Digital Editor at Homes & Gardens. Having worked in the interiors industry for a number of years, spanning many publications, she now hones her digital prowess on the 'best interiors website' in the world. Multi-skilled, Jennifer has worked in PR and marketing, and the occasional dabble in the social media, commercial and e-commerce space. Over the years, she has written about every area of the home, from compiling design houses from some of the best interior designers in the world to sourcing celebrity homes, reviewing appliances and even the odd news story or two.

Plants On Walls – Easy affordable living walls you can grow.

Our patented Florafelt living wall systems will help you create a vibrant vertical garden or impressive green wall feature. Learn how easy it is to install large-scale professional living walls to easy DIY home gardens, practically anywhere.

Photo: Florafelt Pocket Panel Living Walls for MGM Cotai Macau by Birkdale International.

Florafelt Pocket Panels

EASY DIY LIVING WALL SYSTEM

Our lightweight Florafelt Pocket Panel living wall system uses soft felted pockets and wraps, a simple solution for living walls. Florafelt Pocket Panels have a rigid back covered in breathable felt. Unlike other products our unique patented system of folded felt pockets and wraps allows plants to grow in harmony with the system.

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Florafelt Recirc

COMPLETE LIVING WALL UNITS

Create beautiful living walls with Florafelt Recirc complete living wall units. Made from high quality aluminum with powder coat finish, each unit is self contained with it’s own tank, pump, irrigation tubing, and timer. Root Wraps are included. Just plant and enjoy!

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Florafelt Pro System

PRO-GRADE LIVING WALL SYSTEM

The Florafelt Pro System is our highest quality, patented modular green wall solution that uses Florafelt Grow Strips woven into a stainless steel 304 wire grid. It’s the most robust vertical gardening system around, and can handle extreme conditions.

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Compact Living Wall Kit

GREAT FOR SMALL SPACES

Our Florafelt Compact Living Wall Kit is designed for quick and easy DIY vertical gardening. Simply install and fill with your favorite plants. Group together for larger walls. A great project for families!

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Florafelt Grow Fabric

HORTICULTURAL FABRIC

Get creative with our amazing Florafelt Grow Felt horticulture fabric. It’s made entirely from recycled, non-toxic plastics so it will last a lifetime.

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Florafelt Irrigation

IRRIGATION FOR LIVING WALLS

Our ready made solutions for living walls make it easy.

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Florafelt Lighting

LIGHTING FOR LIVING WALLS

Recent advancements in technology now offer low cost and highly efficient ways to provide light for living walls.

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Florafelt Aquaponics

CLOSED-LOOP ECO-FARMING

Aquaponics is a way to grow vegetables using water circulated from fish tanks. This ‘closed loop’ system is water efficient and can provide multiple food sources from both the fish and plants.

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Need Help With Your Project?

We’ve been helping architects, designers, landscapers, and homeowners build living walls for over 15 years. Use our quote request form page to help us with the basic specs for your project. We can advise and quote your project.

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What Makes Florafelt so Amazing?

A view into a forested jungle is made with Florafelt Pocket Panels by Truvine Design for Chrome Hearts in Miami Design District.

Florafelt Becomes


Part of a Living
Ecosystem

When you plant a living wall you are creating a living ecosystem. Plants grow together and morph into a complex forest. Unlike container gardening, Florafelt allows plants to forever expand into a living ecological biome because roots and microbiology become one with the system.

Soft Florafelt Pockets are stretched open to receive new plant materials.

Soft Pleated Pockets


Stretch Open for
Plants and Soil

Florafelt Pockets stretch open to receive new plants in their native soil and are made with loosely woven materials folded by design to support plants, slow water flow, and invite oxygen to the roots. Roots and soil move into the open fibrous materials to become a living matrix for life.

New plants are wrapped and added to Florafelt Pockets by Siteworks Landscape for this custom built living wall in Berkeley, California.

Innovative


Felt Wraps Make
Your Living Wall
Changeable

Our Florafelt Pockets come with our custom Root-Wraps made from the same loosely woven proprietary materials. This lets you change and arrange your living wall at will, while maintaining the integrity of every plant in its own soil that only gets better as it grows.

Roots easily grow through the loosely woven Florafelt Root Wrap materials.

Open Fibers Let


Roots Grow Into
the Moist Felt

Simply irrigated by a single drip line at the top of your wall, each pocket receives moisture from above. Unbound, plants’ roots grow through and into the system to reach full maturity.

Pre-wrapped plants are inserted in Florafelt Pockets according to a design grid for this Florafelt Pockets installation in San Francisco.

It’s Made From a


Tough Recycled
PET Fiber That’s
Made to Last

Made from 100% recycled plastic water bottles, Florafelt horticulture fabric is incredibly tough and will not decay.

Architect Marika Shiori-Clark talks about her experience using the Florafelt System for a rainwater reclamation project in Cleveland, Ohio.

Architects and


Designers Worldwide
Choose Florafelt

Easy and Affordable. Free-form design. Honest about the way plants really grow. It’s more like a natural cliff than a planter, the way living walls grow in nature. Forgivable. Instinctive. Handles like a real garden.

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Florafelt Living Wall System: How It Works

A Truly Unique System of


Pleated Pockets and Wraps

Since 2009 Florafelt’s Patented Pleated Pocket Systems have been used by professional landscapers and home gardeners worldwide. Our patented vertical wall planting method (US Patent 8141294) can be created in either a panel or draped configuration, and both provide a wide range of vertical planting solutions.

Folded, pleated felt makes efficient use of materials and is far superior to flat pockets or slit and stapled vertical garden systems. With Florafelt pleat-folded pockets, irrigation from a single drip line at the top, wicks water down and moistens the base of every fold, exactly where roots like to grow.

The root wraps keep things neat and make your garden easy to replant and rearrange, and we only use 100% recycled, PET plastic.

Planted Design uses the Florafelt Pro system to create a massively inspired living wall for a private home by Tony Adams Pools in Pleasanton, California.

Let Your


Creativity Soar

Planted Design’s short film about an epic living wall they created with the Florafelt Pro System has won four Emmy Awards! Watch this beautiful video that captures their passion for living plant walls.

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A curved Fern Wall maintained by the volunteer staff at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers using the Florafelt Pro System.

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A Student project spells the word ‘HOPE’ for the Seattle Capstone Project assisted by Floraform Design using Florafelt Pockets.

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We can help you create the living wall of your dreams.

Plant living wall: simple building tips and examples to inspire you

Benefits of a living wall in the interior

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Which flowers to choose

Pay attention to easy care flowers. Otherwise, there is a risk of spending a lot of free time trying to save them and make them bloom and fluffy. Here is a list of plants that can be used: ornamental grapes, ampelous plants (for example, philodendron or scindapsus). You can also safely hang succulents on the wall - unpretentious and pretty plants. And, of course, do not forget about the moss.

Instagram @fitomoduli_ufa

Instagram @fitomoduli_ufa

Instagram @fitomoduli_ufa

Things to consider

Supports

The living wall should be placed on supports with soil or hydroponics in which roots will grow. It is important to consider how to securely attach these supports.

Instagram @shami.gardens

Instagram @shami.gardens

Flower order

Adhere to the following rules. Spreading views should be at the bottom. In the middle - bright and curly. And at the top - ampelous types. Florists start with bright shoots and plants, set accents, and then complement them with calm and small details.

Providing access to the wall

Try to find a place that is easy to access - to maintain the wall. For this reason, it is undesirable to place it next to textile sofas and beds so as not to stain the upholstery. nine0017

Instagram @mankarayadesign

Instagram @mankarayadesign

Watering

It is important to water the plants so that they do not wither or die. For phytowalls, a drip irrigation system is a good option. But she has one significant drawback - you have to think about where to drain the water. It can be a special tray or, for example, an aquarium installation. nine0017

Lighting

This is not only a beautiful accessory for a living wall, which will help to present it more advantageously in the interior. But also additional heating - and with warmth, greenery will grow better. If you make spotlights using spots, instead of ordinary lamps, you can use special devices - phytolamps that help flowers grow better.

nine0016 Instagram @vast.art

Instagram @vast.art

Material prepared by

Anastasia Dubrovina

Living wall of plants, photo - Green wall of fresh flowers, tips - which plants to use

Over the past ten years, the architectural tastes of people changed, as did the fashion for landscaping the house and garden. The living wall in the house no longer looks exotic. And the plants in the garden are not only combined with the style of the house, but also complement it. This is especially important when it comes to hedges, which often set the tone for the entire garden. As clients get better and better at design, they often ask me as a designer to come up with an original living screen. The question is not only to hide from the eyes of neighbors: living walls of plants protect from wind and direct sunlight, and they can also be used to mask an unattractive object. nine0017

Tall plants with a slender silhouette
A living green wall of intertwining crowns of closely planted trees is a technique known from ancient times. Landscape designers are increasingly doing this trick with bamboo these days. To create a complete composition, the soil at the base of the trees is planted with low-growing or creeping shrubs.

Bamboo is an excellent hedge material. Its height can reach 6 m, and it does not expand in width, so it is preferred to be used in narrow areas. Wild bamboo has earned itself a bad reputation because it tends to grow and creep into neighboring areas. New varieties, such as the graceful weaver (Latin name Bambusa textilis), are more disciplined. They grow strictly vertically and branch evenly around the trunk. nine0017

Harrison's Landscaping

In the photo: living walls in the interior of a balcony or terrace can be not only decoration, but also protection from the wind

Unpretentious plants
Dragon yucca, which is also called yucca without thorns often planted in places where you need to hide from the wind or sun. The sculpted crown and dense leaf structure make it an ideal screener candidate for a modern home.

Yucca can be watered very rarely, and in general it does not require any special care. It is difficult to make an opaque yucca hedge, but if you plant several plants close to each other, you get a beautiful living screen that protects from the sun and wind. nine0017

To emphasize the shape of the crown, you can cut the leaves at the bottom of the trunk. Yucca gets along well with other plants, so bright undersized flowers or herbs can be planted under it.

C.O.S Design

Flowering plants
Magnolia grandiflora has gained particular popularity in landscape design over the past 10 years. With its help, you can not only place visual accents in the garden, but also grow a dense hedge. And what could be more beautiful than a wall of fresh flowers? nine0017

Today, a new variety of magnolia grandiflora with the romantic name "Southern Charm" is conquering the market. It has the same two-tone leaves and world-famous white flowers as the other varieties. The difference lies in the fact that the "Southern Charm" forms a denser crown. Such a wall of flowers will appeal to those who want to hide from prying eyes.

In addition, this magnolia will appeal to fans of bright colors in the design of the garden. When in bloom, the large white flowers look amazing and turn the hedge into a decorative border. nine0017

Frankie Pot Range

In the photo: a small living wall of plants planted in a planter can not only decorate the interior of the house, but also serve as a screen in the garden

Troy Silva Design Group Inc.

Hardy plants
Let's talk about the good old mother-in-law's tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata). In recent years, this plant has become popular again, largely due to new varieties. So, Sansevieria stuckyi has wider leaves - they can reach 120 cm in length. This hardy plant thrives in pots and soil, on the seashore, on a balcony and even on a hot roof. In addition, it is drought tolerant. nine0017

Mother-in-law's tongue protection screen will not be too thick, but will appeal to those who want a living wall of plants to let in light.

Garden Architecture

Fruit Plants
Podocarpus elatus, also known as bush plum, is another option for creating a green hedge.

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