Living walls add a unique touch to any space they are installed in. They provide a cleaner and greener environment and allow you to customize and design them as per your taste by choosing the plants of your preference. So you get to select plants of various colors, types, and leaf patterns. Here is a list of some plants you can choose for your living plant wall ranging from succulents to edible herbs.
Living walls can be decorated with perennial and annual plants or herbs and vegetables. The best time to plant them is spring, as young plants tend to establish readily and grow together. Before you decide on the plants, it would help if you focus on the space, texture, color, and form of the foliage and flowers. Remember that the plants on your living plant wall should be compact, preferably less than 50cm, and should be able to take regular pruning. Your designer may choose from various living wall plants depending on the climate, orientation, and design intent. These varieties include annual plants, perennial plants, tropical plants, succulents, or edibles like herbs, vegetables, and strawberries too!
Indoor plants or House Plants are mostly native to the dark floors of tropical rainforests. The hardiest ones are from the Philodendron family, as they offer many foliage colors with bold roots and stems and can drape down or reach upward. These plants can be transplanted by cutting, so you can spread them around the garden wall. If the walls are across a window or only artificial light is available for the plants, it is recommended that you use light-intensity LED spots or fluorescent flood light. You can consult with your designer about the lighting guide.
If you want the wall to thrive year-round, you can go for perennials or use bedding that can be changed with the seasons. Edibles can also offer a tight space. However, no matter what you choose, ensure that you water every day during hot weather and every other day throughout the summer. If your wall gets less than half a day of sun, go for shade-tolerant plants. The shade-tolerant plants include Campanula carpatica’ Blaue Clips’, Geum Mrs. J. Bradshaw, Salvia nemorosa’ New Dimension,’’ Heuchera,’ ‘Melting Fire,’ and scabious. All of these can cope with the sun as well as partial shade.
Plants For Sun
These include petunia, salvia, bacopa, impatiens, fuchsia, campanula, lobelia, scabious, pelargoniums, and nasturtiums.
Plants For Shade
Plants that do well in the shade are vinca, pansies, campanula, viola, heuchera, tiarella, and wallflowers.
Edible Plants
You can plant some edibles on your living wall, such as herbs, salad leaves, lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries.
Succulents
Succulents look cool without you having to put much effort into their maintenance. Plants like sedum, crassula, and echeveria make a great option for living walls.
Low Light Tropical Indoor Plants
These plants usually need a minimum of 250-foot candles. The more light they receive, the healthier they will be. So you can use a light metre to ensure a minimum of 250-foot candles fall on all plants. Some examples of such plants include anthurium, aglaonema, maria ficus, maranta red, decora, philodendron brazil, philodendron congo, philodendron split-leaf, philodendron cordatum.
Bright Light Tropical Indoor Plants
The tropical indoor plants include Calatha Burle Marx, Philodendron Prince-of-Orange, Calathea Lancifolia, Aglaonema Mystic Marble, Orchid Vanilla, Aechmea Del Mar, Palm Areca, and Ficus Sylvie. These plants will be the healthiest with 700-foot candles. Indirect natural light can provide enough illumination for locations across from a bank of southern windows or a skylight. You may also use an array of metal halide floods.
Additional Bright Light Tropical Indoor Plants
These include plants like Aglanome Gemini, Aglaonema Maria, Ficus Sylvie, Philodendron Moonlight, Aglaonema Julliette, Bromeliads, Ficus Belize, Maranta Red Pole, Spathiphyllum Domino, Ivy, Philodendron Prince-of-Orange, Spathiphyllum Dario, Spathiphyllum Star Dust, Calathea Lancifola, Philodendron Brazil, Schefflera arboricola Variegata, Schefflera arboricola GoldFinger, Spathiphyllum Sweet Pablo, Spathiphyllum Dario, Philodendron Congo Rojo, Schefflera arboricola Mini, Philodendron Cordatum, Spathiphhyllum Liana, Spathiphyllum Star Dust, and Spathiphyllum Power Petite.
Ferns
Ferns can do great when receiving a bright light tropical indoor plant collection. A wall of cascading ferns would never go wrong! Although ferns love staying in bright indirect light 700-foot candles, they usually prefer shade. Some ferns you can include in your living wall are Bear paw fern, button fern, kangaroo paw fern, maidenhair fern, birds nest fern, Blechnum silver-lady fern, and Pteris.
The Bottom Line
However, your final choice of living wall plants depends upon many factors like the location, the climate of the place you stay, what designs and colors you expect, your requirements, the amount of light the wall receives, etc. So look for a designer to guide you with each plant type for your living wall plant selection. The best ones will also offer you pairing guides.
