Choosing the right plants for a greenwall really matters

Real plants or silk plants? Safe and familiar or something rare and surprising? One of InnoGreen’s founders and partner Mikko Sonninen explains how plants are chosen for the green wall to make it showy.

“Before any plants are chosen, we investigate the location and main users of the space,” Mikko explains and adds, “in addition we consider what kind of mood the wall should present. We carefully map the clients wishes about the general look of the green wall, for example if the client wants a subtle and calm feel or lots of color and lushness.”

A green wall made out of silk plants requires no maintenance and silk plants are durable in more hashers conditions. Real plants require light and that can be provided to a more darker space, but in the indoor playground HopLop we used only silk plants. The plants must endure in a hectic place such as HopLop so using real plants was out of question. We usually always prefer real plants if it’s possible, of course taking into account the space and main users of the space. The selection of real plants changes and grows constantly.

We mainly use plants that are tested to be suitable and plants that are tested maintenance wise. Majority of the plants that we use in our green walls are tested and known to be suitable but we also do some tests on new plant species to see which ones are suitable. Since we do maintenance on the green walls on a regular basis we can quickly see what new species are a good fit with the green wall and what species are not. Plants such as heartleaf philodendron, money plant, mistletoe cacti and monstera are some of the plants that we use often are found to be a great fit. 

All green walls with real plants are maintained on a regular basis. We also offer additional services where we change blooming seasonal plants to the wall to bring variety and a new look. Seasonal plants include for example the flamingo flower, phalaenopsis orchids and the flaming Katy.

Recently, the carefree moss wall has gained popularity. Silk plants and other natural elements can be attached to the moss wall in order to add dimensions. That is why we call these impressive green walls landscape walls.

Choosing and placing the plants requires precision

We prefer to use various species of plants in our green walls. This inhibits for example the spreading of plant diseases. A green wall that consists of several species is also more showy and with well planned choosing of the plants we can create atmospheres based on the client’s wishes. The green wall can be playful, dramatic or calming if needed. 

The chosen plants are placed so that the requirements and needs of each plant species is met. The plants that require more light are places on top of the wall and those plants that can endure shade better are placed on the bottom and on the sides. “With well planned placing we can create texture and dimensional feeling. It’s fun to view the wall from up close of from a little more far away,” tells Mikko. The modular structure of our green walls allows that the plants all receive the needed amount of water. All InnoGreen’s green walls are planted in our facility and transported to the customer.