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Where to buy plants for a living wall

petelindgrenl6cpxFiVpetelindgrenl6cpxFiV Posts: 4
in Plants
Hi all, I'm about to embark on my first serious attempt at horticulture by planting a living wall indoors. It'll be about 3 square metres so I'm guessing will need quite a few plants. I guess I don't need or want the plants to be very big. I'll dig up my list of plants tomorrow.

In the meantime can anyone recommend what approach I should take regarding sourcing the plants? I came across crocus, but that seems quite expensive when I consider just how many plants I'll need to buy. Maybe an actual nursery would be a better bet?

Any advice or recommendations gratefully received by this novice plant buyer. I'm in South West London fwiw.

Posts

  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    I’d counsel you to tread very warily. I saw such a wall on one of the viewers’ videos on the Gardeners’ World TV programme and it was certainly impressive, if not to my taste. My concerns would be about the seepage of water from sloppy watering and the damage that could do to the fabric of the house. I would be a little concerned about the effect of raised humidity levels on soft furnishings, the possibility of a fungus gnat infestation and how the plants would be watered when I was on holiday.

    I think there is a reason living walls in domestic properties are not commonplace. Sorry to be such a Jonah.
    Rutland, England
  • petelindgrenl6cpxFiVpetelindgrenl6cpxFiV Posts: 4
    No need to apologise. Yes, there's a lot that you have to think about, and most of it is specific to the uinique situation of the wall. Furthermore it's expensive, difficult to research (because the information is so fragmented), and can fail if you get anything wrong. I suspect these things also serve to stop living walls popping up all over the place.

    That said, it seems to be possible if done and maintained well. Having spent so much time researching and planning the lighting/irrigation/construction/plant suitability, I'm pretty determined at this stage. I'm now researching the actual planting/growing side of things (and fungus gnat is certainly a new one to me, so thank you for that). Irrigation will be automatic (drip and capiliary action) and can be adjusted depending on season/need, so hopefully that will limit excess humidity/moisture.

    I've been looking more into sourcing the plants, and I'm finding it surprisingly difficult. Garden Centres seemed to be a bit of a dead end as they didn't seem to have the varieties I was after. The first couple of nurseries I have contacted are outdoor plants only. I'm now exploring the wholesale route, and am considering Arnott and Mason in New Covent Garden market (though am slightly worried by some poor online reviews). That line of inquiry has also led me as far as online wholesale suppliers who seem to be based in the Netherlands (e.g. Roobos and Donck) but I have no idea whether they would contemplate selling to little ol' me, nor do I know the Brexit implicatons either.

    I'm expecting to need about 120 plants. So any small cost saving per plant can have a huge impact on overall costs.

  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    I have this little trailing thing from Ikea (can't remember what it is, but it was labelled HIMALAYAMIX... it's the one on the far right here). Looks like all of these might be suitable for a green wall. With trailers, all you really need to do is put them on a shelf - if you had several shelves running up the wall, you would get a sort of green curtain effect. By the way, my plant is very easily dividable and you could pull it apart into tiny plantlets if you wanted, to grow on. I bet a lot of these trailers are like that.

    HIMALAYAMIX Potted plant assorted 12 cm
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    What sort of plants are you after? I assume house plants rather than garden plants but I know some people have success with herbs and things in living walls. My advice would be to try and grow as much as you can from water-rooted cuttings. Your hardest task will be acclimatising plants to living in the wall so starting from cuttings will allow them to grow  into the space. If you do go for cuttings then maybe a Freecycle post might find you someone locally to get you started. Otherwise it might be cheaper to source larger plants and chop bits off rather than buy a load of plugs.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    Having researched this project so well I expect you have come across this site but, if not, ...

    https://www.janeperrone.com/blog/2017/11/18/where-to-buy-houseplants-in-the-uk

    Rutland, England
  • petelindgrenl6cpxFiVpetelindgrenl6cpxFiV Posts: 4
    edited February 2021
    Thanks all for the comments.

    This is my current shortlist:
    Liriope
    Helxine soleirolii
    Fascicularia bicolor
    trachelospermum (haven't researched this one)
    Cyrtomium fortunei
    Tender orchids
    Calathea
    Adiantum raddianum
    Asplenium fern
    Iris confusa (haven't researched this one either)

    I like the idea of being able to separate one plant into many, or water-rooted cuttings.

    This is where it's new territory for me - as mentioned at the start, this is my first serious foray into planning and looking after plants, and having done the research on the engineering side, I'm earlier in the horticultural research.

    Can one buy water-rooted cuttings, or is that somthing that you'd normally swap and share with your local community?
    (re-read your post, wild edges, and saw that you'd already answered that one)
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