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Most likely, the primary reason one may decide to place live plants in an interior space is aesthetics. They look great and they complement the architecture of the space when professionally specified, installed & maintained.

If you’re still on the fence though and you’re not quite sure which side you want to jump off on, consider these factors:
- Live plants increase productivity.

-Live plants help improve Indoor Air Quality.

- Live plants help regulate humidity.

- Live plants can help direct traffic flow.

- Live plants can help reduce echo and noise.

- In the grand scheme, the cost is nominal.

That’s right, in most cases, it’s likely that you could place plants and containers in your reception area, a few key  public spaces and your conference room for less than the cost of the furnishings and fixtures in that conference room. We’re not kidding!

Most Interior Plantscape companies offer purchase and leasing options with professional horticultural service to protect your investment in live plants. Here at FosterPlants™, we provide both options, but our level of service is what sets  us apart from the competition.

We guarantee that if you’re ever not happy with a plant or container or accessory that we have provided, or ever have a service related issue, we’ll take care of it right away. No questions asked!

Give Steve Foster a call now at 305.962.0990. We’ll Make Your Space Green!

For additional information  on the many benefits of Professionally Installed & maintained Live Plants, please visit GreenPlants for Green Buildings.

Last time we talked about “Going Vertical” with plants and in particular the TerraScreen™ living wall system.

That’s just one of several living wall systems that are available from FosterPlants™ though, so let’s talk about a few others. Each is more suited to certain applications. Some use soil as the planting medium and some use a foam plantingpad.

First, let’s discuss the Wally™, the modular living wall system by Woolly Pocket™ Garden Company

The Wally™ is  a very reasonably priced modular system that’s as well suited to the do-it-yourselfer as it is to the Professional Interior Plantscaper. The Wally is a breathable felt pocket — as its name suggests — and it’s made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. How green is that! Wally’s are available in a few different colors and three different widths. Wally One, Wally Three and Wally Five. They’re also available in two models, one for indoor use and one for outdoor.

One of the major benefits that we see in the Wally™ is its ability to conform to curved walls. Something that not every living wall system is capable of!

We’ll soon be experimenting ourselves with the Wally and will post some photo’s of our own Wally wall as soon as they’re available.

We’ll also soon have Woolly Pocket™ products available to the Do-It-Yourselfer for purchase on our AwesomePlanters.com website.

Next, let’s talk about the greenwalls™ Modular Planting System from McCaren Designs.

The greenwalls™ system was developed by McRae Anderson of McCaren Designs in Minneapolis, MN. and it”s a modular system that is just over two inches thick. The modules are available only To-The -Trade and are offered in 36″ squares which comprise a foam planting material encased in a metal grid. The modules also feature their own waterproof membrane and once professionally installed, the supporting wall is completely protected from moisture.

Our friend Joanne Young of Greenery Office Interiors recently installed one of the largest interior living walls in Western Canada. using the greenwalls™ Modular Planting System. Shown at left is the smallerof two recently completed interior greenwall’s™ That Greenery Office Interiors just completed at Jamieson Place, a new Class “A” Building in Calgary, AB.  Truly an outstanding masterpiece!

The final living wall system that we’ll discuss is the Tournesol™ VGM Modular Living Wall System.

The VGM modules are 19.6″ wide by 22″ high and they are available in two depths — 6″ and 10″ — selected based upon the needs of the plants that will be installed. VGM units are constructed from 100% recycled polypropylene plastic and ship flat to save shipping and fuel costs. How green is that!

Once received at our facility, the modules are assembled, a soil retention bag which comes with each module is then inserted and filled with a 95% inorganic soil mix. Slits are then cut in the soil retention bags and the plants are planted into the modules and grown in with the modules laying flat on their backs. Once grown in, in about a month or so, the modules are ready to be mounted onto the vertical surface where they will reside. Shown above is a Tournesol™ VGM Living Wall installed and thriving.

For an obligation free consultation to discuss a FosterPlants™ living wall for your space — inside or out — please contact Steve Foster at 305.251.7383 in Miami-Dade or 877.647.1782 Toll Free.

The images in this post are courtesy of Woolly Pocket™ Garden Company, Greenery Office Interiors & Tournesol Siteworks™ and do not depict living walls that FosterPlants™ has installed. Wouldn’t you like to be our first?

Space is limited and floor space is at a premium, so why not go vertical?

There are so many good reasons to go vertical with plantings that it would be silly if we didn’t at least explore our options!

That being said, yours truly can’t wait to do our first  living wall, or vertical garden, or greenwall™, or whatever you want to call it.

There are so many options out there as far as vertical gardening “systems” are concerned and so we’ve been doing our due diligence to determine which of the various systems we would want to offer to our clients.

Here’s what we’ve found. There’s a cornocopia of systems out there and there are good systems and not so good ones. There are some that are suitable for interior applications, but they’re not very suitable for exterior applications — and vice versa. There are some that are great for temporary or rotating applications, but they wouldn’t necessarily be good for permanent ongoing ones.

Some are just too darned complicated and some way too expensive.

Seriously, it’s a Zoo out there in vertical-gardening-wall-land and that’s just one of the reasons why you need a professional that knows what they’re doing to make this happen for your space.

At FosterPlants, we’ve begun testing many of the various systems and one of the best for interior applications that we’ve come across is the TerraScreen™  system, shown above. The primary advantage of this system is that it facilitates simple and quick change-outs of the plants. That’s great for a lobby space where one might want to implement seasonal plantings or change things out as the property holds different events.

We have many other living wall systems that are suitable for both interior or exterior applications so let’s explore what system might be best suited to your space and get you going vertical.

Give us a call at 305.251.7383 or 877-647.1782 and we’ll begin Making Your Space Green™.

Photo credit: TerraScreen™ available from FosterPlants™

Envision this.

You’re sitting at you desk working on the computer and there’s this annoying little miniscule bug… or perhaps a few of them that keep flitting around — right in front of your face — between you and your monitor and they’re really annoying.  Just about impossible to swat too!

Have you been there?

Say hello to the Fungus Gnat.

This little critter isn’t harmful to humans or animals, but they are extremely annoying, as you may know, and eliminating them from your space can be quite a challenge.

Where do they come from? Well, several possible sources. they could be coming into your space in the soil of your plants at the egg or larvae stage, or they can fly into your space through an open door or window at the adult stage. Kind of like mosquitoes or flies. The only way to eliminate them once an area is infested is to treat both the nesting area  (which could be, but isn’t always necessarily the soil of your plants) and the adults that are flying around.

I won’t get too technical here, but if you’d like to find out all the technical details, there’s a great article at https://class-insecta.com/Fungus_Gnats.html

How can you prevent the likelihood of an infestation?

• Make sure that your plants are sourced from a reputable Interior Plantscape Professional (we know a good company if you need a recommendation )
• Make sure that that company treats all of your incoming plants to eliminate any larvae that may be present in the soil. We do.
• Ask your staff not to bring gift plants or plants from home into the office as they may unknowingly introduce the dreaded fungus gnat into your space.
• Use covered trash receptacles in your kitchen areas and require that they are emptied daily making sure that the trash is properly disposed of outside of the space.
• Require your staff to dispose of any food that they may have taken to their workspace in that covered trash receptacle in the lunch room.

What to do if you do have an infestation?

• Call your Interior Plantscape Professional  and let them know that you’re having the problem. They will know what steps to take to eliminate the infestation.
• Call your Pest Control Professional also, as the infestation may not necessarily be emanating from the plants.
• Be patient and understanding during the process as the only way to completely eliminate the problem is to break the life cycle.
• Realize that your Interior Plantscape Professional is on your side and wants the issue resolved as much as you do.
• Understand that the plants, although they may now be the nesting area may not necessarily have been the cause of the infestation.

Please leave us a comment if you found this post useful.
Our thanks to Class-Insecta.com for the use of their photo.