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10 Surprising Plants to Elevate Your Green Wall
The market for green plants is developing rapidly. Tropical houseplants have been trending for a while now and by the looks of it, this will continue to be the case for years to follow. At Evanthia we have noticed this by sky-rocketing product demands and the massive growth of our Tropical Plants department in recent years. Our product range is ever-evolving and growing… It’s a complete jungle out there! For new plant hunters, plant parents and plant lovers it can be a bit overwhelming to start their collection, asking themselves: Where to start? Which items to choose and Why? Rotem from @myplantwall takes you along for a close-up of their green wall and lists her favourites.
Rotem: “Last year, when we started to build our DIY living room green wall, we didn’t know which plants would adapt best to vertical growing and to repotting in felt. Now, as we are approaching the wall’s 1 year birthday, we can share with you which plants have made it through everything that we put them through:
- Apartment move
- Repotting into a new medium
- European winter
The plants we chose to focus on will look great on every green wall. They are easy-to-get common house plants that are both affordable and beautiful. Combined they fill up the green wall, show plant diversity, and strengthen the tropical jungle feeling that we aim for and love so much!
1. Syngonium
I chose to start with Syngonium since it holds a special place in my heart. My old flatmate had a Syngonium White Butterfly plant, and that is the first cutting I ever took and propagated. Today, 3 years later, this tiny cutting is PROSPERING on the green wall and reaching a giant size. We have 3 types of Syngonium on the wall: Syngonium White butterfly, Syngonium Neon and Red.
I couldn’t recommend Syngoniums more. They all are fast growers, climbers, easy to care for, and they add so much colour and vibrancy.
2. Philodendron Florida Beauty Green
This plant simply turns the jungle vibes up! Philodendron Florida Beauty Green has the biggest, most unique shape of leaves, and it has a beautiful growing pattern: one leaf grows to the right and the next one will grow to the left. So it’s popping out in between other plants so naturally while climbing up.
3. Monstera
The Monstera is always the star of the show, as common as it may be – it’s always so striking! She has adapted to the green wall so well, that she tripled in size.
The aerial roots have latched all along the felt and we now enjoy leaves with secondary fenestration.
4. Calathea
[kal-uh-thee-uh] … sounds weird? I know! They do have quite the reputation of being difficult, but in a miraculous way that surprised us too, some of them actually enjoy the green wall climate and shade. To name a few: Calathea orbifolia, Calathea makoyana and Ctenanthe oppenheimiana. They are long living and easy going.
Their striking patterns add so much dimension and interest. If you DIY a plant wall – I highly suggest that you try to combine Calathea varieties in the mix.
5. Philodendron Imperial Red
WOW, wow, wow. I never expected to love this plant as much as I do! It’s been on the wall since day one, growing silently and slowly but with so much dark elegance! It might not pop out many new leaves all the time, but the ones it already has grown, have become so dominant and large!
The Philodendron Imperial Red is a stable “slow-and-steady-wins-the-race” type of guy. Definitely add it to your wall if you are in it for the long run!
6. Philodendron hastatum Grey
We made a few cuttings of our Philodendron hastatum Grey plant and spread them across the green wall. In retrospect, I wouldn’t recommend cutting the plant because they are slow growers. Instead I would keep the plant as it arrived from the nursery.
However, the silvery grey colour of this plant adds serenity and calmness to the wall, as it balances out the bright greens.
7. Philodendron minima / Rhaphidophora tetrasperma
Let’s switch to a top performer! I purchased our Philo minima with cold burns and only 5 leaves. It has been planted on the lower corner of the wall and to this day it climbed all the 2 meters up, and continued to the ceiling, with her fun fenestrated leaves! It’s everywhere and its fast & furious growth rate is so rewarding.
8. Alocasia wentii
While some Alocasias keep to the very familiar formula of: “if one new leaf grows, the old one most go”, Alocasia wentii has rules of its own!
This bushy Alocasia is coming out of the winter season not with 2 leaves, not with 3, but with 8 (!) leaves. It’s really big and regal.
The wentii grows at the lower part of the wall, where it’s always wet. Most plants will die in that area because it’s too wet for their roots. Alocasia wentii however,(luckily for us) is proving to handle it very well! If it’s too wet for her, she will get rid of the excess water through it’s shiny deep green leaves. This dripping process is called guttation.
9. Philodendron Zebra
Philodendron Zebra is perfect for the green wall, because of its shape. It’s bushy and relatively small with green and white striped leaves. It goes really well next to plants that are more stemy, like Alocasia or Monstera, because it assists with creating dimension and a rich full contrasted texture.
10. Alocasia cucullata
Last but not least- The Alocasia cucullata surprised us the most! So here’s a story about two sister cuculata pots. One was planted on the wall while the other one stayed in the nursery pot. The wall cucullata started to grow rapidly, even sending roots from the back of it’s stem. Today it stands at 140 cm tall!
In comparison, Her sister, the cucullata who stayed in the pot (not with the best light conditions, if I must admit) reaches 60 cm only. So even though at first glance she might not look like your typical beauty queen, definitely give her a try and see what type of magic she can perform!
Connect
Did you like our choices or was surprised by them? Would you also put these plants on your green wall or keep them in pots? We would love to know what you think of our list!
Come say hi to us on instagram – @myplantwall for more tips, plants, and green wall topics.”
