Making the most of vines, the living walls

A living wall at the Orange Avenue office of landscape architect Dane Spencer. STAFF PHOTOS / MIKE LANG

Published: Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 5:51 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 5:51 p.m.

Sarasota landscape architect Dane Spencer hears comments all day long about the stunning green screen of kalanchoe that is the front wall and entry to his office on North Orange Avenue. n He installed the system of pots and irrigation tubes in a purple framework to contrast with the pale green and red-tinged leaves of the paddle-leaved kalanchoe. n Besides the striking visual effect, this living wall filters sunlight, deflects heat and provides privacy and noise abatement from the street. It welcomes visitors to the office and illustrates one aspect of landscape architecture.

Visitors to the home of Charlotte County Master Gardener Donna Worthley are guided to the front door by a living wall of neatly trimmed shrubs along the walkway. Pots of plants growing at various heights make an attractive backdrop on her lanai and a row of bougainvillea creates vertical interest at the edge of a canal.

Besides filtering light and reducing glare and noise, green walls or green screens deflect radiant heat and save energy. Worthley has covered a west-facing wall of her home with a lattice that supports fast-growing jasmine. Not only is it attractive, it shields the wall from direct sun exposure, keeping the house cooler and reducing the need for air conditioning. And, adds Spencer, plants are known to clean the air, so any arrangement that puts them near people is beneficial. Living walls are less expensive and more versatile than hard walls, notes Worthley. Chances, are they are more attractive and if you get tired of the way they look, you don't need a sledge hammer to change them.


Living walls can hide unsightly air conditioners, refuse cans, tool sheds or compost piles and bins. They can turn fences into works of art and patios into outdoor living spaces.

Tall potted plants acting as dividers are far more attractive than cubicles for dividing indoor office space. And in restaurants, plants cascading from hanging baskets and wall planters soften hard corners and simulate curtains at windows and between booths. Living walls provide friendly buffers between neighbors' properties and between buildings and streets or walkways. Strategically placed tall plants or towers of potted plants can direct foot traffic to public areas and away from private ones.


Carpets of brilliant blooms and lush foliage in medians, shopping center parking lots and around entrances to upscale communities are breathtaking. Just imagine those vibrant purples and fuchsias, blazing reds and yellows or soothing blues and whites in a vertical tapestry on your patio wall or balcony railing.

"If you have a deck, terrace or balcony," says Derek Fell in "Vertical Gardening" (Rodale, 2011), "you can position plants in window box planters to cascade down to meet erect vining plants that are growing up from the ground (or planters) supported by trellises. The two sets of plants — cascading and upright — then create a tight knit of foliage and flowers and a beautiful curtain when they meet in the middle."

Vertical tapestries need not be limited to flowers. At the entrance to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a tillandsia wall that was started several years ago during a festival where attendees were invited to place plants within a wire framework.

Fell likes to use discarded machine parts, rusted fencing and old bicycle wheels as both art elements and support for vertical gardens. Those bicycle wheels, wired together and mounted on a wall, become a living mosaic as blue morning glories and climbing nasturtiums cover them.

Vertical gardening may be as simple as an arrangement of pots on several tiers of a shelf. Or strawberry pots stacked on top of one another.

If your space is limited to a porch, balcony or patio, pots containing plants of different heights can create a living screen. A trellis anchored in the pot provides support for a vine or tall plant as can the balcony rail.

Vertical gardening can be vines growing up a lamp post or beans growing up a string trellis. It can range from an elaborate system of irrigated "pockets" mounted up a building wall as in several European countries, to a collection of blooming baskets

or pots of orchids attached at various levels to a poolside wall.

Spencer acknowledges that systems like his can be prohibitively expensive for homeowners, but suggested a living wall made of octagonal drain pipes stacked horizontally between supports with openings facing out to form a honeycomb, each filled with growing medium and plants.


Vertical gardening and living walls are the same.

Both require only a small footprint, which means less soil preparation, digging, fertilizing, watering and weeding. In fact, if you follow author Patricia Lanza's ("Lasagna Gardening") method, you can avoid tilling altogether. Your plants will thrive in a narrow raised bed 6 to 12 inches deep composed of layers of newspaper, vegetable scraps, dried leaves, cut grass and compost.

Plants growing vertically can be easily watered and trimmed at eye level, minimizing the need for bending knees and straining backs. And vertical gardens are wheelchair accessible.

Increased air circulation around plants in vertical gardens means fewer pests and less disease. And by planting different varieties in a small space, you lessen the likelihood that a single disease or insect will wipe out an entire living wall of plants.


By now you have probably figured out that the fastest way to have a living wall is via vines.

Consider planting a summer-blooming vine and a winter-blooming vines together on the same wall, arbor or archway for year-round color.

Besides creating living walls, vegetable vines such as tomato, cucumber, squash, peppers and beans feed you.

Vegetable vines planted on a wall that faces east, south or west benefit from reflected light and heat and the wall may provide protection from a late frost.

Vines may climb, twine or clamber and there are a few caveats. The rootlets and suction-like discs that some vines use to climb may damage wood siding, paint or the mortar between bricks or blocks, and they can be difficult to remove. So when installing support for vines on a wall, you will need to leave adequate space between the wall and the support. English ivy, trumpet vine and passion vine are popular climbers.

Others, such as beans and grapes, develop tendrils where the vine comes in contact with the support.

Twining vines advance by encircling poles and other vertical supports. Depending on the variety, they will wind in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, and forcing them to wind in a different direction may damage the vine. These adapt well to arbors and gazebos. Confederate jasmine and allamanda are good examples.

Other vines, like some bougainvillea and climbing roses, don't twine or climb, but grow with abandon toward the sun. They can become woody and heavy and will eventually be able to support themselves, but will likely need to be guided and pruned. Bougainvillea and climbing roses are examples.

The very quality that enables vines to quickly fill a wall, also means they can get out of control. (Think kudzu!) Some require pruning. Others, such as passionflower, produce tenacious underground roots, so you may end up with a bunch of little vines in places you never intended. Because vines block the sunlight, mold may form on walls where they are growing. Worthley trims her jasmine back in the winter and sprays the wall with a bleach solution to remove mold.


When choosing plants for a vertical garden or living wall, Worthley notes that success is most likely when the "right plant, right place" principle of the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods program is followed.

If you want a neat, compact wall, choose a shrub that doesn't bear flowers on the end of its branches.

Fast-growing bamboo is great for privacy wall or screen. But choose clumping bamboo, otherwise you will be lost in a bamboo forest in no time.

Don't use plants with different watering and growing requirements in the same space.

If you are planting in a narrow space beside a sidewalk or beside a building, choose plants with a wide pH tolerance because concrete can change the acidity of soil.

Just because a sun-loving plant looks good in an office or restaurant, don't be fooled into thinking that it will do well inside for you. Chances are those plants are maintained and regularly rotated by a plant service.

To help you select the right plant for the right place, the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Plant Selection Guide lists annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, vine, groundcovers and includes information about soil, salt and drought tolerance and what you can expect from the plants in terms of size and landscape use. Photos of each plant are included as well.


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