Planting Tips for Living Wall Basket Planters

Getting Started - Which Plants Work Best?

Foliage plants are a great choice for creating beautiful living wall displays. Their interesting leaves more than make up for the lack of flowers. They also provide a great backdrop for adding in seasonal or holiday accents.

The living walls shown here were created using individual and multi pack plants with 3 inch root balls. Planting was done during the summer limiting the selections to warm weather varieties.

For foliage plants, Pamela found the shade tolerant varieties did well. These included plants usually found in the indoor section of the garden centers such as pothos, spider plants, ferns, ivys, and dracaenas. She cautions to accurately assess the light conditions where you plan to hang your display, as most plants need at least filtered light during the day.

Pamela noted that some foliage plants did not fair well. "The newer plants, many with lots of pretty colors, did not do well on the whole. I was disappointed in the performance of ajuga, Hemgraphis 'Purple Waffle', and a beautiful purple and silver rex begonia, losing most of both varieties. About 50 per cent of the fittonia survived."

For those looking for creative inspiration, Pamela Crawford has also written several gardening books specific to her side planting containers, with pages of suggested plant combinations, photos and tips, as well as failures and lessons learned through trial and error.

Tips for Creating a Unique Succulent Wall Display