Category Archives: General

Portable Living Green Walls

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Portable living green walls are the answer for small spaces that cannot hold a full scope living green wall. Your local plantscape company will have a design team that will custom design portable living green and floral walls for any type of space, from professional offices to residential homes.

Open or free flowing design style of today’s offices are not a trend, they are here to stay, at least until the next trend approaches. The style does lend itself to benefits such encouraging better collaboration among workers that leads to more creativity and company spirit.

Open spaces do have disadvantages, one being that the acoustics are poor, not to mention privacy issues. Enter portable living walls! You will have your choice to have a stationary wall or one that is easily portable that is on wheels. We have shown some examples below of situations that portable walls can be an asset within a space such as dividing work stations from a conference table and one that adds color and style to the decor.

Advantages of living green walls:
1. Improves Air Quality
2. Reduces Airborne Dust
3. Is a Noise Reducer
4. Stabilize Moisture Levels
5. Reduces Carbon Dioxide Levels

This portable living green wall has a variety of green plants with different color tones, textures and leaf sizes to add interest, the purple plants are bromeliads.

Key benefits of a Green Wall:

Improved Indoor Air Quality – Air that has been circulated throughout a building with a strategically placed green wall (such as near an air intake) will be cleaner than that on an uncovered building. The presence of vegetation indoors will have the same effect. These processes remove airborne pollutants such as toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene, and other volatile organic compounds.

Noise Reduction – The living plant surface provided by greenery such as moss walls and green walls will block high frequency sounds, and when constructed with a substrate or growing medium support can also block low-frequency noises.
Value in Marketplace – Green buildings, products, and services now possess a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Higher Standard of Health and Well-Being – Buildings that feature and promote Biophilia have been documented as having a greater positive human health impact than those without. Studies have shown that visual access to natural settings leads to increased job satisfaction and productivity and post-operative recovery rates in medical facilities.

Here you see portable living green wall dividing a conference area from personal desks in an open office setting.
A portable living wall designed with red Antherium brightens up an industrial office space. The living wall can be moved to different areas of the open space to divide and areas.

Your local plantscape company can assist you with your questions pertaining to placement, design and to installation a portable living green wall. You can read more about buildings and offices going green in The Wall Street Journal and Green Plants for Green Buildings.

Top Eco-friendly green event ideas

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Are you planning a Eco-friendly or green event?  Are you having a trying time dreaming up unique ideas to decorate with that will W-O-W your clients and their guests for your Eco-friendly events?  Live plants and trees are a true “green” decorating trend that is catching on and growing for all types of events from weddings to corporate events. Decorating with live plants is a creative way to bring the outdoors in, and make interior spaces more inviting.

Advantages of decorating with live plants and trees and a couple of examples:

1. Feature: They are brought in and placed by a professional company; they are picked up as well.

Benefit: No trash, pick-up or clean-up is needed by your wedding party or friends and relatives.

2. Feature: They are eye pleasing, add a natural feel plus they can be functional and there is no waste.

Benefit: Green is considered a neutral color, plus blooming plants can be used to coordinate with the color theme of the event. Plants and trees can be set up to guide traffic or hide unsightly areas without having people give directions or having to post signs.

3. Feature: Live plants and trees bring the beauty of nature indoors connecting life with nature, which is referred to as “biophilia“ or “love of life.”

Benefit: Findings have shown that our physical health depends on influences of nature the human bond with nature. Biophilic design can reduce stress, clarify thoughts and improve our well-being. This makes live plants perfect for weddings, parties or trade shows and corporate events!

BEACH WEDDINGS
Beach weddings are popular and pretty although the beach can be lacking in direction and placement for attendees. Plants can lead the way to the seating and to the alter plus they add color, beauty and romance! Trees and plants can define areas or hide unsightly areas, too.  Living walls with floral or with green plants are a big style trend. They are designed to coordinate with the events color trends.  Living walls are a beautiful backdrop for photos of the wedding party, and guests love them as they make your event very memorable! In addition no plastic or debris will blow away or be left behind and no clean up. The big plus is that plant rentals are not as costly as cut flowers!

TENT – PAVILION DECORATION
Plants and trees will camouflage unsightly poles and columns used for tents and other temporary cover. The greenery will add beauty to the event too! An additional advantage is that there is minimal clean up, your plant rental service picks them up and takes them away to be cared for and utilized for another event, and that is a form of recycling!

David Monn a prominent designer and event planner utilizes plants and trees for quite a few of his events. We love this example of his work.

TRADE SHOWS
Trees are great for trade shows. Plants and trees guide visitors through isles and soften the harsh open spaces at a trade show convention halls. The nominal fees make good impact on your budget. Plants will also help cleanse the air of toxins as they absorb gases such as carbon dioxide and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and Benzene found in some plastics, fabrics, motors and machinery.

    

Plants and trees around the entire space make the room more inviting for visitors.

Trees can also mark an area, guide traffic or to hide unsightly wires, supplies or as seen here they are camouflaging a trailer.

We love his relaxing park bench seating area for tired attendees that is created around plants and trees at a food industry trade show.

Plants, trees and living walls can be rented through your local plant rental service. They typically have consultants that will visit your venue and help with design, layout tips and plant and tree suggestions. You can find a reputable local plant rental service here Plant and tree rentals.

For additional Eco-friendly wedding and event ideas search and start you own idea boards on Pinterest

Why are living Moss walls becoming so popular?

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Moss walls are a healthy choice as they help cleanse the air, reduce noise and add a natural design element to a space without adding clutter.  Hopefully you have seen a moss wall, or possibly you have seen one without knowing exactly what it was!

Moss walls along with living green walls are the latest trend for live greenery in Interior design for esthetics as well as wellness benefits.  Innovators in the plant industry found that they could create dimensional art pieces that abstracted natural design, which could be custom designed to complement all styles of interiors. They began incorporating moss along with beautiful and sustainability hand-harvested pieces of driftwood and other natural elements, into custom vertical moss pieces.

In the plant rental service industry clients ask for designs that required minimal maintenance.  A moss wall is created from preserved mosses; therefore they need very little care. Your preferred local plant rental service company is able to custom design moss walls that are a work of art, or prefab framed Moss walls are available with customization.

(photo) -Modular units of different species of Moss are mixed with cork and stone to create a zen-like wall art.

Biophilic is a word that you have most likely started hearing about much more and it’s going to have an increasing influence on your world with interior design and architecture.  We have an intuitive and deeply ingrained attraction to nature, and a biological need for contact with the natural world.

The word ‘biophilia’ literally means a love of life or living things. (It stems from Greek and is the opposite of phobia. Phobia = fear of. Philia = love of.)

Edward O Wilson, an American biologist made the concept popular in 1984 with his book ‘Biophilia’. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for On Human Nature. In the 21st century, He defined it as “the urge to affiliate with other forms of life”. In the last decade or so biophilia has been recognized by the scientific and design communities. There have been studies that show convincing evidence of the positive benefits of interaction with nature.

Research shows that it can:

  • Improve productivity,
  • Lower stress levels,
  • Enhance learning comprehension,
  • Increase recovery rates from illness.

 

(photo) Fallingwater, the famous house by Frank Lloyd Wright is a good example of Biophilia, melding life with nature.

Living moss walls will not only make your space look better, but it also adds appeal to the indoor air aroma and makes the areas air quality much healthier! Live plants, trees and moss use CO2 that helps circulate air throughout an area. They help remove harmful VOCs (Volatile organic compounds) from the ambient air while releasing fresh, pure oxygen.

If controlling indoor sound is a concern, try a moss wall! Distractions from noise are one of the top complaints from employees in workplace with open layouts. Reindeer moss walls have been tested and found to have a NCR rating of .9, that’s very efficient!

I hope I have given you some insight on the background, esthetics, and health benefits of moss walls. Now that you understand the theory of Biophilia, melding human life with nature and our surroundings, and how it is incorporated with interior design you will see why it is a growing trend in our health and beauty conscience society.

I hope this information will intrigue you to explore your surroundings and to find a space to install a colorful artsy moss wall. You can start with a moss bowl on your table or a small moss piece in a small picture frame style wall hanging.

You can find examples of moss walls, moss bowls and moss art on internet sites such as Houzz, Pinterest, Instagram.  You can also contact your local plant-scape business that are listed under Interiorscape, Plant Services and Plant Rental Companies.

(Photo) You can start small with a moss bowl. This moss bowl almost appears to be gravitating up to reach out to you!

(photo) This Moss wall presented in a frame incorporates plants to create even more texture and color for art lovers.

(photo) A representative from a Plant Service Company demonstrates how versatile a modular Moss system can be. This sample combo-pack shows Moss mixed with stone and bark panels for color, texture and design appeal. Panels come in many sizes or they can be custom designed.

 

Effect of Hurricanes on Plants, Birds, and Bees

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Just as birds provide a great service to plants by dispersing their seeds over a wide area, so too does a hurricane. The power of wind scatters seeds and fruits great distances. Winds that blow at hurricane force for hours and hours at a time in one direction disperse seeds to new locations. The new locations may favor germination, while other locations may not.

ficus in hurricaneBecause hurricanes are usually a late-summer/early-autumn event, the season is treacherous for the journey of migratory birds flying south from northern breeding grounds to their winter homes in the South. Two of the most powerful storms ever recorded, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, have impacted the birds’ eastern flyway to Florida and central flyway through the gulf states. In some instances, birds get “caught up” in the eye of the hurricane where they are carried along for hundreds of miles off course.

When so many trees and plants are stripped of their leaves, birds may find fewer food resources. Fruiting fall flowers may fail to bloom. Flooding can drown plants, and high winds rip their roots out of the ground. Insect populations may become decimated.

It’s been documented that birds find refuge in the eye of hurricanes and are carried off course by the storms. In survival mode, the birds often return to their starting point in migration.

Bees do surprisingly well in high winds, but when fruit, flowers and leaves are stripped from trees and plants, there is less food available for ants. Consequently, where plant-friendly bee colonies exist, ants may move into the hives forcing the bees out.

Hurricanes, like most natural forces, produce winners and losers.

Winners

  • Orchids use strong winds to spread their seeds.
  • Spadefoot toads breed during heavy rainfall.
  • Ground birds find ground shelter beneath downed trees and brush.

Losers

  • Migrating birds are blown off course and the weaker are separated from the flock.
  • Squirrels toss their young ones out of the nests when nuts become scarce on the trees.
  • Sea turtle nests on beaches can be washed out to sea before hatchlings arrive.

While researching for this article, we ran across a very interesting paper written in September, 1945, entitled Hurricane Damage to Tropical Plants. We believe this 1945 hurricane (they had no names then) has had a lasting impact on which tropical plants are used and not used in south Florida in the decades since.

Plants Make Workers More Productive

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officePlants-1839436Office spaces with plants have happier, more productive workers. In fact, a 2014 University of Exeter field study found that green plants increase worker productivity by 15%. In today’s competitive space, that could translate to thousands, even millions of dollars added to the bottom line, especially when you consider lower employee turnover, fewer sick days, and staff that are more focused on the tasks at hand.

The study looked at two large commercial offices in the UK and The Netherlands over a sustained period of time. This study concluded that offices with green plants increased workplace satisfaction, self-reported levels of concentration, and a perception of better air quality than offices designed for simply “clean and organized work spaces.”

In the United States, 10 high-performing buildings in 5 cities were included in a Harvard University study that found that green-certified office spaces not only play a huge role in our professional life, but can also impact on our well-being at home in three important ways:

  • 26% boost in the ability to learn and understand,
  • 30% fewer sickness related absences and malaise during office hours,
  • 6% improvement in sleep quality at day’s end.

If adding plants to the office can increase performance of workers compared to those who work in conventional office spaces, it could be surmised that adding plants alone would “pay for” the capital costs and maintenance of green improvements.

Another Harvard survey of over 200,000 employees worldwide reported that 77% of workers reported that natural light and air quality are important to them, yet only 58% and 38% are satisfied. Could your office benefit from “humanizing” the workplace by bringing in elements of the outdoors indoors?

Please share this article with someone you think could benefit from a greener workplace, or call us to arrange a visit with one of our Interior Plantscape Specialists. (800) 749-0124.

Plants and Feng Shui in the Office

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meditation frogWe’ve known for some time that keeping indoor plants in our living and working spaces improves our mental and physical health.

Plants improve our concentration and make us more productive. They generate happiness and make us smile. They reduce stress and improve relationships, and give us more energy so we can perform our daily tasks better. They help us retain information, heal faster, and lower our heart rate and blood pressure.

When combined with the benefits of feng shui, plants shine!

Feng shui is the ancient practice of using shapes and forms to influence our sense of well-being. Based on the eight cardinal directions that represent different aspects of life, we can use the living energy of plants to achieve certain goals around the office:

Boost Energy. Because plants are living, breathing beings they bring life to an otherwise still environment.

Balance Energy Levels. In feng shui there are areas associated water, metal, earth, fire, and wood. Plants boost the energy level associated with wood (e.g. office desks) and can weaken an area associated with water (less wasted time around the water fountain perhaps?).

Improve Relationships. In an office environment, we can’t always choose with whom we spend the majority of day. The feng shui of office flowers and flowering plants can boost the good energy in relationships to produce a more harmonious environment.

Learn Faster. Science has proven that plants increase learning. Feng shui suggests that the “lucky bamboo” when placed four at a time in an area can increase learning abilities that help workers perform better.

To learn more about increasing your office success with plants and Feng Shui, we suggest reading more from The Spruce or talk with one of our plant experts here at Plantique.