There are so many things we love about vertical gardens: they’re aesthetically stunning, living works of art; they’re environmentally friendly, requiring less water than traditional gardens; and they make perfect sense for urban small space-dwellers. The tillandsia wall at the new Bardessono Hotel in Yountville takes all three of these concepts to new extremes. A collaborative effort from three local designers—garden designer Flora Grubb; her fiancé, builder Kevin Smith; and architect Seth Boor—the tillandsia wall has an otherworldly quality that sets it apart from anything we’ve seen before. Details of the project and more photos after the jump…
Originally, the Bardessono approached Flora requesting a vertical garden, but she quickly discovered there wasn’t adequate drainage. Together, she and Kevin and Seth came up with these tillandsia walls, which fill four alcoves in the hotel lobby. Tillandsias are epiphytes, which means that their roots grow in the air rather than soil, and all they need in the way of water is weekly misting. Each garden requires only a half-gallon of water every time it’s misted; since Bardessono is platinum LEED-certified, the tillandsias were a perfect green choice.
Eight hundred tillandsias were used in the project. Seth devised a way of clipping the plants to metal rods that protrude from the walls—that way, it’s easy to change out the plants if they’re looking less-than-perky.
At first the designers thought they’d pack the plants together tightly, but soon they realized that giving each plant a little space would highlight their unique growth patterns. We agree with Flora that the result looks a bit like sea creatures or fireworks. The New York Times, in today’s piece about the garden, compared the effect to a Victorian collector’s cabinet of curiosities. Indeed, we could imagine mulling over these beauties for hours at a time.
See more large-scale pics at thigmotrope.com.
Photos: Kevin Smith
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I love those.
Very nice.
I saw a super-sized version of a vertical garden, in London, and loved it.
Very inspiring. I wonder how they'd do in a low-light space. I'll have to wiki it!
I have always liked these plants and always wondered where to buy them. I recently found them at www.rainforestflora.com. You can order them there and they will ship them to you. There are SO many different varieties. And the site tells you how to take care of them.
It would be so much fun to make a small version of this wall for a home.
They look beautiful! thanks for all these tips, this is something to get excited about.....I am wondering about the light required too.
I'd love love love love to do this over a wall in my bathroom. Sadly, they'd be in darkness for 22 or so out of every 24 hours!
tillandsias/air plants do require a good amount of light, but not really harsh, direct light that will fry them. they are very low maintenance. you can mist or soak them once or twice a week, depending on the heat and amount of sun the get. some varieties send out blooms. as they grow, some of the bottom leaves may die and you just peel them off. this hotel featured small ones, but they can be found much larger as well.
they're not too difficult to find, and shouldn't be terribly expensive. many nurseries have a few, and you can order them online (they travel quite well). it is, however, important to make sure that they are harvested sustainably.
dwr sells a few of them too actually...
It is not "environmentally friendly" to kill decorative plants! Unless you have a lot of light and a budget to replace them regularly do NOt try this at home. A luxury hotel has a big budget and even if this Tillandsia wall crashes they'll fix it with money as in the "brute $trength and awkwardne$$" method.
Tillandsias are flowering epiphytic plants that grow high up on trees in the tropical rainforest. They need high light levels!
As a former interior plantscape company owner I can attest to the reality that someone with shallow business savvy will always say yes to whatever a well-heeled client asks.
BTW, I'm wondering what foodefafa means by "harvested sustainably". I hope that's not alluding to harvesting them in the wild, as in rain forest. That's a big no-no.
There are many commercial Tillandsia growers in Florida, Central America and elsewhere who will be happy to provide plants without impacting the natural environment. .
"It would be so much fun to make a small version of this wall for a home."
I agree: I have the perfect wall in my entry hall for something like this and would love to put some sort of a Green wall in my place - but it certainly doesn't have to be this specific plant.
Go, Flora! Nicely done.
greenscaper, that's exactly what I meant. unfortunately, there are people who go out and harvest them illegally (in florida, for example-- though I believe permits can also be acquired). I was just encouraging people to know where their plants are coming from and that they're grown in a responsible manner, (I wasn't clear on that).
I also agree with you that this isn't a project someone should just try for fun-- there's a big chance that it won't work and that's a lot of dead little plants for a whim. though if you do have the proper environment for tillandsia and can commit to the care, you really shouldn't have to replace them all that regularly. it is important for people to note, though, that hotels such as this one hire companies that do nothing but water and take care of their plants and replace them on a constant basis the second they look less than stellar, (I'm quite familiar with the plantscaping industry myself). so if anyone does attempt this, the result will not be as good looking, even with a green thumb.
anyone that's interested should get just a couple tillandsia to try out first. air plants have a reputation for being easy to care for, and they are, but they still do require care and committment.