Living Roof going up in 2 weeks, anyone interested to see it and obtain info?

[iann]

That's interesting,  I'd love to try one of these but every roof is very steep and I worry about structural strength.

I'm lucky to catch this thread a couple of years on and see what worked for Darren.  I suspected the Delospermas wouldn't like it.  D. sphalmanthoides won't live outside for me despite being extremely hardy and a bit of a winter grower.  Seems ideal but the climate here is just too wet.  Most Delospermas need plenty of summer water, which in habitat they get from intermittent torrential rain and deep roots.  Did you try D. nubigenum?

The hardy Sedums work because they are adapted to Mediterranean conditions.  Perhaps other Mediterranean succulents would do well.  Lampranthus near the coast.  Ruschia uncinata?  Hereroa glenensis?  Disphyma crassifolium?  I suspect Cyclamen tubers would fry in the summer if the roof faces south.

[Maggi Young]

I have read about living walls and seen a little on TV about them..... these photos from John are great! Thanks

[johnw]

Fantastic walls John.

Darren  - please not so close to the edge when planting, my legs shake at the very sight of you with back to the precipice!

johnw

[David Shaw]

I believe that living walls are done using hydroponics (is that the right word) as the growing system.

[Maggi Young]

I believe that living walls are done using hydroponics (is that the right word) as the growing system.

I suppose that is the right word, David, since the whole key to the living walls is the pretty constant irrigation system....using, I believe surprisingly little water though running often...... fascinatiing thing... the engineering to affix the plants to the upright must be pretty tricky.

[Lesley Cox]

What plants are used on the walls and how do they stay up there. OK, Tricky engineering? but what, exactly?

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, I tried a search to see if I could find a link to the National geographic programme that I think I saw about the living walls; didn't find that but did find reports of "death" of London's first living wall   ..... I suggest  you have a "google".... there are ads from firms who install them... it's a complicated subject.... you can grow bigger types of plantsthan you would imagine.... quite big ferns and things in shady walls....  

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/the-paradise-park-fallout-are-living-walls-worth-it/5208251.article

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/5207086.article

http://www.shelterpop.com/2009/10/30/londons-living-wall/

[cohan]

i've seen these walls before, esp those by patrick blanc, which the london one looks like, they are made using some sort of proprietary lightweight mesh/fibre (usually the info is a little vague, since they are proprietary through which a nutrient solution is dripped/circulated..
i've been very interested in doing something like this on a much smaller scale, indoors, with succulents and or tropicals, but the mesh/substrate is the key; i suspect you could do something with sheets of coco fibre such as are used for lining hanging baskets, but it likely wouldnt have the same longevity  or strength as the panels used for blanc's living walls;

there are similar systems commercially available for green rooves as well, with thin layers of fibre into which plants are placed, with no soil or anything similar naturally these are very light, though of course a roof full of sedums turgid with water after rain would still have some weight;
 i was interested to see lisa marie mentioning irrigation which i had not heard of (or maybe forgot) in the context of extensive rooves (the light, no soil, artifical panel/fibre type of construction, versus intensive, which involve some sort of soil analog and more conventional gardening, simply on a roof..)

here's another wall, in spain:
http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/03/17/green-vertical-garden-wall-in-madrid/
btw, as it mentions, blancs original inspiration and original projects involve rainforest plants, but i believe later projects have been done with just about any sort of plants, small shrubs etc..they are not restricted to plants which grow in any way like this in nature..

and a bunch of things on rooftops, though with the angle of food growing:
http://www.cityfarmer.org/subrooftops.html

[cohan]

Lesley, I tried a search to see if I could find a link to the National geographic programme that I think I saw about the living walls; didn't find that but did find reports of "death" of London's first living wall   ..... I suggest  you have a "google".... there are ads from firms who install them... it's a complicated subject.... you can grow bigger types of plantsthan you would imagine.... quite big ferns and things in shady walls....  

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/the-paradise-park-fallout-are-living-walls-worth-it/5208251.article

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/5207086.article

http://www.shelterpop.com/2009/10/30/londons-living-wall/

i think this  brings up some good points--i love the look of those walls, but for an exterior project, i think i'd rather find some way of doing it that was more self sustaining--i'm not a fan of watering in the first place, and mechanised systems are simply an opportunity to fail!

 i have seen projects that actually have a growing medium between walls or supports (look at harry jans' tufa wall, and i have seen other concepts) or even a fibre which could wick moisture up from a pond below and or drip from rain reservoirs above etc etc--all with plants suited to the variability of moisture those ideas suggest--epiphytes, lithophytes, alpines!...
plants wanting more moisture situated in zones that wick more etc...

[KentGardener]

One of the London ones is on the 'Athenaeum hotel' in Piccadilly - Cohan is correct in identifying it as a 'Patrick Blanc' living wall - the Hotel publish a list of plants and some more photos on the hotel website:

Plants:
http://www.athenaeumhotel.com/pdf/plantcopy1.pdf

Closer Photos:
http://www.athenaeumhotel.com/location/living_wall.aspx

[Darren]

Ian,

Delosperma sphalmanthoides was one of the failures, yes. My original plant in the alpine house is now 20cm in diameter and seems indestructible. Funny what a bit of extra water can do! The only surviving Delosperma is, as you suggest, nubigenum (or one of its relatives - life is too short for me to get involved in the taxonomy of this gennus!). No other mesembs have been tried yet.

The roof faces south & west and I do intend trying some cyclamen but it would have to be those more accustomed to exposed positions and summer dryness. I even wonder about C.graecum?   We can grow virtually all the hardy species outside in our garden without trouble: obviously coum & hederifolium but also purpurascens, cilicium, intaminatum, repandum, pseudibericum and mirabile. I'm sure one of that lot might accept conditions on the roof?