Many people who are faced with the choice of a green plant wall obviously consider the advantages and disadvantages of choosing an artificial or living plant wall. We have compiled a guide that shows both the advantages and disadvantages of the different options.
Artificial Plant Walls – The Benefits
They are made of plastic (recyclable polyethylene) and have been created for those who for various reasons cannot have real plants, partly due to allergies but also for cost reasons and the maintenance required. One of the biggest benefits of an artificial plant wall is that you do not have to water your plants or worry about them not being adequately cared for. Since the artificial plant walls do not grow, you also do not have to worry that they will grow and cover any area. It also means that regardless of the season, they will not lose their leaves. Another advantage is that you can let them adorn walls and surfaces together with other materials and let your imagination flow without regard to location, light or temperature. Today’s artificial plant walls are extremely detailed and mimic real foliage’s colors, movement patterns and dimensions to capture the same feeling as with living plants.
Artificial Plant Walls – The Disadvantages
Because artificial plant walls are made of plastic, they do not produce oxygen like real plants do. The artificial plant walls are manufactured in a standard design and it can therefore be difficult to find specific plants for your plant wall. Some plants can be assembled afterwards, but the market for artificial plant walls is less popular than with real plants. Another disadvantage of artificial plant walls is that you are not allowed to see your plants grow. It can in itself be both a good and a bad thing, but for those with a green thumb that really want to care for and maintain plants and see them grow, artificial plant walls do not provide that opportunity.
Living Plant Walls – The Benefits
A real plant wall uses the process of photosynthesis. As a result, if strategically placed, the plant wall can help lower temperatures, maintain humidity, and even control air circulation. This can also mean that less power is needed to heat or cool a room because the plants naturally remove the heat in the summer. To keep air and temperature under control, a real plant wall can encourage wildlife and biodiversity outdoors. So if you love being visited by birds, you can find plants that attract them to your facade. There are also studies that found that living plant walls can help reduce pollution.
Living Plant Walls – The Disadvantages
A disadvantage of a living plant walls is the risk that they grow cover larger areas than intended. This means that you need a long-term investment in its maintenance, which usually entails long and expensive leasing agreements. While artificial plant walls do not need to be watered, living plant walls require regular watering, either via irrigation systems or manually, which costs money and still cannot guarantee that the plants will live and thrive. If the public environments are visited by children or people with allergies, real living plant walls can sometimes not be installed and thus the green effect is absent. In some cases, pesticides are used to keep pests away and these can be both toxic and give off strong odors.
Common Benefits
Both artificial and living plant walls have a number of common advantages, to begin with they are both green. The colour green and elements of greenery in a workplace or other public environment are said to have effects that make individuals calm and less stressed, which we know gives positive health effects. Both living and artificial plant walls can be used to frame environments and function as room dividers, which is an easy way to increase well-being and at the same time bring in greenery to the workplace.
Whether you choose a living plant wall or artificial one, we hope you now have a good picture of both the advantages and the disadvantages.
