Green Marketing Gone Vertical
Rebecca Sheedy of Floraform Design is thrilled that her first living wall is also one of her most visible. Marx Foods may be the first, but Rebecca has since spent five years creating living walls, and ran a business maintaining gardens for several years before that. “I just love plants and always find a way to be out there with them,” she says.
Marks Foods reception desk living wall by by Rebecca Sheedy, Floraform Design Seattle, framed Florafelt Compact Kits.
She honed her expertise while studying botany at the University of Washington and The Evergreen State College. “I’m really into color, contrast, texture and shapes,” she says. In fact, her expertise is international. “During college, I did research in Costa Rica to estimate the biomass of forest canopy. We found there’s more biomass in the canopy than on the forest floor.”
Marks Foods reception desk living wall by Rebecca Sheedy, Floraform Design Seattle, framed Florafelt Compact Kits.
Rebecca's first living wall serenely packs a green marketing punch from its post overlooking the Marx Foods checkout area. “I started small with a Florafelt Compact Living Wall Kit with 8-pockets for the first 6 to 8 months,” Rebecca explains. “I learned what plants were happy where. Now there are 7 Compact Kits lined up together for 56 pockets.”
Plus a gorgeous frame that beautifully sets off the plants within. “The frame was Marx Foods’ idea. To hide the freezers, we incorporated the garden into the freezer wall. The garden sets Marx apart, makes a statement and generates a lot of buzz.”
Rebecca Sheedy of Floraform Seattle uses two Florafelt Living Walls to create a larger install.
Rebecca selects plants as carefully as Marx Foods shops for their clientele. The garden includes Homalomena, Medusa Bromeliads, Kangaroo Paw Fern, Vresia (a mottled leaf bromeliad), Spathiphyllum, Anthurium, Aglaonema (has a good sprawling habit and fills in the edges"), Philodendron and Schefflera 'Soliel,' which has stunning chartreuse leaves.
Green healing: A Seattle doctor's examination room living wall by Rebecca Sheedy, Floraform Design Seattle, wall mounted Florafelt Compact Living Wall Kits.
Rebecca shopped around before settling exclusively on Florafelt Products. “Back then a lot of people created walls themselves in a Patrick Blanc style, stapling felt to a wall. But I made sure to use a Compact Kit – it’s fully contained and operates on its own. I like how the hardware is invisible. People saw it and got in touch with me.”
Since then, Rebecca has created distinctive and beautiful vertical gardens for restaurants, homes, wine shops, doctors’ offices, you name it. Interestingly, doctors request the gardens for their examination rooms. “There is a big alternative medicine scene here – doctors prescribe plants as medicine,” she says.
Inspired by design, Rebecca in Paris in front of a famous Patric Blanc living wall.
Rebecca Sheedy
Floraform Design
floraformdesign.com