Pont Max Juvénal, Aix-en-Provence, France

Photo by: Patrick Blanc

One of Blanc’s vertical gardens, installed on a highway overpass in 2008, is striking enough to stop traffic. Blanc writes in his book The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City that when building open air gardens in temperate regions like this one in southern France, he imitates a naturally occurring gradation: starting at the bottom with plants that would grow in an understory (ferns, Heuchera, Pilea, Iris japonica), then moving up the wall with plants from rocky slopes (hydrangeas, Bergenia, Sedum), and finishing at the top with plants from exposed cliffs (conifers, Cotoneaster, Berberis). 

Zdroj: http://www.gardendesign.com

Natura Towers, Lisbon, Portugal

Photo by: photo: Vertical Garden Design

Swedish landscape architect Michael Hellgren’s vertical garden of about 300 species of plants covers three walls of the public square outside of the new headquarters of Doctors Without Borders. This picture shows the wall that gets the least amount of sun and is covered in ferns (Asplenium, Athyrium, Pteris and Polystichu), broad-leaved plants (Begonia, Pilea) and thin-leaved plants (Iris japonica and some types of Chlorophytum comosum).

Hellgren’s indoor vertical garden, installed in the lobby of the Doctors Without Borders headquarters, has a more tropical feel—it features exotic plants like Philodendron 'Burle Marx,' Philodendron giganteum, King Anthuriums, and a running waterfall.