5 Powerful Ways To Get The Trails Of Your Dreams In Your Vertical Garden

Trails by @thearabicaplant in the Wally Eco

Whether they're cascading down from a bookshelf, full plant wall, or tiny little nook, trailing plants add a feeling of enchantment to any room. No wonder they're more popular than ever - and we can't get enough! In a living wall, trailing vines add an abundance of fullness which, in turn, adds an earthy, jungle-y feel to your space. Because they do such a great job at filling space, only 2 or 3 trailing plants can give an illusion there are many more plants underneath than what's actually there. Trails also provide assurance that your plants are happy, healthy and growing. Are you charmed by trails too? Well, we're here to give you our top 5 tips on how to create the look everyone is after!
  

1. Pick the best plants for trails
All Pothos! Golden, Jade, Neon, Marble - they all will give you beautiful results, and are all fast-growing, low maintenance plant babes. Others to mention are Spider Plants, Boston Ferns, English Ivy, and Brazil Philodendrons.

Growth of a trailing plant install in the Wally Eco over 18 months, courtesy of Melissa Filgerleski

 
2. Find the perfect planter
The Wally Eco is the ideal planter to achieve a full wall of trails look - after all, no other planter can boast the ability to fully display trails as tall as you are with the exceptional plant health benefits of its design! So far, our community has found vast success in cultivating healthy, happy and growing trailers out of our Eco planters. We recommend one 6" plant per Eco for best results.

Plus, when matched with the color of your wall, you can easily create that illusion mentioned above. For an example, white Eco planters against a white wall with trails running down can give an appearance of having many more plants than you actually do! Have a darker wall? Olive and Espresso do the same trick by providing a camouflage effect of earthy tones, blending in with shadows to ultimately hide the planter and let your plants take the spotlight!
 
 
3. Pruning
Pruning will help stimulate growth. Careful, though - a little goes a long way! Well-pruned plants should not look too pruned; they should appear natural. Prune using high-quality pruning tools (sterilize prior to use), such as bypass pruners or very sharp garden scissors. Dull pruners have the ability to tear stems, opening them up to pests and disease. The best time to prune indoor plants is right at the beginning of growing season, which is around early spring.  

To know the plant's growth pattern is imperative for good pruning. Plants grow from the tip down, so therefore new growth comes from the dominant bud at the end of a stem. Cut off the dominant buds on select stems - trim some back by a quarter, others by a half, and still others all the way back to their base. When the plant grows again, the random growth pattern will fill it out. Cut just before a leaf node, or when cutting back larger stems, cut as close to the main stem as possible. A general good rule of thumb is to not remove more than 25 percent of the plant. Want even more trails? Not only can pruning give your existing trails a health boost, most cuttings can be saved and used for propagation to give you a new trailing plant babe!

4. Watering
For the best trails, it's important that you keep your plants hydrated but not overwatered, which is one of the quickest ways to turn your trails yellow! For a more in-depth look, read our Essential Watering Guide.

When watering the Eco, you can go 1-2 weeks between waterings. When watering via the channel in the back (which is created by flipping the divider and re-inserting), the water moves through the perforated holes to hit the roots directly, and is absorbed by the soil before reaching the front panel, where front holes allow for aeration of the soil - which is a big part of why the trails just take off in these planters! For a more in-depth look, check out our Eco Watering Guide.


5. General Rules of Thumb

• Fertilizer: Fertilizer is not only a great way to promote the health and growth of your plants, it's a fantastic way to protect your investments, too. Plants are not cheap and it's our goal to keep them around as long as possible!
• Humidifier: Trails love humidity, especially if you want to keep your plants lush in the dry or winter seasons!
• Progress Pics: As we get busy in the moments of life, it can be easy to miss subtle growth areas in plants. We recommend taking progress pics once every month or two months - this not only gives major gratification to you, but is always a wonderful way to track their progress. And if you do take progress pics, send them our way - we'd love to show you off! 
• Remove Dead Areas: Pick off those brown, crispy leaves; it's good to always remove them so nutrients can flow to the other parts of the plant, encouraging growth and helping to deter pests or fungi who just love to feed on that kind of organic material. 

Happy trails, plant fam! Want to show us your trailing babes? Tag us @wallygro on instagram or email us at hello@wallygro.com with your photos! Check out the gallery below for inspiration for your own trailing install: