POSTED 11/2024

2024 Winner – Small Installation

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Evergreen Interiors

Quick Facts

Location: Dean Williamson Dental, Mackay

Total Plants: 14

Timeline:

Date of consultation: 18 July 2024
Start date of installation: 22 August 2024
Completion date of installation: 22 August 2024

Design

Upon meeting the clients on site, it was obvious from the exterior through to the interior that this is an important space. The building is historically significant and iconic to the town, along with being heritage-listed and in impeccable condition. The client had existing plants, however, couldn’t keep up with their maintenance and the pots weren’t achieving the overall look they had envisaged. The essential requirements given by the client were large pots that were taller than what was currently in the space, clusters of plants to fill the large spaces and a mix of colours in the pots. They weren’t particular about style of pots and were happy to be directed by us. Discussions were also had about the importance of the building’s architectural, historical significance and its heritage listing and we decided it would be vital to enhance the spectacular features of the property with very careful selections.

The combination of planters, materials and plants has complimented and added to the unique design features of the building. These aren’t just some pots and plants in an office, they have been carefully situated to draw the eye towards the features of the building, balance the space and seamlessly blend in and stand out.

The choices made for this installation always had to be “timeless” and “classic” as the building is heritage-listed. Keeping the pot colours in a classic palette along with an elegant shape ensured that. Horticulturally, we wanted a blend of “old” style plants such as the Chamaedorea elegans and classics like Spathiphyllum with pops of newer plants such as Ficus lyrate. This was done deliberately to have a balance of what is considered being on trend for the clients and making the installation classic with those original types of indoor plants that were popular during the period of this building’s construction and initial operation.

Installation

The plant varieties selected for this installation are as follows; Rhapis excelsa, Ficus lyrate, Ficus elastica, Spathiphyllum, Dracaena ‘Golden Heart’, Dracaena Massangeana, Chamaedorea elegans, Sanseveria Trifasciata (Green), Monstera. These plant varieties were chosen for many reasons. Some for their shapes and soft or boldness to complement features of the building and architecture in certain areas. In the front bricked area, softer plants such as Chamaedorea elegans and Spathiphyllum were selected to contrast the heaviness of the brick. While in the main room area we used impactful and bold leaf plants such as Rhapis excelsa, Ficus lyrate and Ficus elastica to add drama, draw the eye up and compliment the architecture.

The pot selection was extremely important to get right specifically on this job because of the heritage-listing. We used pots from Just Add Plants in the Wilston range. We used a mix of matte black and white, in a smooth finish and vertical lines finish. We used matte black with the vertical lines in the entrance to compliment the dark grout in the brick and the black tiles. It certainly adds impact upon entrance, while complimenting those features. As you turn the corner, we continued a large matte black pot in a smooth finish to transition to the main room behind. In the open main room, we selected matte white pots in 3 different sizes in vertical lines and smooth finish for the largest pot. The large size of the pots and their vertical lines draw them up to the beautiful metal pressed ceiling and harmonizes with the linear moldings. White was chosen for this room to stand out from the heritage yellow walls and compliment the white painted moldings.

The Wilston pot was also selected to pay compliments to the columns on the exterior of the building and marry the interior, and exterior. To further enhance the pot selection, we included matching colour eco pebbles ensuring to keep the pots the heroes.

The main room was a blank canvas with open space to utilise and little in the way of obstacles. We did keep in mind not selecting something too tall in the largest of the pots to ensure the edge of the molding would still be seen. The main entrance was limited in height of pots and plants due to the artwork and viewing window staff use to see incoming patients. We had to ensure that the plants wouldn’t be growing past these limitations.

Innovation

There are not took many locations available where you can use such a large pot as the Wilson 110 and 2 other large pots directly alongside. This was unique for us and a great privilege and challenge. With so much space it can be difficult to create balance without overdoing it.

We have never had Dracaena Golden Heart in our range, so we were more than thrilled to be able to add a new plant variety to our collection.

As this is a new plant to our range it was included in this installation for its linear form and linear colour display to really draw on the linear moldings of the walls, and the yellow tones of the pain colours. As we are not situated in the city it is hard to collect a selection of various plants. For us, this was an innovative aspect of this design, and we are looking forward to seeing how it adapts to the situation of this space.

Maintenance

For ongoing care this client will receive fortnightly maintenance visits as is our standard practice for an office of this type.

To mitigate pest and disease prior to install all plants were isolated, cleaned with horticultural soap, treated with a protect spray and lightly fertilised. We do this upon installation to reduce stress to the plant and ensure the plant is in best health for its time on hire. For overall plant health we will be following our fertilising schedule with liquid fertiliser every 3 months.

This space is extremely bright with large front doors and high windows in the main room. We don’t expect light issues will arise for this installation.

All planters are having their sub irrigation feature utilized, which will be needed with bright light conditions of this space and plants drinking quite a bit. With the bright light will come some pruning.

We expect to lightly prune the Ficus variety of plants in the main room once their size is out of proportion with the Rhapis which is slower growing and won’t need pruning. Other plants in the front entrance were selected as to not need pruning.

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