Instructions and advice on using Flowall

Your Flowall kit is simple to install, but please make sure you read all the advice on how to use it that you will find here. We can be easily contacted by Email at flowall@orange.fr if you would like any information about our product. This kit contains 1 or 2 420mm x 400mm panels, 16 removable containers, 2 wall-plugs and 2 screws.

To install your Flowall panels, you will need plants to pot, a drill to make the holes and a screwdriver (or a screw gun) and a level.

Position the panel in a spot that receives as much light as possible. The ambient temperature in a house is perfectly suitable.

To mount the first Flowall, drill two 6 mm-diameter holes corresponding to the position of the two fixing hooks. To avoid any mistake, place the panel in the final position on the wall and either mark with a pencil the exact position of the drill points or progressively drill the holes one by one during the installation. Make sure that the panel is perfectly straight with a level.

Place the wall-plugs into the holes and then mount your Flowall panel using the two provided screws. Screw straight into the wall plugs to tighten them inside the wall. Tighten the screws gently. The provided screws and wall-plugs can be used with most types of walls and do not require any special preparation.

To install several Flowall panels, always mount the lower panel first, and then stack the next panel by setting the panel notches on the hooks below.

Once the panels have been mounted to the wall, add the plants (you can also add the plants first and then mount the panels to the wall). To do this, take one of the pots and place your unpotted plant inside. Either remove any excess soil or top up the container with potting compost, as necessary. Then lightly press down the soil in the container and install it on the panel. Installation is easier if the soil is damp and not loose. The pot must fit properly into its slot. You can trim the plant’s roots if you need to remove some soil. The roots will then anchor themselves in the felt.

To finish, fit the provided transparent tube in the overflow placed at the bottom right of each panel and bend it up. This tube indicates the water level and can also empty the excess water if need be.

Plants to install in your Flowall panel

Some plants are more adapted than others to the Flowall panel and to the chosen location. First because some plants will be more resistant, will need less care or will not have specific needs and then also because the foliage, shape, colour and growth of certain plants are more adapted to make a luxuriant vertical garden. Flowall can be used for all types of houseplants, but some are very delicate or need special growing conditions (See the list of recommended plants). Try to group plants with similar needs (water, humidity, light) together. The plant must not be too big or too small compared with the pot. In garden centres, the ideal size of a pot is 5 to 10 cm of diameter. Do not hesitate to cut some of the roots, since the plant benefits from the permanent supply of water contained in the Flowall’s irrigation device.

Gardening and maintenance

Watering is done by filling up the tank containing an absorbent felt thats covers entirely the Flowall's internal panel. You can water each panel thanks to a special opening at the top left corner. Add the water in two or more goes so that the felt has time to absorb the water: Fill a panel completely, leave it for 2 hours and then fill it up again. If a plant requires a lot of water, you can add water directly in the container.

Never add water or top up the Flowall when it is horizontal. While you slowly fill up the tank, check the overflow tube (at the bottom left corner) and stop immediately when it overflows. Never over-water: soil that is too damp is often bad for plants, while a dry soil can harmful only after a very long time. It is often better to let the soil dry out and then top the Flowall up completely rather than having soil that is always too damp (A good schedule is once a week or every 15 days, depending on the season and the temperature).

Make sure there is no stagnant water in the bottom of a container; this is very dangerous for many plant varieties. Be careful when the temperature is above 30 degrees, especially if the air is very dry. Plants that like humidity (ambient humidity, i.e. the amount of water in the air and not in the soil), or have been subjected to high temperatures and air that is too dry, will need frequent mist with a vaporiser directly on the foliage (at least several times a week for plants that are most demanding in this respect, see the list of recommended plants).

Special house plant liquid fertilizer should be used regularly (always respect the proportions recommended by the fertilizer manufacturer). Do not use fertilizer during the first two weeks after potting the plants. The fertilizer is used to renew the nutrients in the soil since they are used up over time. Too much fertilizer is harmful.

Watering and feeding also depend on the season. In winter, plants are in their rest period and so they need much less water and fertilizer. On the other hand they will still need light, even if they are happy with a shorter period of light each day. The need for water can be checked easily by looking at the soil. The larger a plant grows, the greater its external needs.

Don’t hesitate to use small trays, placed on the floor at the bottom of your vertical garden. The trays will help avoiding stains on your floor that might result from dead leaves, bits of soil, an overflowing water, etc.

Plants are delicate. Small problems with lighting, watering, humidity or temperature can quickly do a lot of harm. Also, watch out for poor conditions and try to solve them as far as possible. A plant demands attention, patience and affection. It suffers when neglected.

But plants are not ungrateful. In exchange for your care, most of them are able to clean the air in your home. This is through the phenomenon of phytoremediation. In addition to recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis they can significantly clean up the air in our homes by removing many harmful organic compounds (See the many studies carried out into this topic).