One of our favorite greenery experts, Flora Grubb of Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco, is a genius at finding ways to sneak plants into the urban environment. When Grubb designed a wall of tillandsias at Napa's Bardessono Hotel, she was besieged by requests from admirers who wanted to know how to create that airy, exotic—and low-maintenance—look at home. Voilà, the company's new product: the Thigmotrope Satellite, a wall-mounted plant hook designed to support a tillandsia. Grubb designed the hook with local architect Seth Boor of Boor Bridges Architecture; this past weekend, the duo created an installation at SightGlass in SF, one of the city's latest artisanal coffee roasters; here's a DIY report.
Above: Flora Grubb and Seth Boor; collaborators and co-designers of several vertical gardens.
Above: After the layout is determined, Boor takes a drill to the wall.
Above: Grubb places the tillandsias onto the hooks.
Above: There are more than 500 known species of tillandsia, a type of bromeliad.
Above: Tillandsias need only bright light and an occasional misting of water to flourish, making them ideal houseplants.
Above: The steel Thigmotrope Satellite is 2 inches in diameter and extends 3 inches from the wall; $40 for a set of three at Flora Grubb Gardens.