Show visitors will have a chance to win a six-foot-tall houseplant in a raffle at the company’s booth.

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As co-founder of a living-wall company, Tim Suddaby has fielded some unusual orders.

Including requests for a wall of live cherry tomatoes, says Suddaby, who founded Maple Ridge-based Vertical Oxygen with his wife, Nathalie Callede, in 2011.

But not everything grows on a wall. For indoor installations, the company relies on tropical plants, including edible perennials such as Cuban oregano and Vietnamese cilantro.

“People go to the grocery store and say, ‘Oh, I want parsley on my wall.’” But seasonal plants, he explains, eventually die or go dormant, making them unsuitable for permanent installations.

Vertical Oxygen began designing and installing hydroponic living walls in Golden, B.C. Suddaby was building environmentally friendly homes and looking for ways to filter and humidify indoor air using plants. Callede’s horticultural background helped inspire their first experiments with aquaponic living walls, which incorporated edible plants and fish.

After a stint in Calgary, the couple returned to B.C. eight years ago, establishing their business in Maple Ridge.

Unlike modular, off-the-rack alternatives, Vertical Oxygen’s installations are custom-designed.

“Every living wall we build has a custom height and width. There are essentially no limitations on size or shape. We can build curved walls and all kinds of configurations.”

For homeowners, installation is relatively straightforward, Suddaby says. The company typically starts with a photograph of the proposed location.

“The main thing we need is wall space,” he says. “Beyond that, we need electricity and a water line.”

Strong, direct southern sunlight is best avoided, and indoor installations require supplemental lighting to compensate for the Lower Mainland’s short winter days.

Vertical Oxygen’s projects range from private residences to hospitals, retail stores and public buildings. The company recently completed a large living wall at a new RCMP station in Moncton, New Brunswick, and is preparing for its biggest installation yet: a 70-foot-wide wall at an Indigenous healing centre in Winnipeg.

At this year’s Vancouver Fall Home Show, however, the company will be introducing visitors to something relatively new in its product line.

“Most of our work has involved interior living walls, but at the Vancouver Fall Home Show, we’ll have both an interior and an exterior installation on display.”

Exterior living walls can transform fences, concrete surfaces or otherwise unremarkable building exteriors into vertical gardens.

“These are systems that can grow outdoors in the Lower Mainland without any problem,” Suddaby says.

Cost for hydroponic living walls is $205 per square foot “with any rough-in for plumbing or electrical and lights extra,” Suddaby says.

Whether indoors or out, living walls require ongoing maintenance, including fertilization and trimming. Vertical Oxygen offers maintenance contracts, with teams visiting installations every two weeks.

Maintenance is $4-5 per square foot based on biweekly visits and a 100 per cent plant and component replacement for no additional cost.

“If one plant dies, we replace it free of charge,” Suddaby says.

Exterior living walls are typically maintained monthly not biweekly.

The company will also be offering something beyond its living-wall displays at the show: a lesson in the often-overlooked histories of familiar houseplants.

“We want people to think differently about what we casually call houseplants,” Suddaby says.

An educational display will highlight four plant varieties, exploring their origins and traditional uses through QR codes.

Among them is the rubber plant, a member of the ficus family. In parts of India, the roots of certain ficus trees have been trained over generations to form living bridges, some of which remain in use today.

The display was partly inspired by the company’s upcoming Indigenous healing centre project in Winnipeg.

Suddaby hopes visitors will come away with a greater appreciation of plants they might otherwise take for granted.

“That plant that’s been sitting in your office for 23 years might have a fascinating history and an important traditional use that you’ve never considered.”

Visitors will also have a chance to win a six-foot-tall houseplant in a raffle at the company’s booth.

The Vancouver Fall Home Show runs from Oct. 15 to 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, West. Find the Main Stage and Cooking Stage schedule, a rundown of features and workshops, plus show hours and tickets at vancouverfallhomeshow.com.