Guichon Alley just got a little greener. Facilities and Campus Development partnered with the School of Construction and the Environment to add a bit more greenery to the campus. Green Screens, a type of trellis, have been added above the planters allowing the climbing vines to grow along the wall between the benches. Living walls, like these, provide a number of benefits. They reduce pollution and CO2 in the air, they reduce noise, they aid biodiversity, and they add beauty to an area.
The plants chosen are vines with edible fruit. The ones with the fuzzy leaves are kiwi plants, Actinidia deliciosa ‘Matua and Saanichton’. Actinidia deliciosa Matua is a male kiwi plant that produces yellow flowers in spring. ‘Saanichton‘ is a female kiwi plant that is cold hardy in BC and was created on Vancouver Island. It produces a large, tasty, fuzzy kiwi fruit. Both of these plants are sold together in one pot and are a self -pollinating kiwi vine. The other type of plant is the Holboellia coriacea ‘Cathedral Gem’ Sausage Vine. Cathedral Gem Sausage Vine produces an abundance of white buds that open to fragrant mauve blossoms in the late winter or early spring. Large, pink, sausage shaped fruit form in the summer.
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