Plants For Intensive Green Roofs

Sedums are one of the star plants for creating a green roof and a sedum roof needs no extra growing medium.

Plants for intensive green roofs.

Species such as sedum delosperma euphorbia and sempervivum are popular choices. There are literally hundreds of varieties found. Also known as stonecrop because the succulent foliage resembles smooth polished stone sedums are the royalty of living roof plants. There are two types of green roof.

Try dry habitat perennials and ornamental grasses such as rudbeckia achillea potentilla armeria dianthus helictotrichon sempervirens stipa tenuissima and even bulbs such as muscari or small allium species such as allium flavum and a. Your ecological roof can be an extensive one planted with sedum or ferns or an intensive garden with grasses perennials shrubs and even high trees. Succulent plants are well adapted to the conditions often found on extensive green roofs because of their ability to limit transpiration and store excess water. These roofs will have grasses ground covers flowers shrubs and even trees.

We also use vegetation rolls developed for green roof systems but grass can be also sown with seed mixtures and for immediate results even trays fitted with matured plants can be installed. As well as affording excellent ground cover this hardy easy to maintain plant grows happily in a shallow layer of substrate minimising the amount of pressure it puts on a structure. Succulents such as sedum are often chosen for extensive green roofs because they withstand harsh conditions and minimize water loss. Intensive roofs which are thicker with a minimum depth of 12 8 cm 5 1 16 in and can support a wider variety of plants but are heavier and require more maintenance and extensive roofs which are shallow ranging in depth from 2 cm 13 16 in to 12 7 cm 5 in lighter than intensive green roofs.

Ed and lucie snodgrass succinctly describe the ideal traits for a good green roof plant the most successful green roof plants are low growing shallow rooted perennial plants that are heat cold sun wind drought salt insect and disease tol erant.