Living Walls at the Rutherford Cancer Care Centre

Living Walls at The Rutherford Cancer Care Centre South Wales

Unveiled in November 2017 104m2 of living walls were installed at the UK’s first high energy proton beam therapy centre to signify life, strength and hope.

The wall has been installed at the Rutherford Cancer South Wales, a revolutionary new cancer centre in Newport which recently opened its doors to treat cancer patients with conventional treatments. High energy proton beam therapy, a treatment which is not currently available in the country, will be operational early next year.

The centre is owned by the world’s largest developer of high energy proton beam therapy centres, Proton Partners International Ltd.

The wall has been designed and installed by our team here at Scotscape. It has been created with biodiversity at its core and the species included in the installation were chosen due to their year-round pollinating capabilities, air cleaning qualities as well as their function as a habitat for wildlife.

Some of the plants installed in the living wall include:

• Mahonia spp: one of the few winter pollinating species that often flowers from November to February. These are one of the most important sources of winter food for winter active bumblebees.
• Hedera helix: late flowering ivy is a valuable source of nectar, it provides year-round shelter for birds and small animals that use it to hide, roost nest and hibernate and it can act as a winter lifeline for wildlife with its abundance of berries. Ivy is also shown to have excellent air filtering traits, removing dangerous toxins from the air such as benzene and xylene (found in vehicle exhausts and tobacco smoke).
• Heleborus niger: an excellent late winter/early spring flowering plant that is a good source of food for bees and other insects.
• Persicaria bistorta: a native plant to UK shores producing long lasting dense spikes all summer and autumn long, perfect pollinators.

It is wonderful to see how the living wall has evolved over the months. This evergreen wall remains more dormant in the winter months but is bursting into life now that the growing season is firmly underway.