A greenery spec for an office fit-out works like any other fit-out schedule: one line per location, with a product, a quantity, a budget, a lead time and a name against who signs it off. Build that document before anyone browses a product page and the order becomes a checklist item rather than a scramble in week ten of a twelve-week programme. This guide covers building the schedule zone by zone, what a typical floor costs to green, phasing delivery across floors or sites without foliage drifting off-batch, where greenery sits in the install sequence, landlord and base-building constraints, and what a facilities team should hold on day one. For which species suit a windowless interior, see the best artificial plants for offices with no natural light; for wall-mounted coverage and cost per square metre, see the green wall panels guide; if the case for artificial over living plants still needs making, that's in artificial vs real plants for the office. This is the procurement process that sits above all three.
What should a greenery schedule for an office fit-out contain?
Treat it like any other fit-out schedule: a row per zone, not a row per product. The zones that recur across office briefs are reception, boardroom, breakout, corridors, desk clusters and client-facing rooms, and each behaves differently enough to spec separately.
Reception sets the tone and takes the first-impression budget — one anchor piece, sized to the ceiling, matters more than volume. The boardroom wants something that reads well on camera without blocking sightlines down the table. Breakout areas get plants people sit next to, so scale and softness matter more than height. Corridors need a repeatable, low-profile form that can be ordered in quantity and still look identical at the far end of the floor. Desk clusters want small-format pieces that survive being bumped, at roughly one per cluster rather than one per desk. Client-facing rooms — the ones a visitor sees first — usually justify the largest single-item budget on the schedule. The sizing method for matching a piece to a room's ceiling height and footprint is in how to choose artificial tree size; apply it per zone rather than picking one size for the whole floor.
What does each zone typically cost, and how many pieces does it need?
Retail-priced pieces cover most zones. A 4–7 ft fiddle leaf fig in a white planter runs $219–$399 CAD, two or three per breakout zone. A 4–6 ft areca palm with a published leaf count is $289–$419 CAD and suits corridors well, since the leaf-count spec means a reorder six months later matches. Desk clusters take smaller floor pieces — a 7.5 ft real-touch monstera at $266.99 CAD holds up at one per cluster of eight to ten desks. Reception wants a single anchor: our 8.2 ft olive tree in bonsai form is $1,807.99 CAD and carries its canopy above head height, out of the way of foot traffic.
Client-facing rooms and larger boardrooms are where the order usually moves to a quote — commercial-scale pieces such as a large ficus banyan for indoor display (from $4,189.99 CAD, quote-priced) or a 13 ft fiddle leaf fig (from $5,591.99 CAD, quote-priced) sit at that scale. A rough guide by zone:
| Zone | Example product | Price (CAD) | Quantity guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reception | 8.2 ft olive, bonsai form | $1,807.99 | 1 anchor piece |
| Boardroom | 4.5–9 ft golden cane palm, single or pair | $289–$869 | 1–2 per room |
| Breakout | 4–7 ft fiddle leaf fig | $219–$399 | 2–3 per zone |
| Corridors | 4–6 ft areca palm, leaf count published | $289–$419 | 1 per intersection or alcove |
| Desk clusters | 7.5 ft real-touch monstera | $266.99 | 1 per 8–10 desks |
| Client-facing rooms | Large ficus banyan or fiddle leaf fig, commercial scale | from $4,189.99, quote-priced | 1 statement piece per room |
Add those up for a mid-size floor and the retail-priced portion — reception through desk clusters — lands in the low thousands; one or two statement pieces for client-facing rooms is usually what pushes an order over $3,000 CAD and onto the quote route, covered below.
What are lead times, and how do you phase delivery across floors?
The two tiers ship differently. Retail-priced pieces are stock items and move faster than anything freight-crated, so they can sit later in the order sequence. Commercial-scale and quote-priced pieces ship crated on a freight truck rather than parcel, and installation at the receiving end often needs a loading-dock slot or a freight elevator booking — reserve those earlier and confirm delivery dates as part of the quote itself, not after it's placed.
On a multi-floor rollout, phase delivery to match floor readiness rather than ordering everything at once: greenery arriving before a floor's flooring and services are finished has nowhere to go and gets handled twice. Stagger commercial orders by floor completion date and hold retail-tier top-ups until closer to occupancy, once desk layouts and the actual cluster count are confirmed.
Who installs, and where does greenery sit in the fit-out programme?
According to a published sequencing guide from Complete Office Fitouts, floor coverings go in near the end of the build, after wall and ceiling work, and furniture and joinery delivery is the final stage — once construction, painting, flooring and services fit-off are done (checked 29 August 2026). Greenery follows the same logic as furniture: after flooring, once trades that could chip a trunk or scuff a pot are off the floor, landing at or near handover. Your fit-out contractor or a specialist installer typically places it with the FF&E delivery; larger freight-crated pieces are usually worth their own slot rather than riding with furniture trucks, since they need dedicated unloading access.
How do you keep a multi-floor or multi-site rollout consistent?
Foliage varies slightly between production runs, so a corridor palm ordered in month one and a matching reorder in month six can come off different batches and read as different plants side by side. Two things prevent that: order same-zone quantities together in one purchase order rather than trickling reorders in over months, and record the exact product handle — not just the species — against each zone on the schedule, so a second floor or site is specified from that document rather than re-picked from scratch. Running every floor or site through the same supplier keeps the batch history and reorder process in one place.
What landlord and base-building constraints should the spec account for?
Three come up on most commercial fit-outs. Fixing to walls: many leases restrict permanent fixing into base-building finishes, so confirm whether wall-mounted greenery attaches to a demountable partition or freestanding frame instead — attachment methods for panel-format greenery are covered in the green wall panels guide. Floor loading: a large planter with a weighted or water-ballasted base concentrates load in a small footprint, which matters more on a raised access floor than a slab-on-grade — check point loads with your structural consultant before placing anything heavy. Egress: corridor and exit-route widths are set by the National Building Code of Canada and provincial fire codes and vary by occupant load and corridor length, so confirm the actual clearance for your floor with your code consultant before placing anything near a corridor or door swing — a life-safety question this article won't guess a number for.
How does maintenance hand over to the cleaning contract?
Once the fit-out is complete, greenery upkeep is a cleaning-contract line item, not an ad hoc facilities task. A published cleaning-frequency guide from ArtificialPlantsSupplier.com lists offices at a monthly cadence, against every one to two weeks for hotels and retail and weekly for restaurants and kitchens — office greenery sits at the lighter end (checked 29 August 2026). The same guide notes pieces near entrances collect dust faster than pieces deeper in the floor plate, so give reception and entrance-facing pieces a shorter interval. Add the frequency, by zone, to the cleaning contract by name — an item that isn't on the contract doesn't get done.
What documentation should the facilities team collect?
Before handover, a facilities pack should hold: a spec sheet per product — dimensions, materials and handle, so a reorder matches; fire-performance documentation for the actual products supplied, requested in writing from every supplier, ours included, via the quote process, per fire ratings and commercial artificial greenery, since acceptance is decided by the local authority having jurisdiction, not a product label; care instructions for the cleaning contractor; and the completed zone-by-zone schedule, kept as the as-built record.
How do you actually buy the pieces?
Two routes, split by order size. Anything under roughly $3,000 CAD is a straight purchase — the retail-priced items above, ordered and delivered like any other fit-out product. Above that, orders go through a quote, and it doesn't take much to cross the line: a single 6.5 ft indoor/outdoor cedar bonsai pine at $2,787.99–$3,489.99 CAD can straddle the threshold alone, and a statement piece like a large natural-touch pine bonsai (quote-priced) clears it easily. The quote settles freight class, crating, delivery dates and install coordination, and answers the fire-documentation request above in writing. Start at the for-offices collection for retail-tier pieces, or go straight to a quote request for anything statement-scale.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost to green a typical office floor?
Retail-priced pieces across reception, breakout, corridors and desk clusters — fiddle leaf figs at $219–$399 CAD, areca palms at $289–$419 CAD, a monstera at $266.99 CAD, an olive bonsai anchor at $1,807.99 CAD — typically total in the low thousands for a mid-size floor. One commercial-scale statement piece for a client-facing room, from about $4,189.99 CAD quote-priced, is usually what pushes the order past $3,000 CAD and onto the quote route.
Does office greenery need a fire certificate?
Request fire-performance documentation in writing from any supplier, ours included, for the specific products going in — but no single certificate settles it. Acceptance in any building is decided by the local authority having jurisdiction and your project's code consultants, not a product label. The full explanation is in fire ratings and commercial artificial greenery.
When does greenery go in during an office fit-out?
Late in the programme, alongside furniture and FF&E — after flooring, painting and services are complete, at or near handover rather than mid-build. That mirrors the standard fit-out sequence, where furniture delivery is the final stage once the space is otherwise ready for occupation.
How do you avoid mismatched foliage across floors?
Order same-zone quantities together in one purchase order rather than trickling reorders in over months, and record the exact product handle against each zone on the schedule, not just the species — a second floor or site is then specified from that document, not re-picked from a different production batch.
What triggers the quote route instead of a straight purchase?
Order value above roughly $3,000 CAD, which most commercial-scale and freight-crated pieces reach on their own. The quote is also where freight class, crating, delivery dates, install coordination and fire-documentation requests get settled in writing — a straight retail purchase doesn't cover any of that.
Fitting out a restaurant instead? The food-service version of this checklist is in specifying artificial trees for a restaurant fit-out; for species in low-light rooms see the best artificial plants for offices with no natural light.
Sourced figures and supplier claims were checked on 29 August 2026 and are quoted as displayed at the source. Eververda prices are CAD and current as of 29 August 2026.