Shane Pliska, left, and his father, Larry Pliska, stand in Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand. Their company designed the garden in the background. Photo by John Locher.

The posh new Joel Robuchon at the Mansion is the kind of restaurant that dishes up art on a plate. But the gourmet culinary creations at the MGM Grand restaurant have a tough competitor in the drama department: a garden-lined wall that flanks the north wall.

The gently curving wall is 14 feet high and 40 feet long. It's studded with 832 ivies; its base of 150 azaleas rotates every 10 to 14 days "so they're always in perfect bloom mode," said Larry Pliska, president and chief executive officer of Planterra, the Michigan company that designed the garden and spent four days installing it last month.

The garden might seem extravagant, but for high-end restaurants such as Joel Robuchon -- where a prix fixe tasting menu starts at $165 per person -- such touches are increasingly important, said Shane Pliska, a design consultant with Planterra. Sophisticated arrangements of live foliage help upscale eateries and hotels distinguish themselves from their competition in marketing and hospitality ratings, he said. He added that extensive interior gardens are a growing local trend: Among other clients, Planterra is consulting with a major Strip hotel to revamp the foliage in the property's atrium.

Patrick Schardin, regional manager of AAA, said the travel company's diamond ratings, which are designed to guide consumers' hotel and restaurant choices, include assessments of a property's plant lineup. A three-diamond rating requires "a good variety of live plants or very high-quality artificial floral arrangements," Schardin said. A four-diamond rating calls for "an abundant variety of live plants or unique dried floral arrangements," he said. And to earn five diamonds, a property cannot have any artificial plants or flowers -- just the live variety.

The 1-month-old Joel Robuchon is too new to have any restaurant ratings, but Schardin said hospitality operators tell him that higher marks allow them to charge more for their goods and services.

"At the four- or five-diamond level, you're talking about elegance," he said. "A dining experience is not just a meal."

Mobil Travel Guide, which issues ratings of one to five stars on hotels and restaurants, also includes plants in its list of grading criteria. A lack of live foliage will cost a hotel or restaurant "a handful of points" in Mobil's rating system, said Shane O'Flaherty, vice president of quality assurance at Mobil Travel Guide.

"Consumers who are paying top dollar are looking for that extra touch, whether it's a personalized note for a dinner reservation or fresh flowers," O'Flaherty said. "It's that attention to detail that consumers notice." Plus, a higher rating "definitely has a positive impact on revenue. It provides a competitive advantage to the property that is rated higher than its competitors in the market," he said.

Developing that competitive advantage with the garden at Joel Robuchon required maneuvering several key hurdles: The wall is deep within the MGM Grand and thus has no natural light to sustain plants. And though plans called for a tropical feel, Planterra's designers needed to match Joel Robuchon's theme, which recalls a Parisian townhouse circa 1930. Also, the garden had to be relatively easy to maintain so that restaurant staff could be free to provide service to customers.

Plant-grow lights designed to nourish interior plants resolved the first issue. Choosing plants with smaller leaves created a more European take on tropical plants, rather than the palmy, rainforest feel that prevails in most tropical gardens, Shane Pliska said. And a capillary water-delivery system allows gradual watering so that tenders need water the garden only every 10 days. The biggest maintenance burden on Joel Robuchon's staff is a simple daily detail -- a quick perusal of the garden before the restaurant opens, and the removal of any leaves that might have yellowed.

Planterra's executives also worked with Joel Robuchon's management to assemble a schedule and manual on how to maintain the garden. The manual, complete with photos, includes details on the plants' origins so employees have answers to questions that diners ask about the garden. For the rotating azaleas, Planterra keeps doubles at a local greenhouse so swapping can happen quickly.

Shane Pliska said the garden is more than a simple aesthetic detail -- it plays to an "innate instinct" people have to be near nature, he said.

But indoor gardens also provide a relatively inexpensive way for hotels and restaurants to update their interiors and cover up visual flaws in a building, Larry Pliska said.

What's more, he said, interior gardens can contribute to wellness.

"Live plants have health benefits. People want clean air in the environments they live in," Larry Pliska said. "Artificial plants don't provide fresh air to people. So live gardens serve a double purpose."