The show gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show are as jaw-droppingly beautiful as you’d expect, but at House Beautiful, we’ve also got a bit of a soft spot for the Houseplant Studio exhibitions. Sponsored by Malvern Garden Buildings, this year's six installations are colourful, compact exhibitions that bring to life some big themes, from escapism to climate change and romantic love. We walked away with a very specific plant wishlist – and a blueprint for how we’d style them in our homes and gardens.
1. The sculptural cacti and succulents in An Ode to Endurance
Garden designer Natalia Drezek curated this installation to shine a spotlight on the quirkiest, most sinuous plant forms out there: cacti and succulents. Hardy and stalwart, these plants can survive the most unforgiving of conditions out in the wild – as well as the see-sawing temperatures of your front room in the winter. Both landscapes are represented in Natalia’s design, which recreates an arid, desert-like space outdoors as well as a charmingly cosy living room.
However, Natalia sought out some of the most characterful members of this plant family. ‘We focused on unusual – slightly gnarly – specimen plants and the way their shapes are formed by surviving harsh environments in the wild,’ she explains. The result is a fascinating collection of highly sculptural plants that would make a statement anywhere you placed them, from a small bottle-shaped tree, the brachyton rupestris to the floppy, fuzzy leaves of the kalanchoe beharensis (also known as ‘elephant’s ear’).
Natalie does have a favourite, though. ‘It’s the monkey tail cactus. In the wild, they grow from rock crevices on cliffs in Bolivia, cascading downwards,’ she says. The plant appears throughout the installation, soft drooping stems covered in white hair and trailing from various pots – and they're nothing less than mesmerising. As long as they have access to sunlight, Natalia tells us, they’ll grow perfectly well indoors in the UK. ‘They’re low-maintenance and grow slowly, so they’re actually very easy houseplants,’ she enthuses. We’re sold.
2. The climbing jasmine and philodendron at The Conservatory
Petersham Nurseries' outpost in west London – part garden centre, part vintage shop, part sumptuous restaurant – is one of the House Beautiful team’s happy places, and this installation leans on many of its signature details. The creative team deftly curated a space you never want to leave: an elegant garden room layered with beautifully weathered furniture, its walls and ceiling draped in delicate greenery.
Conceived by designer Edward Parkinson, the glasshouse welcomes visitors with a heady mix of romantic colour, scent and calm. And though frilly tree ferns provide structure, it’s the room's climbing plants that deliver the sensory experience. Sweet fragrant blooms of jasmine and the trailing leaves of philodendrons capture the quiet, meandering spirit of summer. Seeing them clamber up the conservatory walls was the nudge we needed to plant and train them to spool across our fences, walls, garden offices and pergolas all year long.
3. The anthuriums at Aphrodite’s Hothouse
Colourful and glossy, the curation of plants at this installation is, by the creator’s own admission, ‘a little bit spicy’. Plants By There designer James Whiting collaborated with adult brand Lovehoney to tell a story of swooning romance, via sultry orchids, curvy vines and playful tropical plants. We didn’t realise that plants could speak in innuendo – but it turns out they can. And honestly, it’s a hoot.
‘This year was all about the theatre of houseplants, romance and Aphrodite,’ James explains. His favourite plant in the Hothouse – and ours now, too – is the anthurium, with its high-shine leaves and crimson colours. ‘They’ve got amazing forms and they’re incredibly hardworking houseplants,’ he raves. ‘They’re actually very easy to care for too. They love humidity, so they’re brilliant in bathrooms, and they tolerate a bit of neglect.’ We love an all-rounder, and this one's sure to deliver a gorgeous, mood-boosting shot of colour and gloss all year round.
Anthurium flamingo flower collection
