About the garden

This garden will take you on a whimsical journey through a slice of the Amazon Rainforest. You’ll learn how these plants thrive in the wild and even meet the wondrous creatures they share this richly diverse but highly threatened part of our planet and their integral links to each other and our ecosystem.

You’ll understand better how to provide the right care for a range of tropical houseplants and why, even in the wild, plants are never ‘picture perfect’. The designers invite you to embrace the imperfect beauty of nature and all that it has to offer. The design recreates the Amazon Rainforest’s dense understory with layered planting that mimics the natural structure of a rainforest.

Key features include:

• Lush Planting: From ground-cover creepers to colourful flowering tropical ariods. From large-leafed foliage stunners to epiphytes perched on canopy trunks.
• Whimsical Illustrations: Playful depictions of rainforest creatures highlighting their ecological roles within their tropical homes and the connections and links they have with our most beloved tropical houseplants.
• Atmospheric Effects: Sounds of rainfall, birdsong, and insects, with mist to evoke rainforest humidity and a waterfall to add movement and ambience.
• Educational Elements: The designers aim to educate about houseplant care and the rainforest itself through printed materials with more details available on the designers’ blog.
• Purpose: To educate and inspire sustainable care for houseplants by connecting them to their natural habitats.
• Inspiration: The Amazon’s unmatched biodiversity and its role as the origin of many houseplants, as well as the increasing importance of protecting these habitats and buying sustainably.

Does the design promote anything topical or newsworthy?

The show garden will be promoting issues such as:

• How to give your plants the best environment in your home to not only survive but thrive.
• How perfect plants don’t exist in nature and why we should let go a little bit at home about not having ‘picture perfect’ plants.
• The links between our beloved houseplants and the animals, creatures and organisms that make the rainforest their home.

The printed materials and blog posts that support the Indoor Plant Garden will also touch on other topics related to the rainforest such as:

• The importance of rainforest conservation for global biodiversity.
• The impact of deforestation and plant poaching.
• Ethical houseplant sourcing and sustainable care.
• Indigenous people and communities who rely on the rainforest

Plants

Approximately 2000 individual plants will be needed to create a dense, immersive experience and bring the designers’ vision to life.

Five key plants

The designers will be using a huge range of plant families, genera and species in their design which originate in (or are closely related to plants from) the rainforest, or have been introduced there, making it impossible to pick five individual species. However, the following plant families will be featured heavily and play a key role in the education of houseplants we are bringing to our show garden:

• Bromeliaceae family: these weird-looking, mainly epiphytic plants will be taking centre stage in our canopy, especially the genera Bromeliad and Tillandsia.
• Marantaceae family: striking tropical plants such as Calathea and Maranta, whose patterned leaves will add something special to our design.
• Araceae family: tropical aroids such as Spathiphyllum, Anthurium, Monstera and Philodendron. These are some of the most popular houseplants and will feature heavily in our design.
• Polypodiaceae family: lush ferns such as Asplenium, Blechnum, Aglaomorpha and Aspidium grow in many homes, so they will have a key role in our jungle.
• Orchidaceae family: flowering orchids such as Miltoniopsis, Brassia,Cattleya and Oncidium will add colourful blooms to our whimsical rainforest.

Unusual, unfamiliar or unsung plant heroes within the design

The designers’ aim with their design is to make the natural habitat of familiar houseplants the unsung hero of the piece, bringing the outdoors in a way that is rare in houseplant cultivation. To try and be as sustainable as possible, the designers will be adding rare and unusual popular houseplants, but you’ll have to wait until the festival to find out what they are!

Where the plants have been grown and suppliers

Due to the massive variety of plants the designers intend to showcase, a lot of the plants will be sourced from various Dutch suppliers to ensure variety and quality. However, they will be looking to use a number of UK based suppliers too.

Does the design promote environmental responsibility?

The design promotes sustainability by:

• Using reusable and recyclable materials for printed materials, props and panels, where possible these will be printed and/or sourced locally.
• Materials used in this Indoor Plant Garden will be reused, repurposed or recycled after the show. Plants will be sold, donated or gifted.
• Educating visitors about replicating rainforest conditions at home, and reducing plant waste.