About the garden

This Indoor Plant Garden is set within the palimpsest of the typical living room of a Victorian terraced house – a space layered with history and wrapped up in British collective memory. The setting juxtaposes modern, vintage and Victorian architectural/furniture elements, which typify a magpie approach to the domestic interior, as we each attempt to curate our homes. The setting of the Indoor Plant Garden allows for a story of the history of house plants to be told.

There will be three zones, beginning with the Victorian fireplace at the heart of the room. This area is resplendent with ferns, evergreens, delicate flowering plants and Wardian gardens-under glass. Moving to classic mid-century design – think G-plan sideboards and Ladderax shelving, dripping with hanging and cascading plants. The last area focuses on today’s approach to plant-parenting, infamous DIY hacked IKEA Milsbo glass cabinet filled with a collection cuttings and propagation experiments.

Does the design promote anything topical or newsworthy?

Borrowing the format of BBC Radio 4’s The Long View, the designers intends to present and compare plant stories from the past with those from today.

The design is influenced foremost by Catherine Horwood’s book: Potted History (2007), which examines how plants came to be found within the British home.

This indoor plant garden will communicate that plants have a heritage and will highlight the histories of era-specific plants and draw attention to the ubiquitous and long-standing nature of plants within our homes.

Plants

There will be around 50 plants within this design.

Five key plants

• Pteris (and other fern varieties) and flowering plants
  Epipremnum (pothos)
• Cuttings & propagation experiments, with an emphasis on rare/unusual/variegated specimens

Unusual, unfamiliar or unsung plant heroes within the design

The designer’s methodology of historicised planting (an approach which she hopes will inspire visitors to replicate!) will illustrate the histories and stories of indoor plants by rooting them in particular moments in time, told across three distinct periods.

The designer would like the garden to suggest a new dialogue around house plants. We are all now accustomed to discussing the wellbeing benefits of plants, likewise we recognise the importance of biophilic design within architecture, equally we see plants sought after due to their rarity. This design suggests a new way to think about plants – based on their histories.

Where the plants have been grown and suppliers

The Netherlands and the UK (likely including Flowervision and Quality Plants).

Does the design promote environmental responsibility?

Where possible, the designer will source plants from UK-based nurseries and suppliers. She will also seek to use suppliers who use peat-free growing mediums. Due to the nature of the design, the designer will be incorporating vintage and second-hand furniture/decorative elements rather than buying new.