The An Ode to Endurance: Conservatory Archives’ Houseplant Studio won gold and best Houseplant Studio. Photograph: Jane Perrone

transcript

I visit Houseplant Studios at the Chelsea Flower Show and chat to some of the designers behind the plants.

Want to see all of the Houseplant Studios on the RHS website? They’re here…

OTL housekeeping

Want to buy a copy of my books Legends of the Leaf and The Atlas of Deadly Plants? All the details are here. Don’t delay if you’d like a copy of Legends of the Leaf, the hardback edition - I only have a very few copies left and there won’t be any more, ever!

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Hanging gardens of botanica

Water, water everywhere. Photograph: Jane Perrone

Alice Dobie (left) and Nadia. Photograph: Jane Perrone.

This garden by Bath-based houseplant shop Botanica Studio features vertical water gardens: an ode to rainwater and the essential cycle of evapotranspiration. This garden won a silver gilt medal from the judges. I spoke to Alice Dobie about the garden.

This garden features terracotta pots from Bergs Potter: the plants are all growing in semi-hydro.
Yes, I do call rainwater ‘the Dom Pérignon of houseplant water’!
The product Shell on Earth is used as a floor covering in this Studio: it is a byproduct of the whelk industry and a lot more sustainable as a pot topper and drainage material compared with perlite and vermiculite.

The garden features plants from various genera, including Alocasia, Anthurium, Philodendron, Monstera, Rhaphidophora, Platycerium and Nephrolepis.
Read more about this studio on the RHS website and on the Botanica website. The Botanica Studio Insta account is also worth looking at for updates on the garden.

An Ode To Endurance - Conservatory Archives

Lily Laflin and Natalia Drezek on their Conservatory Archives Houseplant Studio. Photograph: Jane Perrone

This Houseplant Studio by Conservatory Archives won a gold medal and best in show for its ode to the ‘otherworldly stalwarts’ that are cacti and succulents. The outisde is a conceptual representation of an arid landscape, and the interior showcases their place in the modern houseplant collection.

Read more about this Houseplant Studio on the RHS website.
Key plants include the bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris), the monkey tail cactus (Cleistocactus colademononis), feltbush (Kalanchoe beharensis), various Aeonium and loads more Euphborbia species.
Lily and Natalia said Brachychiton is the new trendy tree - people want the sparse, contorted appearance of this Queensland, Australia native.
When choosing pots, they look for textured, aged terracotta pots and search them out in charity shops and flea markets. They mirror the history of the venerable, characterful cacti.
The succulent that looks like a child’s drawing is Euphorbia alluaudii - pictured below.
Intrigued by the burning monkey tail cactus? See it here. (I would not recommend!)

The Heliotropic Carousel by Hugo & Green

You spin me round. Photograph: Jane Perrone.

The plants in the Heliotropic Carousel rotate in a calm, merry-go-round fashion to maximise or reduce exposure to sunlight. This Studio designed by Brighton houseplant seller Hugo & Green is a wonderful riot of colour and houseplant energy. I talk to John Kitchin about the garden, which won a gold medal and is sponsored by friends of the show Ladybird Plantcare.

Plants featured that we mention include Codiaeum (aka croton), Oxalis triangularis, flamingo flowers (Anthurium genus), the ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata), Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) and the blue star fern (Phlebodium aureum).
Read more about this garden on the RHS website.
Find out more about Hugo & Green on their Instagram account.

The Composer’s Cabin by Martha Krempel

This Houseplant Studio is different from the rest in that the plants that surround it are not houseplants! The cabin is set within a landscape inspired by the wild moors of West Penwith and the lush, subtropical planting that flourishes in the softer, frost-free climate of this part of Cornwall.

This cabin is home to a Steinway piano which you will hear being played in the background.
The peat bog is planted with sphagnum mosses and Eriophorum angustifolium (cotton grass).
The growing medium in the peat bog was developed by Sean Higgs of Floralive who has also been on On The Ledge in episode 103!
Inside, there are houseplants including Philodendron, a climbing fig, Monstera and Alocasia.
To the side of the cabin are planted the rose 'Purple Splash’ and an Actinidia kolomikta.
Read more about the garden on the RHS website.
Revisit On The Ledge episode 97 in which I visit Martha’s home including her huge Euphorbia ingens called Pablo.

CREDITS

This week's show featured Whistle by BenJamin Banger (@benjaminbanger on Insta; website benjaminbanger.com) and The Road We Used to Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku.

Episode 315: the Houseplants that stole the show at Chelsea 2026