London’s New Era Botanists And Their Founders

BOTANY | Angela Maynard

Botany is nestled among a thriving creative community on Hackney’s Chatsworth Road. A concept store of sorts, Botany is home to a selection of ethically sourced handmade pieces, organic skincare and a colourful array of plant life from unusual succulents, cacti and a for-ever changing number of houseplants all thoughtfully curated by founder Angela Maynard.

With a career in Fashion product development spanning 12 years, Angela opened Botany after watching a TED talk. Her incredible eye for putting things together is immediately evident upon walking into the store, with hanging tradescantia cascading down from the ceiling, every corner of the space is home to a beautiful collection of objects and plant life. Focusing on supporting small independent businesses, she stocks ethical skincare brand, Honest, and independent publisher, Persephone Books.

The concept store come potting shed come gallery collaborates with local artisans and makers, the walls play host to a revolving series of artwork. Previously a series of delicate ink drawings, ‘150 Flowers’  by Lucy Auge, and currently ‘From the Forest’ an installation of woodcarving and natural dyed quilting by Forest & Found.

 

CONSERVATORY ARCHIVES | Jin Ahn & Giacomo Plazzotta

Conservatory Archives is a mid-city oasis, a calm retreat away from the noise of urban city life. Couple, Jin and Giacomo opened Conservatory Archives on Hackney Road in December 2015, initially intended to be an antiques and plant shop. Months within opening they noticed the plants, rather than the antiques, compelled the interests of people coming into the store.

Now a few pieces of furniture and accessories sit among the architectural shadows cast by the many variations of tropical plants, with an aroma of fresh coffee filling the space, old records play and passers-by come in to browse and escape the outside. Inspired by a visit to Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, Jin decided to go back to university to study Horticulture and whilst studying she noticed the lack of emphasis on indoor gardening in London, so the concept for Conservatory Archives was born.

The space, a hardware store in a previous life, has been restored by the couple, who have paid considerable attention to the use of materials but also retaining the character of the original space. Exposed electrical trunking, a plethora of mismatched wooden work benches and quaint antique lighting create a sublime dialogue with the stripped back, and exposed original walls which remain mottled with the peeling plaster and paint from over the years.

 

GRACE & THORN | Nik Southern

Collaborating with the likes of Alexander McQueen, JW Anderson and Giles Deacon, Grace & Thorn has cemented its reputation as the favoured florist of the fashion forward. Setting up shop a stone’s throw from Columbia Road Flower Market, in the former Kray brothers run tailor’s shop, Nik Southern opened Grace & Thorn in 2011. Having newly jumped ship from a 13 year career in IT recruitment Nik’s approach to floristry is refreshing and unlike her peers. With a naturalistic aesthetic focusing on using foliage, textures and flowers of the non-twee kind.

With a brutal concrete clad, industrial interior, the space seems at first a contradiction to its purpose. ‘I didn’t want to do ‘nice’ flowers’ – upon seeing Nik pull flowers and foliage together you soon realise she has set the perfect scene for her creations. From wildflower species, ferns,hanging air plants, terrariums and cacti in a multitude of shapes and sizes, Nik sources her collections from across Belgium and Denmark as well as local British flower gardens in the summer months.

 

LONDON TERRARIUMS | Emma Sibley & Tom Murphy

Having your own patch of green in London is rare, so creating a personal desktop garden inside a glass vessel or ‘gardening under glass in the urban environment’ as Emma and Tom of London Terrariums put it, might just be the answer. With the constraints of space and freedom that renting brings, the pair sought to interact with plant life on a smaller scale.

Foraging from their immediate surroundings, Emma and Tom gathered moss from their garage roof and small cuttings from whatever plant life they came across, planting them inside glass pickle jars. Soon after making their first pickle jar terrarium, a friend asked the pair to make a few for display in his Peckham café. From here interest grew as customers started asking where they could buy these miniature bottled gardens.

Now having evolved to host workshops and custom made terrariums, the pair are being commissioned to make their portable gardens for retail spaces and brand collaborations.

 

RO-CO | Rose Ray and Caro Langton

Bound by a desire to hand-make objects that tell a story, Rose and Caro founded Ro-Co almost by accident. With backgrounds in printmaking and set design the pair were brought together by a mutual feeling of losing touch with their crafts. And so as an outlet began combining materials they had accumulated such as marble, copper and concrete, to create peculiar vessels to house their plant life. On a whim the girls decided to take a selection of their pieces to Saturday’s Broadway market, greeted with an overwhelmingly positive response they proceeded to go back the following weekend and have been returning every Saturday since.

Now, a year or so down the line they have set up a studio in their Hampstead Heath abode in North London. In their whimsical conservatory, Rose designs the terrariums, casts and polishes pots, and sees to their growing collection of miniature cacti, succulents and air plants. A few floors up, Caro creates the hanging planters, designs copper mobile kits and creates limited edition art prints.

Having travelled extensively seeking inspiration along the way, the collection includes designs such a the Nordic-inspired copper Himmeli mobiles to Californian Hinterland miniature indoor gardens. Rose and Caro are working to open a studio and retail space in the coming months; we shall certainly keep our eyes on this one.

 

Text by Serene Khan