The N1 Garden Centre, Winner of a 2018 Horticulture Week Business Award, is getting ready for a stylish spring. Creative Director Paul Holt draws inspiration from across the creative industries, from architecture to high street fashion, to match the Hackney centre’s stock to the latest trends.
“Most of all, I’m inspired by fashion designers,” he told the Hackney Post. “I like to see how they put their work together: their colours, textures and prints. I take inspiration from Alexander McQueen and Roberto Cavalli, looking at their animal prints especially.
“In the same way, I visualise how the shapes and colours of different plants would look together. I choose leaf size, textures, woody or green stems – every plant has different characteristics, and my job is to mix them up to the best effect.
“Everything changes so quickly in then it comes to designer and high street trends. One moment you’re working with yellow, and the next moment it might be bright pink. It’s constantly changing – there are always new sources of inspiration in fashion.”
Yellow was tipped to be the colour of spring 2019 at the New York Fashion Week, and already the N1 Garden Centre has seen sales rise in yellow stock.
“We’ve been selling lots more yellow pots and containers than usual. Palm trees are also selling very well – they make so much impact in the room, and they’re so elegant and graceful. Big leaves like cheese plants are still very popular at the moment. Last year, plants with patterned foliage were a huge trend, and they still are at the moment. Anything with nice foliage and intricate patterns is popular. Our Peace Lily is also selling really well.”
The N1 Garden Centre has been blossoming at the heart of Hackney for 20 years. With limited space, it opened a second branch in Hammersmith seven years ago. As well as selling a range of indoor and outdoor plants, it also caters for private functions, bringing a splash of the jungle into City offices. Paul recalls one project where he planted fig trees in an office: “They formed a long avenue along the corridor. It was simple, but really effective.”
“We used to just sell houseplants when I started,” he says. “Our stock would’ve covered one table. Trends have changed. Now that people are keener to have larger indoor plants, we can afford to have so many different varieties and fill the store up. Our N1 site lies between two houses, so there’s nowhere to expand, which is why we bought the second store in Hammersmith.”
Garden centres in inner London boroughs remain few and far between, and Paul notes that high land value restricts the potential to sell outdoor plants within the city.
“There are more shops opening that are following the houseplant trend, because that’s something you can easily sell them from indoors. Those plants just need plenty of natural light.”
For those whose houseplants never seem to survive, he advises: “It’s easy to forget that houseplants need care too. Some plants make great student plants, such as the mother-in-law’s tongue – there are lots of different varieties. It’s a rock-hard plant – you can go on holiday and leave it with limited water and sunlight, and it’ll still be alive. The main thing is to remember that your plant, like yourself, needs a drink now and then. Most plants won’t go for more than a week without a drink.
“Student accommodation can sometimes be very cold or hot, and the fluctuations in temperature are not always great for plants. I’d recommend for students to buy something that is quite tough. The Cast Iron plant is very tough as well, it has that name for a reason! We all have constraints, of course, whether they are light, space, or temperature. But there’s a plant for every kind of setting. As an urban gardener, it’s better to start off with small, simple plants before splashing out on something lavish.”
Credits: Flickr
Brexit negotiations have left British garden centres with great uncertainty.
EU trade and pesticide legislation are among the issues that will affect the plants that fill our future gardens. The N1 Garden Centre imports pots and plants from Gemany, Holland, Denmark and other EU nations. “Our suppliers are warning us that there may be delays in deliveries,” Paul says. “All our indoor plants come from the Netherlands – they are suggesting there will be delays there too. At the moment we can get plants delivered within two days, but that could well change. Normally you can get a delivery of cut flowers within 24 hours. That could change, and if it does, with flowers in particular, everyday they’re stuck on a lorry you’re losing one day of life for them, when they’ll only last a week. We have been advised to stock up and so on, but I think until Brexit takes place, we can’t really know will happen next for garden centres and gardeners.”
