Beards & Daisies
Beards & Daisies are passionate about encouraging as many people as possible to enjoy the benefits of living with houseplants in your home or workspace. Their Houseplant Studio design; Plant School – Planting the Future, is a primary school with a focus on saving our planets’ future. With a curriculum solely concentrated upon educating children on all things green – from biodiversity to growing their own produce.
Destined to live a life surrounded by plants
Beards & Daisies founder, Jo Lambell, grew up with plants playing an important role in her upbringing. Jo was taken to all the major flower shows as a child by her green-fingered Mum and had her first vegetable patch at just 8 years old. Fast forward 10 years and Jo found herself living above Columbia Road Flower Market, she just couldn’t escape the signs that she was destined to live a life surrounded by plenty of plants.
One day, when carrying home an impressive 5ft Monstera in Central London, it dawned on her that there had to be an easier way of growing your plant collection without having to escort your leafy friends on buses, tubes or trains. After all, it’s those living in the city who can find the most benefits from filling their homes with plenty of greenery.
In 2015, a surprise redundancy generated the opportunity to start her own dream business and Beards & Daisies was born.
Interest in their wide range of houseplants grew rapidly, especially when the world was dramatically sent into lockdown in March 2020. With hundreds of thousands of people suddenly stuck indoors at home, all in search of something beautiful to help bring the outside in and make their homes feel closer to nature.
But the demand for gorgeous greenery around the home has shown no signs of slowing down since! In 2022, Jo released her first published book The Unkillables, the ultimate handbook for any new plant parent. The business has expanded and the team are super proud to now have one of the largest collections of houseplants in the UK.
“Beards & Daisies are passionate about encouraging as many people as possible to enjoy the benefits of living with houseplants in your home or workspace. From purifying the air around you, to reducing stress levels and even boosting your mood. We’lll help you navigate the daunting first steps of Plant Parenthood, to enable you to reap the wonderful rewards.”
Plant School – Planting the FutureRHS Silver Gilt Medal Winner
Plant School – Planting the Future, is a primary school with a focus on saving our planets’ future. Housed in the Studio Flat building at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, Plant School has a curriculum solely concentrated upon educating children on all things green – from biodiversity to growing their own produce. The pupils of Plant School are led by their Headteacher, none other than Sir David Attenborough, on a mission to protect and heal our planet through all things green.
The team have taken inspiration from both the past and the future. From nostalgic nods to 80s and 90s primary schools, complete with playground hopscotch, a traditional blackboard, and wooden desks, to an inspired look at how schools might operate in the future, with ‘pedal powered’ lighting, a vertical grow your own produce patch and of course, plenty of plants to boost pupils’ moods and help keep them focused.
Plant School believes there is a lot we can learn from the past in order to protect our future and so embraces more traditional ways of doing things – which just so happen to be more sustainable too! From cycling and walking to school, to planting their own produce for school meals, and using less electricity where possible.
Inspired by the work of two of the greatest environmental campaigners of our time – David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg – the pioneering Headteacher and Head Girl, naturally. Plant School is intended to leave viewers feeling inspired, reflective, determined and hopeful. We want to inspire guests to make a difference, through small simple changes in their daily routines.
At Plant School each desk will be set up to showcase a different area of our curriculum. From the basics of potting and repotting a plant, creating your own microclimate in a terrarium, growing your own fruit and vegetables sustainably, learning the history of plants and the Earth’s natural world, and the importance of biodiversity and rewilding.
Guests will not only be invited to help power the plant school with some ‘pedal power’, but they’ll also have the chance to participate in a mini graduation ceremony, to share the moment they graduated from Plant School on social media.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show
23 – 27 May 2023
Meet the Designers
We know what a positive impact well designed spaces can have on quality of life, and we’re thrilled to be collaborating with designers who understand the extraordinary benefits of houseplants.
