Garden and office plant services in London

It depends on whether you want to own the plants or the outcome. Buying suits an organisation with someone genuinely willing to care for them, and it works well where the planting is simple and the light is good. Hiring suits everyone else, because the plants remain our responsibility rather than a job that quietly falls to whoever sits nearest. Under an ongoing arrangement we replace anything that fails or outgrows its position as part of the service, so the display stays at the standard it was installed at rather than declining slowly across a year. The other consideration is flexibility. Hired displays can be changed as the space changes, which matters more than people expect in buildings that reconfigure, and it means a poor initial choice is not a permanent one.

Watering, feeding, pruning, cleaning and turning, along with checking each plant for pests and for the early signs of stress that are easy to miss until they are not. We top up and refresh planting media, tidy containers, and remove anything that has finished. Where the arrangement covers plants we have supplied, replacement is part of the service rather than a separate charge, so a plant that fails or outgrows its position is simply changed. Visit frequency is set to the planting and the conditions rather than to a standard interval, because a bright reception with large specimens and a dim meeting room with small ones do not need the same attention. We also flag anything structural we notice, such as a drainage problem or a heat source quietly cooking a plant, since those are usually cheaper to fix than to keep replacing around.

Because plant prices move. We buy direct from growers, and what a specimen costs this month is not what it cost last month — season, availability and size all shift it, and quantity shifts it again. A published rate card has to carry a buffer wide enough to cover the worst case, which means every client pays for movement that may never happen. Pricing against live cost at the time of quoting is simply cheaper for the client, and it is why we would rather see a space and price a real scheme than publish a number that has to be wrong in one direction or the other. What shapes a quote is the size and number of plants, how often we visit, the specification of the containers, and access — a roof terrace or a building with restricted loading hours takes longer to service than a ground-floor reception.

Both. Some clients want a scheme designed, installed and then handed over, and some want a single visit to reset a garden that has got away from them. Others want us on a schedule across the year. We are set up for all three. Where the work is a one-off purchase or installation, standard terms apply rather than the maintenance arrangements that come with ongoing work, and we will be clear about which applies before anything is agreed. This is a genuine difference from most of the sector, where the commercial model depends on tying the initial installation to a maintenance agreement.

Yes. Paving, walls, steps, levels, drainage and the groundwork that has to happen before anything is planted, as well as the planting itself. Working across both matters more than it sounds, because a scheme designed by one party and built by another tends to lose something at the handover, usually in the details that determine whether planting establishes properly. Taking a project from design through construction to the first year of maintenance means the person who chose the plants is the person who prepared the ground for them. For larger schemes we will say plainly at the outset where specialist trades are needed.

More than people assume, though the honest answer is that low light limits the choice rather than removing it. Aspidistra, sansevieria, zamioculcas and several of the philodendrons hold their form in genuinely poor light, and the tougher ferns and calathea do well in the diffuse light of an interior away from windows. What tends to fail is anything grown for flowering or for strong variegation, since both need light to hold. Air conditioning is usually the bigger problem rather than light itself, because it dries the air continuously and few interior plants enjoy it. Where a position is truly dark we would rather specify a preserved or artificial display and say so, than install something living that will decline for six months.

Set by the planting rather than by a standard interval. Larger specimens in good light and generous containers can go a fortnight comfortably. Small plants, bright positions, and anything near a heat source or air conditioning need weekly attention. Exterior planting is seasonal by nature, with more frequent visits through the growing season and fewer through winter, aside from the structural work that is best done in the cold months. We propose a schedule after seeing the site and adjust it once we know how the space actually behaves, which is usually a little different from how it looks on a first visit.

Yes, and this is the part most suppliers cannot offer. Fresh flowers, interior planting, exterior displays and seasonal work can run on one schedule, with one team, on one invoice. For a hotel or a restaurant that means the person changing the reception flowers is the person maintaining the planting and the window boxes, on the same visit rather than three separate appointments from three separate companies. It removes a considerable amount of coordination, and it means the flowers, the planting and the outside of the building are being designed to sit together rather than arriving independently.

London, for planting, maintenance, gardening and landscaping. These are services that need people and vehicles on site regularly rather than a delivery, so the practical limit is what can be reached and serviced reliably on a schedule. For larger installation and landscaping projects we will look at work beyond London case by case, since a project with a defined start and finish is a different proposition from a maintenance round. Our shop and flower business serve customers nationwide, but the planting and gardening side is a London service.