One of the most grounding things in life is to grow plants and tend to them. Watching them flourish, you’ll breathe the fresh air they return to you and feel the positive, uplifting effects on your psyche. It’s proven that having plants around is a natural mood booster. Hugging a tree is one way to go about it, but it’s not always possible. Especially when you’re living in the urban jungle of a big city, chances are, you won’t find a tree around the next corner. But don’t worry, with a little help from The Botanical Room, you can easily start to grow your personal indoor jungle and explore your inner gardenista here. This online shop featuring exotic plants and botanical design products was founded in February this year by Hanni Schermaul. As an architect and plant lover, Hanni knows exactly how to pair our green friends with fresh interior design. Her mission is to bring the greens straight into your home, while freeing the common houseplant from its old-fashioned connotation, which you might know from your grandma’s living room.
The shop offers a unique and well-assorted variety of plants and botanical accessories, perfect for modern architecture and interior design. “Plants are friends” also when it comes to exotic and decorative plant products.
Hanni grows her plants with a lot of love and respect: as a self-taught botanist, she uses the best soils and nurtures her babies with utmost care, collaborating with local suppliers around Berlin. She keeps a small, exclusive collection, ranging from epiphytes and leafy plants to succulents and cacti, which changes from time to time to showcase new plants and provide fresh inspiration. The Botanical Room also offers books, magazines, and prints, all about plants, of course. One of her all time favorites is the “Tephrocactus articulus v. strobiliformis”. A complicated name for a funny plant, with an even funnier story to it, at least according to Hanni: it reminds her of dinosaur eggs that were glued together. Once a sprig falls down to the ground it will start growing roots.
Upon escaping the city jungle to spend a year in the scenic beauty of a Greek island, Hanni reconsidered and took first steps towards becoming a botanist. In fact, she has been a plant lover for quite a long time growing up in a house full of plants. As a child she found a plant on a dump and gave it to her mother. After growing it at home for fifteen years, her mother gave it back to Hanni. Sadly the plant died after three weeks, leaving her motivated to make amends. Today, she’s become an expert, and since she’s also an expert ceramist, she created her own collection of planters, called “TBR”, and produced in limited numbers over at her studio in, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin.
Furthermore, she stocks holders and cans in different shapes and sizes from all over the world. Imports from Spain and America are placed next to products from locals and young designers. Some vases come all the way from Iran–the distance being justified by high quality and the refusal of plastic–, and are exclusively provided to her by a friend (Kash Kash).
The Botanical Room grows plants with love and, because the environment takes center stage, most of the packaging is made of recyclable materials. So far, The Botanical Room delivers to Germany and Austria, but don’t worry, you can always pick up a plant at her studio in Prenzlauer Berg. Every plant comes with a Care Card that briefs you on how to take care of your new green friend. We believe that a plant can be a psychedelic kingdom: it will not only help you keep your household alive, but also a tiny part of the world; not to mention, that it will make you sensitive about the environment and more responsible, both on a small and on a large scale. At this point, we hopefully answered the question “why we adore this indoor garden so much”… It’s because plants are our friends and keep our dialogue with nature alive! So when in doubt … add a plant!
