This Humid House notches a first at Chelsea Flower Show, Gardens by the Bay launches Lilytopia

Straits Times

5 days ago

Tabula Rosa by Singapore-based studio This Humid House at the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show's Creative Spaces category — a segment known for bold, conceptual work in botanical design. PHOTO: ANDY KEATS
This Humid House notches a first at Chelsea Flower Show, Gardens by the Bay launches Lilytopia
This Humid House first Asian studio at Chelsea show's Creative Spaces category
SINGAPORE – Home-grown botanical design studio This Humid House is participating in the Creative Spaces category at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the first time an Asian studio has been invited to exhibit in this segment.
The studio's site-specific installation is named Tabula Rosa.
By invitation only, Creative Spaces is Chelsea's most open-ended category, free from the constraints of traditional show garden formats or fixed themes, centred on innovation in spatial and botanical expression.
The Chelsea show, on till May 24, has been the world's most influential gardening event, with a legacy stretching back to the early 1900s and attended by the British royal family.
2025's cohort in the Creative Spaces category includes award-winning New York florist Emily Thompson and London-based duo Wagner Kreusch and Frida Kim.
Singapore's inclusion is a milestone, where a South-east Asian voice is being represented in a high-profile platform for design, horticulture and ecological storytelling.
T his Humid House, which has offices in Singapore and Paris, bagged first prize at the Festival Flora 2024 in Cordoba, Spain, another closely watched global event showcasing contemporary floral artistry.
The studio's founder and creative director John Lim calls it a privilege to bring the studio's voice and perspective to this platform, especially at a time when conversations around nature, climate and the future feel more urgent than ever.
The title Tabula Rosa is a play on the Latin words 'tabula rasa', meaning 'blank slate', and rosa, meaning 'rose'.
'But there are no roses in the installation, it's not literal,' Mr Lim tells The Straits Times from London.
The installation is a commentary on how plants have long been framed through systems of naming and display, especially in the West. But Mr Lim says it is also a nod to Singapore, which has often been associated with tabula rasa – a city whose lush green vision is carefully engineered.
'We're interested in what happens when that carefully designed idea of the tropics meets today's anxieties such as climate change, artificial intelligence and the blurring of what's real and what's not,' Mr Lim adds.
Chantal Sajan
Gardens by the Bay's Lilytopia display
Gardens by the Bay's Lilytopia floral display is located within the park's Flower Dome.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Gardens by the Bay has brought in some 10,000 lilies for the newest seasonal display, Lilytopia, at the Flower Dome.
More than 50 varieties of lilies are showcased for the display's duration until June 15, including double-petal roselily cultivars that resemble roses.
Other varieties to look out for include the Lilium Altarus, known for its vibrant yellow hue, and the orange Lilium Sunderland blooms, which can reach heights of 1m to 1.1m.
While Gardens by the Bay frequently imports flowers and trees for its displays, more than 20 lily varieties were cultivated by the park's in-house horticulturalists for Lilytopia.
The display is a presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Singapore, with the lily being Italy's national flower.
The country's coastal city of Venice lends visual and cultural inspiration for Lilytopia, and visitors can look out for recreations of Venetian landmarks, such as its iconic waterways and the famed Piazza San Marco, throughout the Flower Dome.
Info: Till June 15, 9am to 9pm daily. Go to www.gardensbythebay.com.sg for more info
Yamini Chinnuswamy
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