Space, time, love and care are all valuable commodities when it comes to looking after house plants. Although it sounds easy, it's quite a difficult balance to obtain. So, who’d have thought that putting a jar on top of your favourite houseplant was the secret to keeping those commodities well-balanced and your indoor plants healthy and maintenance-free at the same time. Well, Pikaplant did.
An inventive creation from Dutch pairing Daniel Sutjahjo and Joost van Uden, the Pikaplant Jar recreates the conditions found in a high-humidity habitat, to make caring for houseplants a lot easier. While contemporary terrariums continue to flood the market, PikaPlant is unusual in being low-maintenance without any gimmicks; the jars simply recreate the conditions found in a high-humidity habitat to make the plants thrive. This is how its done.
Right now, in the unfavourable plant-survival world of the OPUMO offices, we have a number of indoor plants thriving. To the side of my desk sits a small Chamaedorea elegans; a pocket-sized version of the tropical plant that is indigenous to the rainforests of Mexico and Guatemala, not West London. It sits in a 17cm tall upside down jam jar, where it is completely self-contained and self-sufficient. It naturally produces its own C02, which condensates on the glass of the jar and creates the perfect levels of humidity that the plant needs to thrive. I don’t water it. I don’t even touch it. I don’t need to. I just enjoy it. No soil spills, no watering, no stress.
Since it was established in 2015, Pikaplant has won a multitude of design accolades for its range of indoor plant-based products. From the Pikaplant One, an automatic plant watering shelving system that needs little to no upkeep. To its most recent creation, the Pikaplant Tableau, an automatic watering planter for herbs and house plants. In spite of the grandiose of those two creations, it’s the PikaPlant Jar that remains the most popular and on the evidence of the thriving greenery of the OPUMO offices, it’s easy to see why.
In the realms of self-watering plants, it often gets to a stage where plants naturally grow and need to be re-homed. But that’s another issue that Pikaplant side-step as the plant in the jar has its own closed ecosystem. The plants grow slowly due to the limited resources inside the jar and they will naturally and comfortably be growing within the confines of the jar for a long-time. The very first Pikaplant prototypes are still successfully growing in the confines of their original jars from four years ago.
Essentially, you needn’t worry about plant trays, you don't need to read articles upon articles about the best indoor plants or the finest indoor plants out there. You just need a Pikaplant Jar. It's an automatic plant watering system that looks good, one that you needn’t worry about and it's one that will get a lot of people in the office talking. It’s been a welcome distraction to the press releases, pens, pads and coffee stains that usually occupy my desk. That’s not to say it won’t look great in your home, though.
Find your favourite indoor plant by shopping the entire Pikaplant collection at OPUMO and if you’re in need for a little bit more house plant inspiration, check out our exclusive interview with Haarkon, the home-grown horticultural pair who share their top tips for introducing – and keeping – plants alive in your home. It’s worth a read.
