Not all flowers are born to wither. Some, like the Eternal Roses of Omotesandō Plants, are made to stay, to inhabit time without haste.
For Sant Jordi, Omotesandō Plants’ proposal transforms the classic act of giving a flower as a gift into a long-lasting, handmade experience. Natural flowers preserved under a glass dome, without water or maintenance.
The journey of Omotesandō Plants
The essence of the project was born far from Barcelona, in the streets of Nakameguro, a neighbourhood in Tokyo where Joan Català discovered, in 2018, a small shop that offered kokedamas: floating plants without pots, which maintained their charm with elegance. Back home, Joan couldn’t get this beauty out of his head, and so Omotesandō Plants was born, a botanical workshop named after another corner of Japan. In addition, the workshop works in a conscious way, without plastics, with recyclable materials and respect for the environment.
The eternal flower Garden Rose. Editorial credit: Omotesandō Plants.
On 23 April, the firm will be holding its floral parade on the Rambla Catalunya, an eagerly awaited event that this year becomes an ephemeral garden full of colour and playfulness. Inspired by popular fairs, Omotesandō offers an interactive experience: a rotating wheel with balloons that visitors can pop by throwing a dart. Whoever gets it right will receive a handmade balloon rose as a prize.
The art of the eternal
The Eternal Roses reinvent the classic Sant Jordi flower. What challenges did you face when adapting such a symbolic flower as the rose to a format such as the kokedama?
We have seen that the typical Sant Jordi rose is a flower that lasts a day or two, and these are eternal. I think that on a day that celebrates love, it is beautiful to give a rose that does not die after a few days, but lasts forever.
We could say that these roses can grow like our love. – comments Català.
Many of our customers’ dedications are along these lines: an eternal flower like our love. That’s why we thought it would be interesting to create a model like this. As for the challenges, they are more handmade than a normal rose. Kokedama is a Japanese technique, and we are adapting it.
This year you have opted for an interactive staging, with games and balloons in La Rambla. What do you want to provoke in those who come?
We always try to make a difference. It is a very special day for us, one of the most important days of the year, and very beautiful in Catalonia. With our actions, we want to give it the importance we believe it deserves.
The 2024 installation during Sant Jordi’s Day. Editorial credit: Omotesandō Plants.
That’s why we want to be part of this party, and by creating compositions like these, many people get to know us or come to the pop-up to discover us. As for the game, last year we did the rose machine, and we saw that people really liked this kind of activity.
Omotesandō works to respect the environment, from the materials to the packaging. Do you think that consumers increasingly value this ecological awareness?
Yes, I think people increasingly value the fact that their purchase has an ecological impact. At least I do. That’s why we try to have a lot of respect for nature, pollute as little as possible, use recyclable materials and work to ensure that our production has as little impact as possible.
How do you balance design, nature and ethical commitment in each piece?
I think that, rather than balancing it, it is more about taking everything into account. In the end, the ethical commitment is in the way we do things. We make our plants in an artisanal way and we try to ensure that there is no contamination in any of the processes.
From left to right: Bodo Rose and Rose Mini. Editorial credit: Omotesandō Plants.
For natural design what we do is combine, we use natural elements like moss, plant, thread, we combine them and we create a new natural design. I would say it’s 50-50 between design and nature, and both are compatible.
We always say: we must treat plants as a piece of design, as if they were a piece of jewellery. – explains Joan Català.
Your trip to Japan in 2018 marked a before and after. What exactly was it about that shop in Nakameguro and the kokedamas that fascinated you?
What fascinated me about the trip to Japan was seeing the moss pot, and discovering how you could make art out of a plant or a piece of nature. That’s what really got me.
I thought that all plants were normal, that a plant was just a normal plant in a pot. I saw that you could make exceptional creations and work with them in an artisanal way. That’s what got me into this world and led me to discover this passion, both for plants and for kokedamas, terrariums and, in particular, for eternal roses.
Red Garden eternal rose in a glass jar. Editorial credit: Omotesandō Plants.
It was to see how you could add this element of craftsmanship to a plant and turn it into a new piece of design. And that’s what we always say: treat plants as a piece of design, as if they were a piece of jewellery.
What was the process of learning to make kokedamas from scratch like? Was it self-taught, workshops, experimental?
When I learned the technique in Japan I brought it to Barcelona and I was very self-taught. I went through some tutorials, I did a course, but it was trial and error. At the Mercat de la Flor I chose the plants I liked the most and tried to use the technique. At the beginning I used a lot of thread, now we use much less and it is much more visually attractive. We have been perfecting it little by little.
