RHS Chelsea Flower Show returns this week – and for the first time in its 113-year history, a sexual wellness brand is taking root at the world’s most iconic horticultural event.Lovehoney has partnered with award-winning botanical designer James Whiting and Plants By There to unveil ‘Lovehoney Presents: Aphrodite’s Hothouse’ – an immersive Houseplant Studio inspired by the worlds of love, lust, beauty and desire.
Reimagining the mythical pleasure garden through lush tropical planting, theatrical storytelling and sensual symbolism, the installation explores how conversations around intimacy and sexual wellness should feel as natural and everyday as our love for houseplants.
While flowers and plants have long symbolised romance, beauty and connection, no sexual wellness brand has ever exhibited at RHS Chelsea Flower Show – until now.
Inspired by Aphrodite and Eros, the Greek gods of love and desire, ‘Aphrodite’s Hothouse’ celebrates the ‘theatre of houseplants’ and humanity’s enduring fascination with ornamental tropical plants, passion and pleasure.
Awarded ‘Best Houseplant Studio’ and a Gold Medal at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, James brings over eight years of experience in indoor plant design, alongside a background in fashion, marketing, and garden design.
James Whiting, founder of Plants By There, said: “Chelsea Flower Show is the perfect stage for storytelling with plants, and I’ve never been one to play it safe. Over the years I’ve made a garden room disco seemingly levitate, planted up an avocado toilet U-bend and even sent drag queens and models strutting down main avenue in couture. So, creating the ultimate pleasure garden with Lovehoney was too irresistible to pass up. Gardens should spark curiosity, break a few taboos and make people stop in their tracks. Houseplants, much like pleasure, are something we should celebrate openly and abundantly!”
The Lovehoney x Plants By There partnership signals a new, more inclusive era for RHS Chelsea Flower Show, appealing to younger, curious audiences who embrace a sex-positive, lifestyle-focused approach to wellness.
By combining houseplants – one of the fastest-growing lifestyle trends – with playful, sensual storytelling, the installation demonstrates that Chelsea can be modern, provocative, and culturally relevant, without losing its horticultural heritage.
Lovehoney’s director of UK, Ireland & North America, James Rose, said: “Lovehoney showing up at Chelsea is about more than brand visibility. It’s a signal that conversations around sexual wellness are becoming part of a broader cultural mainstream, one that spans design, wellbeing, and self-expression. Aphrodite’s Hothouse Houseplant Studio gave us the chance to collaborate in a way that feels genuinely creative and true to where our customers are heading.”
Lovehoney’s global PR lead, Jo Connarty added: “You don’t expect to see a sexual wellness brand at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and that’s precisely the point. Sexual wellness is part of overall wellbeing and deserves a place in mainstream cultural conversations. We wanted to show up somewhere unexpected to challenge that. The Hothouse is designed to spark curiosity, challenge expectations, and celebrate pleasure as something natural, playful and culturally relevant. If we want to change the conversation around sex and sexual wellness, we can’t keep having it in the same places.”
The ‘Lovehoney Presents: Aphrodite’s Hothouse’ by Plants By There will be situated in the Houseplant Studio Area, stand number RA707, in the Ranelagh Gardens area of the show. Malvern Garden Buildings is the official sponsor of RHS Chelsea Flower Show Houseplant Studios.
Attended annually by British royalty, celebrities and with over 150,000 visitors expected, RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs from 19-23 May 2026. For more information on the event, visit, https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-
