About

Everything we list is from our own collection.

We're collectors before we're a shop. Plants get bought for ourselves first and the site is what the apartment can't keep up with. Duplicates. Plants that outgrew their spot. The ones we bought in twos because we couldn't pick. Sometimes things we just got bored of (sorry). It all comes from the same place. Our own shelves, plus a couple of grow tents that were meant to be temporary. At least that's what we promised ourselves at the time.

It started as a hobby in 2023. Alex picked up a few plants, then kept picking up plants, and at some point the apartment "ran out of space" (as if that's such a thing). Instagram is where it turned into more than a hobby. People started swapping notes, asking where to get the unusual stuff, occasionally taking bits of the overflow off our hands. Rare Leaves London became a proper name for it in 2024.

Most of what we get hold of these days ends up on Instagram first. A fair amount gets claimed before it ever makes the site, which we're not going to apologise for. What does make it onto the site is mostly Begonia, Anthurium, Monstera, Alocasia, with the occasional outlier we found and couldn't walk away from (we tried, briefly). We like specimens with character. Mature plants that have been properly grown on. Stable variegation where variegation is supposed to be the point, not the kind that reverts the second you look away. We won't list anything we wouldn't keep ourselves.

Each plant is photographed as itself, so the listing is the specimen that turns up at your door. Some need acclimatising first, especially anything freshly imported or that's had a hard journey. Plenty don't, and we'd rather say so than dress it up.

We ship across the UK. Plants are packed properly and go out promptly. If you have a question about a specific plant, message us. We're happy to talk plants for hours with anyone who'll listen, which is presumably how we got here in the first place.

The site is where the current collection lives. Instagram at @rareleavesldn is where most things show up first.

Welcome to the collection.