Best In Showiness

The tradition of formal pleasure gardens came to Britain in the first century AD from Italy. Ever since, they’ve blossomed with all kinds of wild and wonderful flowers, forming a heady perfume that lingers in the air during summer. Waxy-leafed lemon flowers burst with their zesty fruit, while roses and woodbine share a twining habit, weaving romance and colour wherever they’re planted.

Both jewellery and garden design, the latter a perennial influence on the former, are decorative disciplines striving to harness natural but unpredictable materials into colourful and sculptural forms. Each practice illustrates the sculptor’s vision of the rhythm of the seasons, the vitality of nature combined with the current fashion in plants. Indeed, the world of botany has to be the ultimate muse for jewellers enthralled by the challenge of accurately mimicking ephemeral blossoms and fruits using hard stones to create botanical jewellery.

When a horticultural style is distilled into a jewel it becomes a manifestation of the consciousness of gardens and our view of the landscape during a particular era, whether the 19th-century vogue for exotic orchids or today’s interest in rewilding. Successful compositions express imagination and artistry with a resilience that, unlike the fresh species, survives the passage of time – albeit without the sweet fragrance.

Keep reading to discover how designers are creating botanical jewellery, turning petals and plants into wearable art.

This 18th-century English jewel will star in ‘From Function to Fantasy: The Brooch’, an exhibition in aid of the King’s Trust at Wartski in St James’s, London, from 1 to 12 October. Among other pieces on show will be an array of pearl-and-glass chrysanthemums, a spray of lilac, a cherry-blossom corsage by Lalique and cascading snowdrops in diamonds

Citrus blossom, fruit and foliage are imagined by Dolce & Gabbana in yellow and white gold, tourmalines, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and South Sea pearls

Peter Carl Fabergé exploited the watery quality of rock crystal for his exquisite botanical studies. Here, influenced by his childhood living near the ice-strewn Alps, the young French jewellery designer Emmanuel Tarpin has used it in matt form along with gold and diamonds to create a delicate lily-of-the-valley brooch

Chaumet’s fascination with nature dates to the time of Empress Joséphine. From the outset the jewellery house depicted plant species and fruit as if through the eyes of a gardener – these c1850 earrings by Jean-Valentin Morel, which formed a parure with a vine necklace, being a sublime example

A version of this article also appears in the July 2025 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers