Our Story

What

We Do

Get to Know Us

We are plant people who create gardens and use plants to enhance the appeal of spaces. We showcase the value and importance of plant diversity, ecology and sustainability through the spaces we create. Nature has a way of being beautiful, sustainable as well as productive all at the same time. We owe most of what we have learnt about plants to the experience of looking at and exploring nature. We mimic nature and through trial and error have learnt some of what works well.

Our work emphasizes on diversity of plants and plant communities which inevitably brings a naturalistic look. Self sustaining groups of plant communities are not only healthy and less maintenance, they are also aesthetically pleasing. Such plant communities create the base of the food chain and make the space where all other life forms that we share this planet with can live and flourish.

Team

Sora Tsukamoto

Gardener and garden designer

Originally from Japan, Sora is a garden designer with a deep-rooted passion for plants and ecology. After spending over a decade at Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Kerala, working on the conservation of endangered native species of the Western Ghats, Sora moved to Bangalore in 2021 to start a garden design studio with two colleagues from the sanctuary.

Now designing gardens for private and corporate clients, the approach is guided by observation—watching how plants interact, adapt, and find balance with minimal interference. Every garden is a living, ever-changing ecosystem, meant to feel both dynamic and harmonious.

Purvy Jain

Gardener and garden designer

Purvy’s childhood was spent in Bangalore, South India. She went to a semi residential alternative school on the outskirts of the city, where she fell in love with the natural world. Caring for orphaned baby birds and animals was her introduction to nature as a child and when she visited the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary her interest expanded to conservation and plants.

In her early 20’s Purvy moved to Kerala and lived and worked at the Botanical Sanctuary there. Their philosophy of every species having a role and a right to live on this planet, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, stuck a chord with her. And so she worked there for more than a decade.

She learnt botany on the job and specifically about the plants of that region, which were endangered and at risk of going extinct. She picked up quickly from her colleagues and mentor and soon took charge of heading the ex-situ conservation effort of a large group of endangered plants. She expanded the conservation efforts in this group of plants greatly and was key in developing techniques to grow, propagate and conserve them.

Purvy now lives in Bangalore and is the co-founder of the garden design firm SORA garden design.

Suma Keloth

Gardener and garden designer

Suma worked as a lead horticulturalist at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary for over 25 years. She has specialised in the cultivation of native orchid species, caring for more than 500 species, along other plant groups such as Aroids, Begonia and Bromeliads. The accumulation of self-taught knowledge about each species has helped her to successfully propagate many rare species of plants.

Growing up in rural Kerala made Suma appreciate nature from an early age. Plants were always part of her life. Repotting plants, and surrounding herself with plants is when Suma feels the happiest. Working in the field of conservation made Suma realise the importance of sharing the world of plants with more people.

Our

Philosophy

Harmony with Nature

When we are creating a garden our primary aim is to evoke emotional response. Nature has the power to inspire and invigorate us, leaving us fulfilled and happier.

In today’s world, so many of us live in urban or depleted environments. We have disconnected ourself from the natural world and often have stressful lives. Humanity evolved alongside plants and nature and we naturally connect to and respond to plants and the environment they create. They are a lot more than just a source of food and medicine for us, they play a big part in our spiritual well being. The garden is the link that can reconnect us to the beauty of the natural world, the innate replenishing power and benevolence of nature.

As we face global environmental crises and ecological systems that sustain us reach breaking points, an understanding of ecology on a planetary scale and using these ecological principles in the making of gardens can play an important part in restoring the balance of our planet. Native ecosystems are evolutionarily designed and time tested to best use the available resources and grow and thrive within these restraints. It is from these natural processes that we draw inspiration to create ecological, sustainable and naturalistic gardens.