Ahead of the Barbican Conservatory’s major restoration, Wayward Plants are carefully taking thousands of cuttings from a wide range of specimens and propagating them at their reuse centre into new plants to be adopted.
The Second Harvest explores what a city can gather before it goes to waste. At the Autumn Equinox, the Wayward Plants Reuse Centre at Cultivate Colindale brings together plants, food, timber, clay, objects, seeds and skills that have been overlooked or discarded. Across a day of collecting, making, repairing, exchanging and eating, these resources will be prepared for their next life and returned to the community. More than a traditional harvest festival, the event celebrates the abundance around us and asks how collective action can keep it in circulation.
Ahead of the Barbican Conservatory’s major restoration, Wayward Plants are carefully taking thousands of cuttings from a wide range of specimens and propagating them at their reuse centre into new plants to be adopted.
Wayward Plants will lead the adoption process, where you’ll be able to learn about the different specimen types and how to care for them, visit the host plants from which cuttings have been taken, and take a plant to continue growing at home.
As part of the London Festival of Architecture 2026, the summer solstice will mark the opening of the Wayward Plants Reuse Centre at Cultivate Colindale. The programme will include an exhibition celebrating 20 years of Wayward Plants, work from The Bartlett’s Bio-Integrated Design programme, and creative workshops led by artists and collaborators. Throughout the longest day, rescued plants will find new homes before visitors gather around the fire for a communal feast and solstice celebration.
In 2026, Wayward Plants marks 10 years as the Official Reuse Partner of the Royal Horticultural Society with a major exhibition at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Located in the Great Pavilion, 10 Years of Reuse will explore the story of the initiative through rescued plants, archival material, community stories and the hidden journeys of plants and materials that might otherwise have gone to waste.
