Boma Bonsai Nursery in Kentish Town: Ficus From £15.99

A ginseng ficus bonsai in a 9cm pot costs £15.99 at The Boma Garden Centre, the cheapest of the 19 bonsai on its website. The garden centre is at 51-53 Islip Street, Kentish Town, London NW5 2DL, and it opens Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm. For a bonsai nursery in London that sells indoor trees a short walk from the Tube, The Boma is the easy option.

The about page tells the story. Denise and her nephew Sean came to London from Port Elizabeth in South Africa, and in 2002 they took over what they call a severely neglected site off Islip Street. They renamed it The Boma, after the rustic Swahili meeting lodges of their home continent, and the name suits a place where neighbours stop to talk over the plant benches. Sean is still listed as director.

The team page introduces Kim as garden centre manager, Charlotte as houseplant buyer and Monica as horticulturist, plus a member called Bluebell who is described as the most essential of all. Dogs are welcome on site, and one testimonial on the website notes there are often four-legged friends around. Reviewers describe regulars who pre-order a pot and leave with extra plants, people sending olive trees out for delivery, and dog owners who bring their own four-legged friend.

The bonsai page lists 19 products, almost all indoor trees for London flats. Beyond the £15.99 ginseng ficus, Fukien tea, or Carmona retusa, comes in three sizes: £19.99 in a 12cm pot, £29.99 at 15cm and £49.99 at 20cm. Zelkova, the Japanese elm, is £19.99 at 12cm and £49.99 at 20cm, and Sageretia, the sweet plum, is £19.99 at 12cm. Those sizes refer to the pot, not the height of the tree.

Ficus retusa is the most common shape on the table. A 15cm pot is £29.99, the S-shaped trunk version is £39.99 and the 20cm size is £49.99, with Ficus microcarpa also £49.99 at 20cm. For outdoor growers there is an Acer palmatum Deshojo maple at £39.99, a Japanese pepper, Zanthoxylum piperitum, at £25.99 in a 15cm pot, and a much older pepper tree at £139.99 in a 30cm pot.

The honest pick for a first tree is the Fukien tea or a ficus. Both tolerate central heating and lower winter light far better than a maple, and the Carmona flowers with tiny white blooms through much of the year. Skip the Deshojo maple unless you have a balcony or garden, because it is hardy and needs a cold winter rest outdoors. In October 2026 the website showed both the maple and the smaller pepper tree as out of stock.

Spend a few extra pounds on care products rather than a bigger tree. The shop sells Bonsai Focus peat free repotting mix at £5.99 for 3 litres, Bonsai Focus plant food at £3.99 for 100ml or £5.99 for 300ml, and Bonsai Myst at £6.99 for 300ml. A cheap tree with the right soil and feed will outlive an expensive one left in its nursery compost on a hot radiator.

Bonsai are a small part of a large range. The indoor plant section online runs to 740 products, from a Hoya carnosa Tricolor at £13.99 in a 12cm pot to a Cyperus Zumula at £5.99 and a Kentia palm about two metres tall at £269.99. Outdoors there are shrubs, olive trees, climbers, herbs and the window boxes that Kentish Town terraces use on every ledge, including a zinc design called the Hampstead.

The Boma also offers planting services for containers, gardens and small landscaping jobs. These are quoted individually and need a non-refundable deposit once design work begins, according to the planting service guide. If you buy a planter in the shop, staff can pot it up for you on request. Customers on Trustpilot describe having an olive tree delivered and repotted, and an elderly buyer who could not visit ordering five ferns for delivery.

Delivery runs only inside the M25, at kerbside, within two to four working days, priced by postcode zone. NW5 costs £10, while neighbouring N19, N6, N7, NW1 and NW3 cost £15, and the furthest zone is £65. For a single small bonsai it is simpler to walk it home. For a Kentia palm, a few sacks of compost and a planter, the £10 local charge is a good deal compared with a taxi.

The till no longer takes cash, so bring a card or phone. Parking is free in the car park opposite on Islip Street, though there are no disabled bays. The site is accessible by wheelchair and pushchair, with no accessible toilet or baby changing, and the guest Wi-Fi network is called Boma_Guest.

Sunday opens later at 11am, so a weekday morning gives you the longest window to look over the bonsai table before work or school pickup. Bank holidays follow the weekday pattern of 9am to 6pm, but the centre closes completely on Easter Sunday. If you want a specialist who can repot your tree on the spot or source a rare species, The Boma is not that kind of nursery, and staff are a mix of general horticulturists.

For deeper bonsai expertise, Miyagi Bonsai at Unit 9, Rainbow Works, 21 Markfield Road in Tottenham sells similar indoor trees and offers repotting from £10. For outdoor Japanese material, WindyBank Bonsai in Carshalton opens on weekends and imports its trees directly. The Boma's strength is convenience: a decent indoor bonsai, the right soil and a bag of compost, all five minutes from Kentish Town station.

Kentish Town station on the Northern line and Thameslink is about five minutes away on foot, at the top of Islip Street. Turn the other way and walk south towards Kentish Town City Farm at 1 Cressfield Close, off Grafton Road, a registered charity where children can see goats, pigs and ponies and where entry is free. It makes an easy second stop with small children, since the animals are a few minutes from the bonsai table.

Talacre Gardens, a 2.5 acre green beside Prince of Wales Road, sits between the farm and Kentish Town West, so you can loop back through it. On the way, Kentish Town Road has bakeries and cafés for a coffee while the bonsai rides in a tote. Keep the tree out of cold wind if you are walking in winter, as indoor ficus and Fukien tea dislike sudden chills.

Address: The Boma Garden Centre, 51-53 Islip Street, Kentish Town, London NW5 2DL. Hours: Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm, Sunday 11am to 5pm, bank holidays 9am to 6pm, closed Easter Sunday. Bonsai: 19 listed online, from £15.99 to £139.99, mostly indoor species. Payment: card and digital only. Delivery: inside the M25, from £10 for NW5. Dogs welcome. Free parking opposite. Nearest station: Kentish Town.