Flowers Bloom at the Confluence
Part two of ‘Confluence’: florals and pagodas that crossed seas and centuries, and came to rest at home.
@freedomtreehome
November 2026
Read Part 1: Maps & Waterways >>
The chrysanthemum, from the Confluence print studies.
Flowers have always been travellers. Seeds slipped into the holds of trading ships, motifs pressed into porcelain and silk, blooms carried from one court to the next as gifts, as offerings, as memory. In this second chapter of Confluence, we follow them: the florals and pagodas that crossed the waters of Part One and, somewhere along the way, put down roots.
The Chrysanthemum Throne
The chrysanthemum began quietly, as a herb in ancient China, steeped into teas and broths. Carried to Japan along the old trade routes, it became the imperial crest, the emblem of the Chrysanthemum Throne, and a flower of autumn and grace across East Asia. From there it kept moving, through China and on to India, into our art and our textiles. It opened this season, and it is the thread that runs through it.
How Design Travels
Latika Khosla, Founder Director, Freedom Tree. Watch Latika on Confluence >>
“What fascinates me is how design travels. Flowers, patterns, crafts and colours move across borders, finding new expressions in different cultures. Confluence is my interpretation of these journeys.”
Latika calls Confluence “a deeply personal collection,” shaped by the years she spent living and working in Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and across Southeast Asia. Its subject is an old one: people travelling and trading along waterways, settling on coastlines and riverbanks, exchanging crafts and colour until cultures borrowed from one another and quietly melded.
Our design stories follow the journey behind the collection: flowers that travelled from Japan through China to India, tilework that became our grids and prints, and techniques Latika practised herself while living in those countries. What returns now is less a style than a sensibility: ancient craft and ritual, worn lightly and lived with every day.
Ylang Ylang with Doves
A heritage floral, unhurried and generous. Ylang ylang blossoms open across an amber ground, with doves and berries tucked between the stems for those who look closely. It is the most familiar print of the season, and perhaps the most tender: memories, mapped through flowers.
Scandic sofa and fabric in Ylang Ylang with Doves.
Explore Ylang Ylang with Doves >>
Pagoda in the Skies
Where Ylang Ylang settles, Pagoda in the Skies rises. An imagined botanical city: tall pagodas and climbing tendrils reach upward, their roofs crowned with flowers, a dream palace lifting from coastal water into air. Printed on a tobacco-brown herringbone, it holds both the architecture and the garden, and asks little of a room except to be looked at.
Pagoda in the Skies drapes, Tobacco Brown.
The Bluez accent chair in the print; Confluence cushions against a Pagoda drape.
Discover Pagoda in the Skies >>
Notes from a Faraway Garden
Smaller stories, told in cushions. A lady wears a pagoda palace lightly, as a crown; pink roses climb toward blue-crowned birds; a peony unfurls on lilac stripes. Each is a single scene, placed where the eye comes to rest.
Lady with Pagoda Hat, in Very Berry.
From the Confluence cushion edit.
Freedom Folk
The same blooms, carried from the sofa into the wardrobe. Freedom Folk brings rose and embroidery to relaxed shirts and co-ords: florals made to be lived in, for him, for her, and for anyone who borrows.
Freedom Folk, Autumn Winter 2026.
The Journey Continues
Flowers travel, and so do stories. Begin where this one began, with maps and waterways, in Part One; or find these prints in person, in our stores.
Read Part 1: Maps & Waterways >>
