Morrow Botanics — Case study

Overview

Morrow Botanics is an independent portfolio concept: a boutique plant brand with an editorial, art-directed catalogue. The build is a custom WordPress theme where every homepage section is a structured, editable block rather than free-form content.

Challenge

Editorial plant brands live or die on rhythm and imagery. The client needs to reorder collections, swap featured plants and edit copy without breaking the art direction or the responsive image crops.

Gutenberg + ACF custom theme

Solution & Stack

A custom theme with bespoke Gutenberg blocks backed by ACF field groups. Editors work inside constrained controls, so the layout stays on-model no matter who is updating it.

Custom theme
Gutenberg blocks
ACF fields
Plant CPT
PHP

WordPress Gutenberg editor with the custom Morrow Collection Grid block selected and its inspector controls open — The custom “Morrow Collection Grid” block selected in Gutenberg — its inspector exposes only the controls that matter: heading and column count.

Design & Build

The Collections catalogue renders structured plant records with category controls and CMS-managed imagery, and the whole layout reflows cleanly to mobile.

Design decisions

Editorial-first hierarchy — a display serif and generous whitespace let the plant photography lead, matching a premium botanical brand rather than a generic shop.
Constrained blocks over free-form layout — the collection grid locks column count and spacing so editors can reorder content without breaking the art direction.
A warm neutral ground (soft ivory) instead of stark white keeps the catalogue calm and tactile, and lets green product imagery pop.

Morrow Botanics Collections page showing a structured plant catalogue with category controls — The Collections page — a structured plant catalogue with category controls and real product imagery.

A single plant detail page for the Chinese Evergreen — A plant detail page — ACF fields (light, water, care level, pot size, stock) rendered as clean, scannable product content.

The Morrow Botanics contact page with an accessible enquiry form — The contact page — an accessible, validated enquiry form wired into the theme.

Editor Experience

Each plant is a Plant custom post type with structured ACF fields — price, light, water and pot options — so records stay consistent and the front end never drifts.

Editing a Plant record in the WordPress admin — Editing a Plant record in WordPress — a dedicated custom post type keeps structured content consistent.

Outcome & QA

The result is a fast, art-directed catalogue a content team can safely maintain.

Pages load quickly and preserve editorial rhythm.
Accessible semantic templates and keyboard paths.
Cross-browser tested at desktop and mobile.
Structured fields prevent layout drift.