We believe giving your loved one (or bff/neighbor/best buddy/oncly/colleague/anyone really) a plant as a token of love and affection is always a good idea. Depending on the type of person you’re giving a plant to, go for an easy grower that thrives under many circumstances, or pick something a bit more special that they will treasure for years to come. For Valentine’s Day any plant could do the trick, even a prickly cactus, but just for the romantic souls amongst us: let’s focus on some particularly romantic plants. Plants that have heartshaped leaves that show off your ever growing love for your Valentine. Here are our top six heart shaped plants:
Ceropegia Woodii
Photo via The Fresh Flower Company
This delicate looking plant called Ceropegia woodii is also named “String of Hearts” and features dozens of small heartshaped leaves on long trailing vines. They do best in partial shade or full sun and hate being over watered. Leave the soil to dry out completely before watering. They also quite like humidity, which makes them perfect for bathrooms (with some bright indirect sunlight!).
Philodendron Scandens
Photo via Plant Pot
Philodendron scandens’s heart power is truly underestimated. It is an easy growing plant that also grows quite fast and works really well as a hangin plant, like the one above. But you can also opt to guide its vines along a wall or your canopy bed for an instant “heart bunting” effect, like in this bathroom at Saana’s place in Turku, Finland:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BeyTcILFdhd/
Hoya kerrii
If you visit your local plant shop this week, you have a big chance to find one of these cute Hoya kerri “Lucky Heart” plants. They are sometimes even sold as “heart cactus”, but they are actually not cacti: Hoya kerrii is actually a climbing plant that can grow up to 4 meters high! Usually when you buy them they have only one leaf and only start growing a new leaf a few months later, but once strong roots are established, it will grow new vines quite quickly.
Alocasia zebrina
To recognize the heart shapes of an Alocasia plant, you need a bit of imagination. Most Alocasia leaves have a slightly sharp <3 shape, but have a look around your local plant shop or garden center and try to find a plant that you love. One of the most decorative Alocasia species is the Alocasia zebrina, with its patterned stems, spotted here at the new Leaf boutique in Paris. It is the plant right in front of the red door. Like most Alocasia, they like humidity, both of the soil and the air, as well as bright indirect light.
Anthurium
Photo via Anthura
This tropical beauty will charm anyone with a romantic personality. Its lush green heart–shaped leaves are a perfect match to the bright flowers – mostly in flashy reds or pinks. Even though we think of it as the flower, it is only a so called spathe as the actual flowers are small and sit on the elongated spike shaped spadix. This popular houseplant grows ideally with bright, indirect light and a good soil mix in pots with drainage holes. The plant doesn’t like to sit in continuously moist soil so water it whenever the soil has dried out. Other than that, just give it some extra love and you will be rewarded with bright and beautiful flowers (sort of as we learned)!
Alluaudia ascendens
This beauty, called the Alluaudia ascendens, is one of the rarest heartshapedplants in this post: you will most probably see it first in a botanical garden, rather than in your local plant shop. So we suggest to offer your plant-loving friend or Valentine a visit to one of the beautiful botanical gardens in the world. Turn it into a romantic weekend getaway, or simply meet him or her in a botanical garden close by and search for Alluaudia ascendes together.
Livia Rossi and Gianluca Giabardo – the pair behind Italian design studio Dossofiorito [literally “flowery hill”] – do not only design for humans, but for plants too. Attentive to the quiet green world around them, over the years they explored the connectivity and bounds that can grow between people and houseplants. Eager to share their passion they agreed on replying to some questions by Laura Drouet.
The Phytophiler by Dossofiorito
How would you describe your relationship with plants? We consider the plants that share our house, balcony and studio, along with Aru our dog, as part of the family. We speak to them and grow really attached to them.
The Phytophiler by Dossofiorito
Your work ranges from collectible design to more interactive projects encouraging for instance children’s participation and creativity, yet, your recurrent incline for plants constitutes a peculiar and interesting red thread. Where does this passion comes from? Our interest for plants comes a long way. Although we both grew up in urban surroundings, we also had the opportunity as children to be very much in touch with Nature. But we never realised how deep our interest in plants was until they became – almost by accident – asubject to explore in our projects. When we saw that we got many plant specimens (maybe too many!), we started questioning our attitude and this profound need of being surrounded by plants. It occurred to us that it might be interesting and relevant to do a project on the bound that a person can develop with the houseplants sharing his/her living environment.
The Phytophiler by Dossofiorito
According to French botanist Francis Hallé, plants are too often forgotten and rarely seen as living being simply because they are biologically too far from humans. Many of your project such as The Phytophiler collection provides the user with a set to study and interact with the plant itself using human’s senses such as touch and view. According to you, why is learning to understand the kingdom Plantae so vital? Recent scientific researches have proven that plants can move, communicate, react to external stimulus, even have memories of past experiences! This new awareness necessarily brought about a new and more respectful attitude towards them. Our Phytophiler projects simply go in that direction: they are not do-it-all tools – they don’t water for you, they don’t feed the plants for you – because we wanted to bring people closer and make them more engaged with the plants.
Epiphytes by Dossofiorito
Epiphytes by Dossofiorito
Knowledge and recognition constitute the base of your Epiphytes project as it respect the air-plants metabolism. What inspired you for this project? While conducting researches on plants for The Phytophiler, we learned about epiphytes (plants that do not grow in the soil but on another plant or tree in the wild). We were astonished to discover that many of the plants that are grown as houseplants belong to this category – 70% of known orchids, a third of the ferns, and even some cacti are epiphytes. The Epiphytes vase follows the natural growing attitudes of a plant. What inspired us this project were the ollas (terracota container used for centuries in vegetable gardens) but also the cultivation methods of orchids in tropical countries where the plants are grown on the outside surface of terracotta pots resting in trays filled with water.
ETTA, a multi-layer wood bench / room divider design by Dossofiorito
How do you see your role as product designers when it comes to plants? In our designs we try to be attentive to the materials we use and enjoy to work with small scale producers, with a direct control of the production. We believe that the bottom line of many of our plants projects is the idea that plants are not just a decorative element. None of our projects are for immediate fruition but suggest more that people are embarking on a long term commitment with each specimen. It is just with time and care that we’ll enjoy the most the presence of the plant.
The Phytophiler by DossofioritoThe Phytophiler by Dossofiorito
Interview by Laura Drouet, photography via Dossofiorito (Zilio A&C / Matevz Paternoster, Federico Villa, Omar Nadalini)
Some cats are not interested in plants at all and can be left alone in a room with toxic plants without any problems, but if you’re the parent of a furry feline that loves to nibble on fresh plant leaves, make sure to avoid these plants:
Cat Billie Jean served by @botanicalsandbillie
Did you hear that plantlady is the new catlady? Sounds funny, right? But actually, we believe that you can be both! (and pssstttt, we also believe that there are also quite a few crazy plantmen out there!). With the right tips & tricks you can live successfully with both plants and cats. But how? Every time we share a photo on our Instagram accountof a home with houseplants and one or more cats, we receive so many questions about it. How do people make sure the cats don’t destroy the plants and how do you know if plants are toxic to cats? We decided to ask some help from our fellow plantlovers and catlovers on Instagram. So here we go!
Some background info about our Instagram Panel of 31 plant & cat lovers:
They come from all around the world: different states in the US, Sweden, Hungary, Spain, Holland, Brazil, France, Germany, Turkey, Canada, Belgium, Indonesia and Denmark. 35% of them own between 16 and 40 plants, 35% between 41 and 75 plants and 20% have more than 100 plants! Half of the respondents has 1 cat and most of the others have 2 cats (one even has 5 cats). More than half of the respondents have cats that check out the plants every now and then but mostly leave them alone. 35% Have a cat that is obsessed with some specific plants and likes to nibble on the leaves. Two respondents have true plant destroying cats.
Cat Yuki served by @aentschie
TOXIC PLANTS
Never assume that cats instinctively know what plants are toxic for them. Our cats are domesticated animals and knowing what is good or bad for them is not necessarily part of their experience. Some cats are not interested in plants at all and can be left alone in a room with toxic plants without any problems, but if you’re the parent of a furry feline that loves to nibble on fresh plant leaves, make sure to avoid these plants:
• Sago Palm and other Cycads • Any bulb plants, like Lillies, Hyacinth, Daffodil, Amaryllis • Asparagus fern • Dieffenbachia • Oxalis triangularis • Azalea • Dracaena • Aloe • Sansevieria • Anthurium • Monstera deliciosa
This list is not complete and please always check if your plants are toxic! Also note, that for most plants your cat would have to ingest a substantial amount to become ill.
25% of the cats from our Instagram Panel once ate a toxic plant. For most of them nothing happened (fortunately!), but most cats did throw up the ingested leaves. Sad stories of cats eating plants and dying do exist (we receive messages about that very often), so be careful. Better be safe than sorry!
Cat Bodhi served by @callieharrisonn
CAT-SAFE PLANTS
Plants recommended by the plant- and catlovers from our panel: • Spiderplant • Hanging plants (out of reach, if your cat can reach it, they are attractive because of the movement) • Kentia palms (some cats love to eat juicy sweet palm leaves, which destroys them) • Olive trees • Cacti (although they can hurt the cats with their spines!) • Echeveria and Haworthia succulents • Zamioculca • Peperomia (the cats don’t like the taste!) • Ferns • Calathea • Tillandsia air plants • Grasses • Strelitzia (mildly toxic) • Plants with big leaves (less tempting) • Staghorn ferns (can be mounted and hung out of reach) • Lemongrass • Maranta
Cat Bowie served by @katinkafeijs
SUCCESS TIPS
We asked our Instagram Panel about their tips on how to live successfully with plants and cats. These are their best tips and tricks:
• Start with plants that are non toxic to cats and observe how your cats behave with them. Make certain rooms off limits to the cats to keep more toxic plants. • Put your plants in a place where the cats can’t reach them, for example on a fridge or plantshelfie. Or in a room that you can close when you are not around to watch your cat’s behavior. • Use plant hangers to hang plants from the ceiling where your cats can’t reach it. Or use wall-pots (only works if your cats are not too acrobatic!) • Make sure if you put a plant up high, that there is no way for your cat to jump up there. No empty space for your cat on the #plantshelfie or he or she may tip over a planter. • Use plant pots that have enough weight, so that your cat can’t tip them over. • If my cat was more of a curious taste tester I would suggest putting the plants on higher shelving with no snuggle room for cats. Make another perch spot, as I like to call them, for your kitty so they’ll still feel like they own the house instead of you. • Teach them when young not to bother them! Behold the power of a spray bottle. • Find an essential oil scent that your cat hates. Most cats dislike citrus. Place a citrus essential oil around the area where you keep your plants, or on each individual pot. This should deter your cat from wanting to play with, eat, or otherwise destroy your plants. • Give your feline friends their own cat grass, catnip, edible foliage or wheat grass! Place this close to your (non toxic) plants at ground level, so that they have easy access (before they reach your expensive houseplants). • Prune growing plants regularly so they don’t get too long and turn into play toys for your cats. • Keep your more delicate plants inside a terrarium. • I keep my plants that I’m propagating in water safe for her too, otherwise she will take the plant out of the water so she can drink it! • I also try not to leave any water on my plant trays because my cat loves to play with water. • Play with your cats and tire them out. A happy and tired cat will leave your plants alone. • Cut chicken wire and lay it flat on top of the soil. This will prevent your cat from digging up the soil and making a huge mess or using it as a litter box. You can also use some larger stones or gems to (partly) cover the soil. • Provide a clean litter box and a nice scratching pole, so that they have everything they need and doesn’t use your plants as a litter box or pole. • Accept that your cats will nibble on (some of) your houseplants and that they won’t look its best with some cat scars. Learn to live with your imperfect plants. After all, it’s your cat’s home too!
“I find that larger leaf plants, like the fiddle leaf are good because they are too large for a cat to really care for. Some plants are good for cats! I actually have an indoor herb garden for them to chew on. It’s good for their digestive systems!”
Cat Ramona served by @plantshapescat Wally served by @joelixjoelix
“I was home from work for hours, relaxing, hanging out with my cat when suddenly her ears perk up and we both hear a rustling in my plant collection in the living room. Somehow the neighbour’s cat had gotten in before I went to work and had been hanging out in my plants for hours without us knowing! You never know what’s lurking in the jungle.”
cat Curry served by @casaprotea
“Sometimes my cats really just like to snif and go through the leafs. I have also had some cat grass and other plants that’s good for the cats to eat from. It’s in the cat’s nature to be outside and wild so I try to have plants and pine cones, to trigger their nature side.”
cat Witte Poes served by @line_vanvoorden
“Whenever I bring a new plant home, which happens quite regularly, my cat looks at it for a bit, and then looks at me, as if to say “Really? Another one?”“
Cat served by @frozentezzzCat Fia served by @fryfold
“I put the cat grass in front of a mirror. My cat usually puts his whole head in the plant to show his love and affection, but once scared himself to death when he saw a cat emerging from his plant in the mirror! Poor thing!”
Cat Belle served by @ladradorite.boyCat Snow served by @pernillllllee
“At first we grew a cat lawn for our cat to eat the grass, therefore we didn’t think of the size of the low pot. One day when the grass was almost fully grown, we found him sleeping on it, and he sleeps there for a little while everyday! It was just hilarious to see him change the purpose of his gift.”
Cat Milo served by @avalonbotaniqueCat Archimedes served by @JulieAndrsn
*“My boy cat is quite a rebel. He love the “punch” the leaf on plants. He sits by the plant and with one paw he starts beating the leaf (forcing the leaf down), and he does this over and over and over and over until I get mad and take him away from the plant. He knows so well that I don’t like when he does that, he always makes eye contact when he starts beating. Lol.”
Cat Hanna served by @personalcheesusCat Fantastic Mr Fox served by @is_adorable
“I was so proud of my first ever Spider plant baby. It finally rooted after a couple of busted attempts. I put it in his own little pot. And the next morning I woke up with my cat Moos sitting above my head, who brought me a present. Yup! My baby spider plant. Ripped it right out of the pot and wrecked the roots with his teeth. Sigh*. Ever since then Moos loves to rip tiny plants out of the ground. So all of the baby plants are safely in an Ikea Socker greenhouse.”
Cat Moos served by @unieque_nlCats Tissla and Lilith served by @alexandra.broman
“Our cat Simba had a favorite spot for a long time, a pot with old soil in it. There used to be a Bromelia in there but he crushed it with his butt. We didn’t think to throw it out yet, and Simba kept his spot. After a long time my husband said to me, I think Simba is breeding something, we lifted his tail and a new Bromelia was coming up from the pot under his butt.”
Cat Simba served by @anne_kohnkeDog and cats Mowgli, Dilla and Cricket served by @jordoncloud
Pretty much exactly one year ago the adventure kicked off: We launched our first Urban Jungle book in both German and English. The location of our book launch was perfect and dreamy: the botanical garden in Munich. Only one day before we launch our Urban Jungle book in French (tomorrow in Paris), we want to take you on a trip down memory lane and stroll the magic botanical garden in Munich with you. Our dear friend and fellow blogger Anastasia Benko recently revisited the botanical garden and took some magical photos for us. Come in and get enchanted!
The botanical garden in Munich is located in a leafy and beautiful suburban area called Nymphenburg. Adjacent to the namesake castle, the botanical garden stretches over more than 22 hectares and features 16 different sections. A vast outdoor garden invites the visitor to stroll and take a break on one of the benches, and a variety of greenhouses ignites botanical dreams the moment you step in.
Anastasia has an incredible eye to capture details, light, moody moments. Through her lens you are truly transported into an enchanted botanical garden where plants thrive among fairytales, mysteries, and myths. Anastasia was also our guest during the book launch (and she hosted a flower workshop) and we all share the same dear moments of being there and celebrating the beauty and bounty of nature.
The celebration will continue tomorrow and on Saturday in Paris: We will launch the French Urban Jungle book in one of our favorite plant concept stores in Paris, Mama Petula, and present it to the French press and bloggers. And on Saturday we are doing a second book event and plant hanger workshop in the cool Welcome Bio Bazar concept store – if you are in Paris on Saturday, join us. All details HERE!
Summertime! Time to leave our urban jungles and go on a well-deserved holiday or visit friends or family. You packed your sunglasses, beach towel and a few books? Then it’s time to prepare your urban jungle for a few days or weeks without your care. Don’t stress, we have some tips so that your houseplants will survive your holiday!
• Find a plant sitter. Ideally, ask someone you trust to take care of your plants. Maybe a neighbour or friend can come visit once a week and give your plants some water and fresh air by opening the windows? Make it easier for him/her by providing some information about how much water your plants need and other specific plant care instructions. Be creative: you can use little flags or stickers to mark plants that need a lot of water, or plants that need extra fertiliser or misting. Even easier: Just make a little video with your smartphone and send it to your plant sitting friend! Also explain what “a lot of water” or “very little water” means: is it one cup per week, or an entire watering can per plant?
• Make sure your plants are healthy. Some plants may need some fresh potting soil or some air in the potting soil (by making small holes into the soil with thin stick, so that water can run through it). Also check your plants for bugs or illnesses. Treat accordingly before you leave. Or place the infested plants in quarantine.
• Group your plants. This makes watering easier for your plant sitter and slightly increases the air humidity if you decide to go for a self-watering option. And bonus points: a #plantgang looks very stylish too!
• Some plants don’t like to be moved, like Ficus plants, so don’t move them just for your holiday. If you really want it to be grouped with your other houseplants, move it gradually during the weeks before your holiday.
• Plants need light and water to stay alive, even more so in the summer when they’re growing. So don’t place your plants in a dark room with the shutters closed! Prefer a fresh room with medium light, without direct sunlight to avoid sunburn.
• Remember: more plants die of overwatering than not enough water, so placing them in a bathtub filled with water is not always ideal!
• Useful tools. There are quite a few tools on the market that can help your plantssurvive a few days or weeks without care. For example: you can find automatic watering systems at any garden center, that give your plants little drops of water. These automatic irrigation systems often have programmable settings that can be customised to provide for your plants when you are away. But there are also some reliable non-electric, more stylish solutions for your plants. Below you find some of our personal favorites:
• Waterworks is a natural hydration system, consisting of a partially glazed terracotta cone and a glass bulb with a cork stopper.
• Bjorka Design WET POT uses the same idea of glazed and unglazed terracotta and glass as the Waterworks bulb above. The terracotta plant pot basically bathes in the glass water container and soaks up water according to its needs. We love using it for water-loving plants like Pilea peperomioides. Works like a charm!
• Parrot FlowerPoweris a Y-shaped connected device that keeps track of water, sunlight and fertiliser and uses Bluetooth to send you information on your smartphone. Parrot also launched a self watering plant pot earlier this year, called the Parrot Pot which integrates this technology directly into the plant pot.
• Shoelace method: All you need for this is a glass, mug or any other vessel filled up with water and an old shoe lace. Fill the glass with water, place one end of the lace into the glass and the other end in the soil of your plant. The shoe lace transports the water slowly from the vessel to the plant pot and secures a constant hydration without overwatering your plant. Perfect and easy! A simple method for smaller houseplants.
• Lucie Kaas GRO pots are both stylish and practical. The plant pot is made of heavy ceramics in three different colourways: laurel oak, gun metal and red mahagony, and are placed on a mouth blown glass bowl in the same colour. The ceramic pot is unglazed at the bottom and has small holes which allow to soak up the water from the bowl and provide for the plant at all times.
• Elho Aqua Care is a very simple and easy tool to water your plants. Simply fill the water reservoir and plant it in the pot to give the plants the correct level of water required.
• IKEA PSselfwatering plant pot set. It’s a big plant pot that works really well for larger plants that require water regularly like Calathea plants, Marante or palms. You simply fill the large white pot with water before you leave on holiday and it will be enough for at least a few weeks. The terracotta pot inside will soak up the water and keep your plant happy and a live. It comes with a large plant stand that adds some height to your plant.
• Water retaining gel, plant water crystals, or Hydro gel. This is a not an organic method, as the crystals contain polymers, so it’s not a method we use very often. The gel or crystals contain up to 3 weeks worth of water. You simply pose them on the soil, or mix them with the upper layer of the soil if you don’t like how jelly they look. They absorb and release water throughout your holiday. We advise to test this before you go on holiday, so that you find out the exact amount of gel that your plants need.
• The Lander Planter, just launched on Kickstarter. It’s a stylish self-watering plant pot with a mid-century vibe with its plant stand in walnut or maple. Support this project by purchasing your Lander Planter now and you’ll be fine for the next holiday.
Now head off towards the horizon and enjoy your holiday! Your plants will live!
Please note this is NOT a sponsored post, we genuinely like and use the products featured in this post.
