Plant care is more fun with nice gear. Invest in beautiful accessories to make your plant-care sessions even more pleasant: a lovely watering can, special gardening shears, little spades, watering bulbs and more. Plant care will not only be more fun, but more stylish too! These are some of our current favourite watering cans:
Secretly we are counting the days. It is still November but the atmosphere is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Shops are decorated, the fairy lights are hung, we even spotted some early Christmas trees here and there. A few more weeks and the festive season is fully upon us! Like last year we compiled a Green Gift Guide for you that is totally Urban Jungle Bloggers approved! From handy plant accessories to decorative items inspired by botanicals – the range is great and features something for every taste and budget. For this guide we asked help from all of you following us on Instagram and we received so many cool suggestions: we could easily fill 10 gift guides with planty products! Thank you for that!
Of course we just had to include the Urban Jungle Book in the gift guide too – after all we believe it is a fantastic addition to any plant loving home. And it’s available in five languages now (English, German, French, Dutch and Czech), There is no excuse to not start your green gift hunt! Here is a fantastic list of 25 green gifts for plant lovers at your service! Happy gift shopping!
1 — Orange Beaded plant hanger XL by Plantbaby Studio 2 — Enamel Pins (Begonia maculata, Peperomia Watermelon, Pilea Peperomioides…) by Little Lands 3 — Monstera presentation board in oak by BQuatre on Etsy 4 — Plant Console with modular table legs and cactus in terracotta pot by TIPTOE x Bergamotte 5 — Our Urban Jungle Book, available in English – Deutsch – Français – Nederlands – Český 6 — Diamond watering can by Garden Glory 7 — Porcelain table top planter by Convivial 8 — Green Dexter plant “vase” with light by Spruitje Amsterdam 9 — Botanical wrapping paper to wrap your gift by Evans & Hall 10 — Handmade Cactus mug by Bexxdesign on Etsy 11 — Leather iPhone sleeve with botanical print on inside by Keecie via BoomBoomShop 12 — Cibele Plant Stand by OK design 13 — Soft bucket (plant pot cover) in Roof Garden design by Skinny LaMinx 14 — Plant jewelry in brass (Orangutan, Chameleon, Sloth) by Another Studio 15 — Glazed ceramic plant pots “Nelis” (also available in wall or table versions) by Wildernis Amsterdam 16 — The Cradle Propagation Holder by Hilton Carter 17 — I will survive tote bag by Kira Gulley (for every tote bag purchased they plant one tree!) 18 — Plants! Throw Blanket by Calhoun & Co 19 — Favourite Plants Print by Frida Clerhage 20 — Echeveria Succulents Bedding Set by Vandijck 21 — Trigona Plant hanger by DraadZaken via The Botanical Room 22 — Silver Succulent Ring hand cast from a real(!) succulent or cactus by SaltFoxDesigns on Etsy 23 — Standing Half Moon Planter by Urban Outfitters 24 — Neoprene cachepots (plant pot cover) by Pijama 25 — Plant shelfie & mirror Lustro Halo by Bujnie
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)
See why and start something bright! OSRAM Opto Semiconductors – despite the very techy name – provide a rather simple solution to solve the aforementioned challenge! They offer special LEDs for horticultural lighting which will provide optimal growing conditions for your plants – whether they suffer of a lack of light due to the season or …
Currently the autumn days here in Europe are truly glorious. But we are not only enjoying the sunshine outdoors, we are also prepping our plants for the upcoming colder and certainly darker autumn and winter days. Why? Because light is a crucial factor to keep your plants thriving and happy especially during the colder and gloomier season. But how can we assure our plants get sufficient light to stay happy and not suffer of a lack of light? This question requires both, the plant geek and the tech geek in you. See why and start something bright!
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors – despite the very techy name – provide a rather simple solution to solve the aforementioned challenge! They offer special LEDs for horticultural lighting which will provide optimal growing conditions for your plants – whether they suffer of a lack of light due to the season or whether they are placed in a room without a window. They provide the special LEDs which are then part of luminaires offered by other brands. Now you might wonder: Why is it pink light? Let us have a look at that too.
The pink light is something that we perceive with our human eye. In fact it is a mix of different ratios of wavelenghts between deep blue, hyper red and far red providing the right mix of wavelengths to stimulate photosynthesis. OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is a highly experienced company when it comes to LED solution. Their expertise stems from years and years of experience in various business fields, among them horticulture. As a big player they think of solutions for growing food on larger scale, urban farming, and other aspects of horticulture. But their solutions are equally practical and available for the small-scale urban jungle fan through buying luminaires that include their LEDs. Growing plants at home requires adequate light too after all.
But we do not want to just talk about facts here. We actually received one set of horticultural lights equipped with OSRAM OS LEDs to test ourselves. Judith installed the light fixture in her home and provides her plants with an extra dosis of light for growth. Now we don’t have any long-term results yet, but it looks promising. A not so bad side effect is the light show you get – a warm and cosy pink glow in your plant corner!
The various LEDs not only foster a good photosynthesis of your plants, they also assure an even growth in height and width. Think of certain succulents during wintertime or when placed in darker corners – what happens to them? They stretch out towards the light. They become wonky, long, with bigger gaps bewtween the leaves. To avoid such growing peculiarities you need to provide optimal light – be it natural or artificial if needed. For this (among other reasons) the OSRAM Opto Semiconductors LEDs are ideal.
Neoprene cachepot by Pijama
This lighting fixture is not something you’ll find right now in a shop. In fact it is a development kit that we got for a first test. Horticulture luminaires for home use are just starting to be offered on the market – this may increase as more plant enthusiasts like us want to use them indoors. As a highly professional technical device it is meant to perform in the best way possible and assure the plants are thriving. Whether you place the lighting fixture as a hanging solution or just next to the plants on a sideboard – it is up to you. You can also think of decorative ways of camouflaging the LED box given that the light is unobstructed and disperses evenly. And frankly: This kind of solution makes us really feel like top-notch plant geeks! Go the extra mile for your plants’ happiness and start something bright – with the new horticultural lighting by OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.
This blogpost has been brought to you in collaboration with OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. As always all opinions and photos are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands who support this blog!
Let’s be frank and clear: We all love our houseplants. No matter if it is a small one, a big one, a crooked one, an oblong one. They are all beautiful the way they are. Still with a few accessories we can always accentuate the plants’ beauty and incorporate them seamlessly into our interior style. Plant stands are one way of playing with the plant’s height and visual appearance. Ranging from DIY plant stands like in ourUrban Jungle book over mid-century plant stands to contemporary options – the choice is all yours! We have curated 8 favorite plant stands (not to mention that we love the DIY plant stand from the Urban Jungle book). Here we roll:
1 – Plant Stand magician Eric Trine welded this rad stand! 2 – Iris planter and chevron stand by West Elm 3 – Plant stand by Søstrene Grene (available as of September 7th 2017) 4 – Cibele Plant Stand by OK design 5 – Wire Pot by Norm Architects for MENU 6 – Malia Plant Stand by Ivy Muse 7 – Triangle leg Metal Plant Stand by MrKitly 8 – b. for up plant pot and stand by Elho
This is not a sponsored post. We genuinely <3 the products above!
