Tag: greenery

Green Gift Guide for Plant Lovers

Post author By Judith de Graaff
Post date 25 November 2017

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

Tags bloggers, botanicals, Gift Guide, green friends, greenery, greens, house plants, Houseplants, interior with plants, jungle, living with plants, plant care, plant lovers, plants, shopping, Urban Jungle, Urban Jungle Bloggers, urbanjungle, urbanjunglebloggers

Planty Inspiration Planty Product

Dossofiorito designs for plants

Post author By Igor Josifovic
Post date 2 November 2017

Gianluca Giabardo and Livia Rossi of Dossofiorito

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

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 Dossofiorito

Interview by Laura Drouet, photography via Dossofiorito (Zilio A&C / Matevz Paternoster, Federico Villa, Omar Nadalini)

Tags bloggers, botanicals, dossofiorito, green friends, greenery, greens, house plants, Houseplants, interior with plants, jungle, living with plants, plant care, plants, Urban Jungle, Urban Jungle Bloggers, urbanjungle, urbanjunglebloggers

Planty Product

Start something bright & keep your plants happy

Post author By Judith de Graaff
Post date 24 October 2017

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 …

Urban Jungle Bloggers - Start something bright with Osram Opto Semiconductors

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!

Photography by Urban Jungle Bloggers

Tags bloggers, botanicals, green friends, greenery, greens, house plants, Houseplants, interior with plants, jungle, living with plants, osram, plant care, plants, Urban Jungle, Urban Jungle Bloggers, urbanjungle, urbanjunglebloggers

Event Plant Trends

Plant trends from Dutch Design Week 2017

Post author By Judith de Graaff
Post date 23 October 2017

Urban Jungle Bloggers - Dutch Design Week 2017

We are just back from this year’s Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Dutch design is outstanding and well known across the globe. So it is safe to say that the Netherlands have a certain design DNA similar to their northern neighbours in Scandinavia. Yet, Dutch design is standing out with its unique mix of cool, contemporary, playful, and experimental all at the same time. To get a better understanding and discover the latest green trends from Holland, we set off to a design weekend with a bunch of 15 European design bloggers. Buckle up, here we go!

Our first stop was something like the cell of Dutch design – the breeding ground for young design talents, the Design Academy Eindhoven. Bachelor and master students presented their works on several levels and many of the results floated somewhere between product design, art, and installation. Think of lots of conceptual work with a story behind. We didn’t spot anything particularly green, but you can see some of Judith’s favorites on her blog JOELIX.com.

Another highlight of our design tour was the headquarters of Dutch design icon Piet Hein Eek. The philosophy of Piet Hein Eek to avoid any waste and to recycle and repurpose materials resonates with our understanding of a green and sustainable life. No wonder that the showroom and shop was packed with plants! And the plants seemed to perfectly act as a backdrop for beautiful design pieces like the famous Scrapwood dining tables, repurposed wooden benches for a green patio, as well as lamps and home accessories made of natural materials. Here again, it was more the green context that caught our eye than any specific green design. But the Piet Hein Eek headquarters hosted also several levels of exhibitors, among them young design labels with very cool green designs. Let’s have a look.

Oh before we head to the next design spot, let’s have a coffee break, right? Let’s pick a spot with nice plants – we found this one and loved it big time: Onder de Leidingstraat is a über-cool deli and café in the hip Strijp area.

One of our personal highlights was the work of the yound Dutch design label Spruitje. Igor actually owns one of their first designs – a terrarium lamp in his home, you can see it on Happy Interior Blog. Their latest design is a fantastic propagation lamp with a wooden base, a brass switch, and a sleek glass tube. The lamp has an integrated LED lamp in the base so that the glass tube is illuminated from the bottom. This helps your cuttings to root quicker and look even more stylish in your home. Don’t you agree?!

In the same area we spotted a few more green design highlights. The folks of House of Thol presented their designs, among them their self-watering solution Waterworks. This device is also mentioned in our Urban Jungle book as a solution for easy plant watering. It is not only practical though, it also looks pretty ace: a combination of glass, partly glazed terra-cotta, and a cork stopper.

More green findings: How about a giant glass terrarium? If you have a humongous Bonsai or any other terrarium plant, opt for the giant terrarium called Terra by Sanne Weekers. Pretty impressive!

Ok it is time for another break! We need lunch. So let’s pick a restaurant worth an Urban Jungle Bloggers visit! How about these two options: Kazerne is a very cool and urban space set in a vast hall that combines both, a restaurant and exhibition space. We liked the food of course but we LOVED the plants set in crates and on the counters adding a wild touch to the industrial space.

Another lush spot in town is Stories Eindhoven. Just look at the following picture – do we need to add more words to it? The hanging cacti (Lepismium and Rhipsalis) are just stunning in this restaurant! Definitely a show stopper!

Let’s continue with green design now. We had a little green love affair with the new shelving units by Rotterdam based designer Femke de Witte of Nord Interior Design. Her plant shelf is a perfect addition to any urban jungle offering plenty of space for all kinds of houseplants or even herbs when placed in a kitchen. The contemporary look is accentuated by clean lines and the use of pure plywood and steel.

Another fabulous design from Nord Interior Design is the room divider slash shelving unit. With its organic arch shape it recalls the roaring 1920s, yet its overall look and feel is very contemporary. This was presented as a first prototype but we see a lot of potential for this one, don’t you think so? Eventually the three parts will be connected and this divider will come in handy to separate ares in open space interiors or small homes. Thumbs up!

Studio Carolijn Slottje was also present at the Dutch Design Week. Besides her well known floating air plant medusae, she presented her new Garden Quilt project. It is a creative way to add a green wall – whether in small for a home or as a larger installation for public places.

We hope you enjoyed the little green design tour brought to you from Eindhoven in Holland. The Dutch Design Week tour was organized by our fellow bloggers and friends Holly Becker of decor8 and Desiree Groenendal of Vosgesparis. Thank you both for a fabulous weekend!

Photography by Urban Jungle Bloggers

Tags bloggers, botanicals, green friends, greenery, greens, house plants, Houseplants, interior with plants, jungle, living with plants, plant care, plants, Urban Jungle, Urban Jungle Bloggers, urbanjungle, urbanjunglebloggers

Plant Shop

What the Flower & aKagreen in Paris

Post author By admin_wp@ujb.com
Post date 21 October 2017

What the Flower! A brand new planty location has opened in Paris! Our friend Justine from Sweety Oxalis told us a while ago that she was working on a secret project: a new place where she would combine her love for plants and her job as a hairdresser. She found her ideal location in the 11th district in Paris and worked the entire summer with her team to open their new plant shop and hair salon. We followed sneak peeks on Instagram and saw a giant mirror being hoisted into the space, which made us even more curious of what it would look like. Justine teamed up with aKagreen, an online boutique for plants, and their beautiful space is now open for everyone. Join us for a virtual visit of What the Flower!

If you follow Justine on Instagram you know she loves her plants: Pilea, Monstera, Alocasia and Oxalis… as you can see: all of these are well presented at What the Flower. Two old Monstera deliciosa are the stars of the space and shine with their mature leaves that have a beautiful hole pattern. These two beauties are not for sale, but can be rented for special events. What we love at What the Flower is that you see the “plant preference” and personality of its owner so well. In Paris we’ve seen quite a few new botanical shops open their doors this year (which we listed in our French #urbanjunglebook by the way!) and they all have a completely different personality, audience and price range. We believe there is room for everyone, as long as true passion is involved. Which is clearly the case at What the Flower!

But What the Flower is not only about plants, it is also a real hair salon! The huge mirrors that were installed this summer reflect the light and visuallyy double the amount of plants you can see. And of course they reflect your “new hair” once Justine has done her magic! Justine has been a hairdresser for a over a decade and as a plant lover, she was so fed up with all the chemicals that are typically used to treat and color hair, that she started using more and more natural dies and products. For What the Flower she chose The Hairborist, a bio hair wellness brand that uses 100% natural colors derived from plants, flowers and bark. When we visited, a client just left with a fresh new look for her hair and the color looked amazing, natural glowing and healthy. Well done Justine!

Jungle reflection in the mirror:

As an extra touch of decoration, Justine decided to show off some of the hair care products, especially the ones in powder, that she beautifully lined up in Mason Jars behind the counter. Why hide these organic products when their colors fits the natural color concept of the shop so well?

The massage chair and backwash unit (and Monstera carpet) and the growing botanical curtains in front of the window:

Plantshelfie perfection by Justine:

The teams of What the Flower and aKagreen:

Sabrina, Justine, James, aKa and Lumeau

In the second part of the shop, you can find the workshop and office of aKagreen, an online boutique for lush tropical plants, that are promoted by their cute Shiba Inu mascot aKa. Together with Sabrina and James, the team behind aKagreen, aKa selects the prettiest easy-to-care-for plants that you can order online for your home, shop or office. Delivered by bike or electric car in Paris, and in the rest of France by delivery service. All plants come with personalised care tips to keep them happy and healthy.

And where does aKagreen keep their stock of plants? At their neighbors: startup hub Le Wagon! Students, teachers and co-workers get their jobs done in a true urban jungle office with huge banana trees and ZZ plants. Tons of lush Sansevieria, ponytail palms and Calathea are lined up between office desks and computer screens. They purify the air while people code news apps and software. And it makes the industrial loft look so much better at the same time. Win-win for everyone! We hope more plant businesses will follow this clever example! Oh and if you’re worried about the plants being “destroyed” by people working here? Of course there are casualties sometimes, but everyone is rather respectful. James told us that placing all the plants together in groups (#plantgang alert!) really helps preserving the plants. And it makes plant care and watering so much easier too!