Tag: living with plants

When a plantloving textile and ceramics designer from Cape Town, South Africa, launches a textile collection inspired by the plants that she keeps on her studio’s rooftop, we are intrigued. We met Heather Moore in Paris yesterday where she presented her new Roof Garden collection of her brand Skinny laMinx at the beautiful Klin d’Oeil boutique & gallery. The story of the collection starts in Cape Town: behind the Skinny laMinx shop, a steel fire escape leads up to the production studio via a hot, bleak city rooftop. Over time, Heather has been adding plants to this scorched place, transforming it slowly into a spiky rooftop garden, populated with the sculptural forms of heat-loving aloes, cacti, euphorbia & more.

The shapes, colours & shadows of the studio roof garden, thriving in spite of the drought and the harsh urban light, are what inspired Heather’s brand new textile design, called Roof Garden. As you can see, the design consists of a graphic pattern of plant silhouettes that come in 3 distinct colorways: Cairo (burnt orange, pink, cocoa), Miami (lemon, shell pink, cocoa) and Rio (mix of greens).

One of the Tradescantia pallida (purple heart plant-) that inspired the Roof Garden collection:

Heather’s design inspiration comes from midcentury modernism, Scandi simplicity and African style, using patterns, colors and shapes that she notices on her travels and in her daily life (that you can also follow on her Instagram!). Patterns from previous collections can easily be mix and matched with the Roof Garden collection, as the colors are complimentary. Together with the high quality of the fabrics, this makes her products last longer than just one season.

A Butterfly chair covered in the Roof Garden fabric in Rio: 

Meet Skinny laMinx’s designer Heather Moore:

For the Roof Garden lookbook, the Skinny laMinx team visited their friends’ Jo & Stu, who own a 1960’s villa in Cape Town. The perfect setting for this planty fabric collection and it’s also home to an interesting collection of plants, both inside and on the patio. Have a look:

All Skinny laMinx fabric designs can be purchased by the yard to use as curtains, blinds or to upholster a chair. The fabrics are professionally screenprinted with waterbased inks onto a 138cm wide cotton/linen-blend basecloth and are made in South Africa. The fabrics also come in pillow covers as well as cute soft buckets. They easily cover up your boring plant pots and turn them into stylish statement pieces:

The lush green patio of this home from the 1960’s:

We believe the Roof Garden collection is a good fit for a lot of different interior styles: if you are a plant killer, you can add a botanical touch to your home without the risk of killing another plant, or go all-the-way and use the Roof Garden fabrics for a full-on camouflage Urban Jungle Bloggers look:

Photography by Skinny laMinx

Are you getting into the winter blues? It’s been quite a while since we enjoyed mild temperatures and sunny days here in our areas. But today we have a little treat to cure your winter blues – we are adding some vivid colours to our plant gangs in anticipation of spring! When Dutch orchid grower Anthura asked us to team up with them and style their new Stellenbosch orchid in a deep, velvety purple, we were all game. And we asked some of our Urban Jungle Bloggers from around Europe to join in.

Truth be told, our first contributor, Dutch blogger Susanne of Frivole by Suus, is not short of colours in her stylish home. Still she perfectly interpreted the velvet hues in her stylish home – as a single player in front of her colourful walls or as an elegant plant pair in her living room. The Phalaenopsis orchid looks almost like a sculptural design object in this refined home.

British blogger Lori of Wild and Grizzly pairs her purple Stellenbosch orchid with pops of yellow and a mix & match of other plants and plant pots. She features the orchid as part of a playful #plantgang on her desk as well as a decorative statement plant on her mantle. We can’t decide what we like more! Can you?

Igor of Happy Interior Blog created a little and lush tropical garden in his Munich apartment. He matches the deep purple hues of the orchid with soft pink hues of other tropical plants such as the Calathea White Star, an Anthurium, and an Earth Star. The result is a little tropical oasis which feels like a tiny bit of the South Pacific moved to Munich.

The German blogger Sabine of Azurweiss has a signature style – puristic white interiors accentuated with delicate colours and vintage items. With the velvety purple Phalaenopsis Sabine celebrates the vibrancy of spring – her framed postcard says ‘Waiting for Spring’ in German. And adding a dash of colour to our homes makes the waiting a whole lot easier!

Franco-Italian blogger Ilaria of Un Due Tre Ilaria probably enjoys the best winter weather of all our participating bloggers – she lives in the sunny south of France. Yet her style has a distinctive urban touch – a reminiscence of her time in Paris. Her Scandi inspired minimalism merges with lush plants and the Stellenbosch orchid injects an unexpected vibrancy with her purple colour. We think this is a winning mixture! deneme bonusu veren siteler

Judith of JOELIX.com features her Stellenbosch orchids in an impressive plant wall installation – a beautiful plant ensemble made up of cacti, succulents, a dotty Begonia maculata, foraged twigs, and a wonderful collection of ceramics set a visual highlight in her home close to Paris. The purple hues are ideally matched with soft pinks, greens, and natural hues in a bright and airy setting. 

If you love the elegant beauty of a Phalaenopsis orchid, we recommend you check out the video by Bloomifique about how to keep your orchids happy and thriving. Thanks to Anthura for providing all bloggers with the beautiful Stellenbosch orchids and Pottery Direct International for the lovely plant pots.

This blogpost was created in collaboration with Anthura and Bloomifique. As always all opinions are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands who support this blog!

Photography by respective bloggers: Frivole by Suus – Wild and Grizzly – Happy Interior Blog – Azurweiss – Un Due Tre Ilaria – JOELIX.com

English text below! For our French readers, pour nos lecteurs français :
Ce mois-ci on a eu l’honneur d’imaginer une collection capsule pour Bergamotte, connu par ses bouquets splendides livrés à Paris sous 2h et dans les 24 heures en métropole. Pour cette collaboration on a imaginé une “Mini Jungle” avec quatre plantes faciles à faire grandir chez soi. La collection capsule avec le nom Oaxaca dont le nom de la ville mexicaine a inspiré la sélection des plantes : des succulentes robustes, un cactus et un Peperomia forment ce petit jungle pour la ville. 
L’agave “Nana”, très décorative au style un peu punk, l’opuntia “Ficus”, un rappel des vacances autour de la Méditerranée. Les feuilles du beau sedum Burrito tombent facilement, mais ne vous inquiétez pas : après quelques temps de petites racines apparaissent et de nouvelles feuilles poussent. Le peperomia Napoli, poivre nain ou larmes de crocodile (!) surprendra par ses fleurs semblables à des antennes ! Pour recevoir votre mini jungle chez vous, rien de plus simple, sous condition que vous habitez en France, rendez-vous sur le site de Bergamotte pour passer commande. Dans 2 heures (sur Paris) ou 24 heures, vous recevrez un très joli colis avec ces quatre beautés d’une diamètre de 10,5 et 12 cm, livré dans leurs pots en terracotta et avec un petit drapeau aux couleurs d’Urban Jungle Bloggers. Si vous aimez autant votre mini jungle que nous, n’hésitez pas à partager une petite photo sur Instagram avec le hashtag #urbanjunglebloggers car deux fois par jour on y partage les photos les plus inspirantes… peut-être la vôtre ?

We all start small in life. And also with our urban jungles we start small. Sometimes it is one plant that we had for years, sometimes it’s a new plant from the garden center and our passion is ignited. Step by step we then build our own urban jungle. To help you kick off your own urban jungle (at least all of you based in France) we have united forces with the Paris based flower & plant webshop Bergamotte. Together we have curated a ‘mini jungle’ named Oaxaca. The namesake Mexican city was an inspiration for the plant selection: Sturdy succulents, a cactus, and a Peperomia make this unique little urban jungle for the city home.

The Oaxaca mini jungle is available online for all plant enthusiasts based in France. The mini plant gang is comprised of the following beauties: an Opuntia ‘Ficus’ cactus with juicy cactus figs, a spikey agave ‘Nana’, a trailing ‘Burrito’ sedum, and a leafy Peperomia ‘Napoli’ with its rich leaf pattern. All plants are potted in simple yet lovely terracotta pots of 10.5 cm and 12 cm diameter and come with a little Urban Jungle Bloggers flag. The Oaxaca collection adds an instant Mexican vibe to your home with the sturdy greens and matching terracotta pots. Group them together and lay the founding stone of your ever growing urban jungle at home!

Why this plant gang? We think it adds a wonderful green touch to every home – whether you have no plants at all so far or you already own a vibrant urban jungle. This collection features four sturdy plants that are easy to care and will not disappoint. All of them require low to moderate watering and and they will thrive happily in any corner of your home with enough sunlight. There are no special requirements to keep your mini jungle thriving and happy! Why not spice up your sideboard, a book shelf, your coffee table, or windowsill? The start of an own urban jungle is now easier than ever before for you folks in France! You can order the Oaxaca mini jungle online at Bergamotte. And for everybody else we have dedicated an entire chapter on ‘How to start your urban jungle’ in our Urban Jungle book. Grab a copy if you haven’t so far! 

Photography by Urban Jungle Bloggers