Point Loma: Party animals, er, plants

Today’s guest photographer Genevieve Petre says she “was on a New Years day walk and strolled upon these party animals” in Point Loma, San Diego, California. This hilarious picture has inspired me to make “post-holiday plants” the theme for this weekend’s posts.

Amsterdam: Ivy devouring abandoned bike

The photographer of today’s startling urban plant picture, titled Nature wins, is Cécile Obertop. Not surprisingly, she lives in Amsterdam, one of the most bike-centric cities in Europe. While I think it’s great that much of the population commutes by bike instead of driving, which you’d think could only mean good things for the environment and contribute to a clean, green city, talking to Cécile about this picture made me realize that the bike situation is not always a bed of roses.

San Francisco: Urban gardens, tree art and “parklets”

The urban greening report from San Francisco continues! Last weekend on our walks around the Mission, we learned about two initiatives that are transforming the city’s streets and sidwalk. First, on Alabama Street at 24th in the Mission district, after eating terrific pan dulce at the La Victoria bakery, we admired a sidewalk-greening project in which residents have removed some cement on the mostly paved-over sidewalk area to create little urban gardens. A sign explained that fully paved sidewalks lead to poor drainage, while open spaces within the sidewalk are both pleasant and practical, absorbing rainwater.

San Francisco: Happy New Year with Double Avocado Fortune

Happy New Year! I’m sending you all my sunniest greetings for the new year, and apologies for the long silence. I escaped gray Berlin for three sunny weeks driving up and down my home state of California, meeting with my Urban Plant collaborator Sara in picturesque Napa Valley and spotting urban plants all along the way!

Marseille: Fortressed potted plants

Here’s a photograph made in sunny November Marseille a few weeks ago. While visiting the three fortresses near the mouth of the old harbor, Vieux Port, I noticed this window, which appears to have been added to the fortress wall rather recently. The room inside looks homey, with potted plants and framed pictures. I wonder if it’s the caretaker’s office, or living quarters? The plants are twice-confined, but look to be at peace with their lot in life.

Berlin: Houseplant in holiday mode

If you are a person of patience, or need a reminder that time is cyclical, get a Christmas cactus. Like most flowering plants, it blooms but once a year. But how it blooms! In contrast to its usual compact, green, nondescript form, my plant dons so many bodacious red blossoms each December that it literally doubles in size. Thank you to Oma Uschi for giving us this plant four years ago. As you can see from this recent photo, it’s still going strong.

What about you, readers? Any of you have winter-blooming plants in your lives?

London: Larger-than-life plant street art

Today’s Urban Plant was photographed by one of my favorite photographers on Instagram, @akafrank. He spotted this mesmerizing street art on Felix Street in Cambridge Heath, London. Here’s the exact location on Google Maps.

Berlin: Autumn comes to a close, even indoors

Recently, I noticed that even my houseplant is losing leaves. As fall comes to a close, it seems to be happening in my apartment as well as outside. The Christmas season has arrived here too, meaning that our potted Norfolk Pine is having its annual star turn as a Christmas tree. It may look a bit odd, but it’s nice not to have to throw out a Christmas tree in January and the pine makes an amiable roommate during the rest of the year.

Lyon: Screened-out plants

Walking in the workaday neighborhood of Part Dieu on a trip to Lyon recently, on my way to the famous Les Halles food markets, I was struck by a tableaux that I had to stop and photograph.

Adalbertstr., Berlin-Kreuzberg: Plant and pipes

This intrepid plant caught my eye with its bright green color as I was walking down Adalbertstraße in Kreuzberg the other day, not far from the petting zoo. Isn’t it amazing how it totally defies the gray-and-black palette of its stony and metallic surroundings with its radiant color?