Corpse flower begins to bloom at the Conservatory of Flowers

Terra the titan arum has been the talk of the town this week. She is currently on view at the Conservatory of Flowers where she began to bloom earlier today. I had the chance to check out this rare sight and smell after work. This is what I learned from my visit:

Terra was donated by a San Francisco resident who raised her for four years until she became too big for her owner’s bathroom.

The titan arum is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world and native to Indonesia. A bloom occurs every 7-10 years and the flower emits a strong and foul odor that is often compared to rotting animal flesh in order to attract pollinators. Its putrid smell also gives the titan arum another name – corpse flower. I wonder how the smell compares to durian.

The bloom and smell is said to last for 48 hours and that Terra will be her stinkiest this evening. If you’re local, the conservatory’s hours have been extended for the next few days. There’s also a nice butterfly exhibit next door if the stench gets to be too much.

Plant reporter for scale

For those of you who cannot see Terra in person, you can watch the Corpse Flower Live Stream.

 

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Julius von Bismarck’s pressed plants

These suspended plants were seen on a recent trip to New York at Marlborough Contemporary. German artist Julius von Bismarck created this installation for the exhibit Good Weather. I found it humorous that the concrete column in the middle of the space could be mistaken for a tree trunk. If you look take a closer look, there are a few pressed chickens which I didn’t see until now. For those of you in New York, the show runs until tomorrow, May 20.

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Pencils and paint and urban plants: botanical drawing show at Prinzessinnengarten

You’re invited to the Tiny Haus at the Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin’s coolest community garden (where you can drink beer between trees), for an exhibition this Saturday and Sunday, 2-5pm (September 3-4). Drawings and herbarium specimens will fill the room, made by students from the past two Botanical Drawing Workshops taught by my friend and fellow urban plant lover, Mira O’Brien.

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This Sunday: last chance to see our art in a Berlin park

For a few more days, deep in Berlin’s Neukölln district, you can find an entire exhibition full of art about urban gardens and plants. And the gallery is in an urban oasis, a sunken garden with fountains, lawns and flowers.

Do stop by Körnerpark if you are in town and see Urban Plant Research exhibiting alongside other botanically-inclined artists. The closing reception at 5pm on Sunday, October 11, will include a tour guided by the curator and several of the artists. We sadly cannot be there in person and hope you will represent us if you are in Berlin!

Image from Galerie im Körnerpark’s Facebook page, © Nihad Nino Pusija, 2015.

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Berlin exhibition opens Friday with new video by Urban Plant Research

The exhibition Andere Gärten (Different Gardens) opens this Friday in Berlin and Urban Plant Research is honored to be participating with a new video, Beobachtungen/Observations. We’re especially excited about the show because it is not only about urban gardens, it will be in an urban garden! 

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Our new book: A Lichtenberger Herbarium

If you are ever wandering the streets of Berlin, or another city for the matter, and find yourself wondering about the weeds and wild plants underfoot, you can now reach for this little book. During our residency in Berlin-Lichtenberg last year, Sara collected a herbarium of common wayside urban plants on our walks through the district. 

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Looking forward to Lichtenberg / dance party!

In just a couple days, Sara will arrive in Berlin on for our one-week residency in Lichtenberg. This morning, I picked up the studio keys and took the opportunity to scout out the area for interesting plants. Here are a few things I saw. It looks like we’ll find plenty to explore! So stop by the blog: we’ll be posting about what we find, and where we’ll be working in public spaces around the district.

Also, an interesting Part 2 has just been added to our event next Friday…

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Live in Berlin: an evening with Urban Plants

We have news! In a few weeks, Sara will be traveling from New York to join me for a mini artist residency at Berlin’s Lichtenberg Studios. For one week, we will be exploring the urban plants and people of Lichtenberg, one of the city’s quieter, more old-school districts where the East Berlin atmosphere still lingers.

We warmly invite you to join us on the evening of May 23… 

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Plants in the art of Florian Bong-Kil Grosse

Last week, I saw this photo at Tête, an artist-run gallery in Berlin. It’s part of an exhibition of new work by Florian Bong-Kil Grosse and Unn Fahlstrøm, on view through Sunday. Though Florian’s work in the show is not primarily about plants — it is a series of observations about the way people live in Korean cities — in several images, the photographer’s eye for plants is clear.

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ATAK: the garden in a book

At 5pm today, artist ATAK is introducing his new book, Der Garten, 32 pages of his paintings about the garden. “The garden breathes time and time breathes as a garden. I go to the garden in the evenings to breathe,” he says.

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