A piano flowers and grows in Brighton and Hove

 

This old piano, exploding with ivy and potted flowers, stands on a sidewalk in Brighton and Hove, UK. A passing urban plant aficionado shared it with us, asking to remain unnamed. Thank you, friend!

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First walk in Lichtenberg, with nettles and a rainbow

We made our first urban plant expedition in Lichtenberg today. Yesterday, Sara and I moved into the Lichtenberg Studios in Berlin where we are in residence this week. Our first order of business today was to explore the neighborhood on foot and see what kind of plants, parks, flower shops, green spaces and other urban nature we might find. Here are some of the things we saw, smelled, observed, tasted…

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Copenhagen airport: Takeout plants

Why do these plants appear to be planted in takeout containers? They caught my eye during a recent trip via Copenhagen’s stylish airport. At first I thought they were bamboo, and ethnic stereotyping was at work in some weird way, but they are some other tall, grassy plant which I couldn’t identify. Any ideas?

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Lund, Sweden: winter in the botanical garden

Winter may not seem like the best time to visit a botanical garden. It’s cold, the trees look stark and leafless, and the smaller plants look, well, pathetic. But as I recently saw in Lund, Sweden, a garden in winter holds other other surprises…

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Taxco, Mexico: Aloe with baby bows

Happy New Year, plant friends! Thanks for your patience with our silence during the holiday season. Let’s kick off the new year with a reader photo. Responding to the bound agave photo we posted recently, Phyllis Fong sent in this photo of a plant that’s been tied up much more gently. Why? Well, that has her perplexed… and us too.

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Berlin: Agave, captured and tied up

From Berlin’s science and tech campus in Adlershof, this picture was sent in by Marko Förstel, who recently encountered a large newcomer among the plants in the oval lobby of an office building on Albert-Einstein-Straße.

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Window box dreams on Local Ecologist

Georgia over at local ecologist is featuring window box gardens from different urban plant bloggers around the world, from Tokyo to London. I’m honored to be today’s guest blogger, musing on my window box garden dreams. Read more in my guest blog post at local ecologist.

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Berlin: Restaurant plants before opening time

In this restaurant in Berlin-Friedrichshain the other day, in the morning before the restaurant had opened for the day, a crew of plants were chilling in the window, from oranges to orchids.

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Kyoto: No Parking (except for plants)

Only plants may park on this driveway, on a small street of souvenir shops and lunch spots on Kyoto’s famous Philosopher’s Walk, leading to Ginkakuji, the silver temple. The Philosopher’s Walk is full of cherry blossoms in the spring, they say; in winter, there are other plants to be seen.

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Kyoto: Very organized plants

For lack of yards, many Kyoto houses and apartment buildings feature jury-rigged container gardens instead. These usually consist of rows of motley pots and crates lined up along the building walls, adjoining the sidewalk. This container garden had a different feel.

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