I have a confession to make. I’m not very good with houseplants. It’s not that I can’t keep them alive, they are not dying, but they aren’t exactly thriving either. I always forget to water my plants, but luckily, most plants like to have the soil dry out a bit before being watered again. Apparently, most people are deathly afraid of under-watering their plants and tend to over-water!
At least that’s one problem I don’t have and that’s probably why we still have plants in our home. That, and having plants that are difficult to kill, like a yucca plant that has been with me since university.
One of my favourite things to do is to go plant shopping. I always look for beautiful plants, already in a pot, without giving much attention to the care that they need. Once home, the plant will never look as pretty as it did in the store.
That’s the reason why I hesitated to join the Urban Jungle Bloggers. I do love plants, though! It’s good to bring a little piece of nature into your home or office. People are happier and healthier around plants.
Urban Jungle Bloggers
Urban Jungle Bloggers is a project initiated by two bloggers, Igor Josifovic of Happy Interior Blog and Judith de Graaff of JOELIX.com. Igor and Judith share a passion for plants and want to encourage people to bring some green into their homes, by showing that growing plants isn’t that difficult and that’s it’s fun.
After one collaborative blog post by Igor and Judith, other bloggers asked if they could join in. Now, many bloggers from around the world share ideas to create an urban jungle through styling ideas, DIYs, and green tips & tricks.
Each month there is a different theme, and September’s topic is ‘Plants & Art’: show your plant in combination with art in your home.
Fern
This plant is a fern, to be precise, a Phlebodium. I have been told that ferns are the new succulents. I both have ferns in my garden, they were already there when we bought the house, ànd in my home, so I must be a trendsetter. Just like succulents, ferns com in many different ways. This one is a blue fern with beautiful, feathery leaves, that are more grey than blue.
The Phlebodium is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. It’s a very strong plant, it only needs watering once a week, indirect sunlight and a weekly spraying with water. As a bonus, ferns also purify the air, so it’s healthy to have a fern in your home.
Chair
The wooden chair is made by Klaas Gubbels, a painter and sculptor with a special love of coffee pots. He is best known for his still-lifes of tables, chairs and coffee pots and uses these objects over and over again. He also makes large murals and sculptures, mostly using the same subjects. We bought this chair at an exhibition in our hometown.
Are you thinking of adding some green to your home this autumn? Maybe even a fern? If I can keep it alive, so can you! You can find a lot of green inspiration on the Urban Jungle Bloggers Pinterest board.
If you want to join the Urban Jungle Bloggers community you can find out how on their website. You can also join via Instagram, by tagging your pictures with #urbanjunglebloggers. See you next week!
P.S. If you weren’t able to make it to the flower parade I wrote about last week, you can see pretty amazing pictures of the floats over here.
Hello Pauline – so nice to see your beautiful styling and photography here and am enjoying the story of the Urban Jungle Bloggers. I love how the pot your fern is in matches the chair in both color and texture. And is that a tiled floor? T’s so lovely. It all ties together so nicely!
I love ferns too, although the only ones I have are in my garden. They need little attention for most of the year, but in summer they require watering almost everyday. I planted three different varieties just to see how each would do, and they have all survived nicely. I planted them in a shady area because here in Oregon ferns grow under the shade of trees in the national forests and I figured that was the right way to plant them. I’ve been meaning to get more for the garden but haven’t yet. Maybe someday.
Hi June,
Thank you for taking the time to respond! It is a tiled floor, the tiles are Portuguese. I love them!
Ferns do need a shady spot, we have lots of shade in our garden and the ferns are doing just fine. No need to water them, but hey, this is Holland, not Oregon 😉