Urban Jungle: Living and Styling with Plants

by Igor Josifovic, Judith De Graaff

Urban Jungle is a book packed with green inspiration, plant styling ideas and handy plant information for anyone who wants to bring more greens into their homes and daily lives. This book will take you on an inspirational voyage through green homes across Europe showcasing how beautiful, individual, creative and sometimes even arty green living can be. Moreover, this book offers a plethora of easy-to-copy plant styling ideas for your home presented by a fine selection of international Urban Jungle Bloggers. Additional plant profiles and simple plant care tips will further strengthen your desire to add a new green friend to your home immediately. Lean back and buckle up for a fantastic green journey!

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Plants, Nature, Interior Design, Reference, Art

176 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2016

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been tending to plants for a few decades by now, swinging rather wildly between orchids, cacti and other plants as I moved from one place to the next, customizing the lot to whatever new conditions I happened to stumble on: direct or indirect light, dry air or not, wide or narrow windowsills, etc. I've also been known to give away beautiful plants that I'd successfully nurtured for years just to make room for some new ones. And whatever I pick up, to this day I always study the hell out of a plant if I'm less familiar with it so I can try to replicate its natural conditions. Plants have been part of my life since I was a kid - and hey, that was a while back.

In that sense, you could say I hardly needed yet another book on houseplants, but this one caught my attention and it proved a great read. It's also an easy read: Urban Jungle is no plant compendium, and while it features a few species in greater detail, the book never intended to pass for a thorough guide. What you get instead are beautiful and contemporary portraits of European homes and their occupants - people and their plants - carefully chosen and presented to reflect smart living by current-day standards. The friendly tone hits just the right note, the pictures are gorgeous (and plentiful) and the publication should speak to the younger, connected crowd. This is a quality book that reads like a magazine, really. Beginners will develop confidence browsing it, while more knowledgeable gardeners will enjoy the many decor ideas it tosses around and the tasteful, simple approach.

Lots of inspiration in there. A fun project and a job well done!

[Grace Leneghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical coffee-table book. Beautiful aesthetically but lacking in narrative. Really inspirational images though of what I’d love my dream apartment to look like (essentially filled with dozens of different kinds of plants).

[Maryna Ponomaryova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Це дуже красива і якісно зроблена книга. Але вона більше для візуального задоволення. Там є конкретні поради щодо догляду за деякими рослинами, але багато повторів, і від цього скаладається враження, що читаєш бложек написаний для SEO. Найцікавіші - коротенькі майстеркласи на один розворот, як зробити підвісний горщик, поличку під квіти, і тд, але це теж можна просто нагуглити. Раджу дарувати любителям рослин просто для естетичного задоволення, або ж собі на журнальний столик, щоб дивитися на красиві рослини без потреби їх заводити.

[Eline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this book. It has nice stories of fellow plant collectors. It also has a lot of information on a couple of common houseplants, which I (caretaker of about 80 plants) found enlightening. I also loved the DIYs in the book. Bonus points for the wonderful illustrations at the beginning of each chapter and the nicely designed lay-out of the book.

[Eline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een origineel boek om in huis te hebben. Prachtige foto’s en duidelijke uitleg bij de planten. Verwacht geen grote informatieve teksten, maar kort en bondige teksten. Magnifieke foto’s van het interieur van plantenliefhebbers.

[Melanie Mathias · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has lovely photographs in it and is very easy to read. Now I need to buy some plants!

[Kerry Crabbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked this out at the library and I loved it so much, I’m going to buy it.

[Олена Рябченко · Rating 4 out of 5]

Погортати і позалипати на гарні фотографії та ілюстрації. Не книга для читання, бо читати там не дуже є про що.

[ManDIY's Life · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein wundervolles Buch, das ich am liebsten gleich nochmal lesen möchte!
Aber Achtung! Pflanzenkauf vorprogrammiert! :P

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich glaube, dieses Coffeetable Book weiß selbst nicht so ganz genau, was es sein will. Sind die Bilder auch noch so schön, rangiert der Inhalt vom Makramee-DIY über "warum hast du Pflanzen"-Interviews mit Designern und Fotografen bis hin zu halbherzigen "Styling-Tips" alá "Der Mix aus modernen Pflanzkübeln und Flohmarkt-Funden macht optisch eine spannende Mischung". Ah ja.
Wirklich neue, in die Tiefe gehende Infos zu Planzen kriegt man hier nicht, sondern eher denglische Beschreibungen von Pflanzen-"looks", die man so auch in der Brigitte finden könnte und sich auch innerhalb des Buchs schmerzlich oft wiederholen.

Fazit: Eye Candy ja, Coffetable ok, für Menschen, die gerne umfangreiche Pflanzeninfos erhalten und interessante Artikel lesen möchten, eher meh.

[Anna Goldina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Красивая книга, но без полётной информации.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book for plant lovers with lots of styling ideas and also lots of information of various potted plants and how to keep them.
The couples/families chosen could've been a bit more diverse. It's all very white and hetero-normative including having either cats or kids lol

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Минимум информации по уходу, но хороший источник для поиска идей. Можно дарить любителям растений как идеальную coffee table book.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos!

[Martina P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely coffee-table book about city apartments filled with plants.
Authors are bloggers and part of the "Urban Jungle Bloggers" community so they wanted to do some green topic month for their blog and asked other blooggers to join them. Few months later that had a lot to see : how people live and style their homes with plants, from Europe, United States, Brazil even New Zeland.
As they say it's a source of inspiration, ideas and a manual for all of those who want to bring more plants into their home. To complete the topic of indoor plants the book offers easy help for taking care of the plants and DIY tips.
Really lovely.
Would love to flip through it in my own home and use some tips and tricks from it for my plants.

[brightredglow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book in the way that I like reading books on fashion. I don't know if I could actually do the kind of gardening and plant styling that is shown in this book but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of seeing what others do with plants.

[Стася · Rating 3 out of 5]

достаточно капитанские вещи, маловато практики, ну зато может какие-то подсказки интерьерные, да фотки. Хотя можно было пинтерест полистать 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 for me. It's a perfectly mid coffee table book.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is stylish and has some nice ideas on plants and plant styling. But it is low on information beyond the styling, and is poorly organized. There is no index and useful information is spread randomly across the book’s contents. (I did appreciate the list of stores at the back.) More importantly though was realizing just how white it is; every family featured in the book is Caucasian, and even the artwork features white people. I would really have liked to see some diversity. Surely there are Black, Asian, or other BIPOC urban jungle lovers out there, and feels like an oversight for a modern book.

[Christen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read!! Part coffee table book. Part interior styling guide. Part DIY book for plant stuff. Part plant guide for common houseplants. Part interview of urban jungle enthusiasts (and a peek into their homes).

The authors believe that there is no such thing as a “black thumb”. They might have convinced me! Now I want to go get a plant...or two and create my own urban jungle!!

I bought the book as a reference for painting potted plants. I have lots of new ideas and I know I’ll be flipping through this book many times in the future!

[Jia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a coffee table book - featuring beautiful pictures of houses & plants by families from different places in the world. There are some basic care tips about the plants featured and some background stories about the families but it lacked depth (after all, it's more of a interior design book!). I enjoyed looking at the pictures, and stealing a tip here and there to style my plants! There are also some DIY projects in the book that are simple to follow.

A fun read and a book to pick up if you're seeking for inspiration to greenified your space!

[Maryalene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was more like 3.5 stars for me, but I am rounding up to 4.

I found Urban Jungle to be more inspirational than informative. The meat of the book is profiles of four families across Europe which show how plants fit into their lives. The book does have some basic care tips and plant-related craft ideas, but it is mainly about beautiful pictures of plants in people's homes. It inspired me to do something about the wilting peace lily in my living room so I liked the book if for no other reason than that.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate that this book starts out by saying exactly what it is - design inspiration, not a how-to of plants.

And that’s exactly what you get. Beautiful photographs and creative ideas burst through the pages with various techniques used to blend plants into decor. I found myself taking pictures of several pages to save ideas for later.

I wouldn’t recommend to a friend trying to learn more about houseplants, but I would to a friend who already knows what they are doing and just wants inspiration.

[Julia Dove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, the book is a nice introduction to decorating with plants, with useful interior design suggestions and ideas for easy care plants to buy. I bought most of the plants they cover in the extensive profiles, and I can confirm they are reasonably easy to take care of. Besides the Calatheas...stay away of those gorgeous plants if you're a newbie like me! You'll probably need another book that covers plant care more thoroughly, but I still think this one is an accessible and inspiring introduction for a newbie.

[Luc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Čítala som túto knihu síce v češtine, nie v angličtine, no nič to nemení na tom, že je to asi najkrajšia rastlinná kniha akú doma mám! 🌿 Už veľmi veľakrát som si ju len listovala a kochala sa úžasnými fotkami interiérov plných rastlín. Nielenže je táto kniha veľmi pekná, ale obsahuje aj veľa nápadov a typov na dekorácie a tiež stručné informácie o vybraných rastlinách. Asi by som nevedela nájsť na tejto knihe nekakú chybu💚

[Oksana Naumchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Красиво, звичайно, але у мене лишилося відчуття якоїсь поверховості розповіді. Книга радше для дизайнерів інтер'єрів, аніж для тих, хто дійсно зацікавлений життям рослин у домі. Мене щиро дивують розставлені в глибинах кімнат незчисленні вазони і згадки про те, що та чи та рослина добре очищає повітря. Та й захаращеність наведених осель милими декоративними штучками мене радше дратувала, аніж надихала.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book, one of the best of the plant books I requested from the library. It's light on useful/practical information like plant care (a few species are highlighted), this book is more of something that you page through for enjoyment and to get ideas. I love all of the homes and collections shown.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually I read books for pleasure and enjoying being swept away to another time and place. On this book, however, I wanted to be right here and now (or rather at the nursery) getting my own Urban Jungle in place. The visuals were inspiring and I'm looking forward to bringing live plants into my own living space!

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the colours and photos in the book - it serves more as inspiration for interior design rather than a manual for plant care. I was a bit dissapointed that even the design tips included rather simple phrases like "choose interesting pots" or "put more plants together". Its a typical coffee table book, I loved going through it but I didnt learn new things.