Cleopatra

“I found her in the gutter and brought her home to love & cherish. Her name is Cleopatra in memory of that alternative family mum Morticia Addams.

Chris, Petersham

Whiteley & Zebra

“From a small pot on the windowsill, this zebra plant has grown and taken up residence, under the skylight and beside a vibrant Brett Whiteley poster, outside the bathroom. This space has a special lively ambiance and the presence of nature plays an important part.”

Rosanna, Newtown

Staghorn sucker

“Horny Mo-Fo!

I’d like to introduce my horn plant! I was the most prized of birthday prezzies this year! I live on the wall outside at home with snail friends/enemies and my good owners spray me regularly to keep me moist and happy. I’m jealous of Fra n Cesca but I am relatively easy going and a sucker for moist wet corners!”

Andrew, Eveleigh

Succulent kettle

“I took a cutting from someone’s front yard in Bronte while walking home from the beach. I bought the kettle in an op-shop near Barrington Tops. I just trimmed it very dramatically, I couldn’t stop…”

Lee, Mirabelle, Warke & Ubu, Marrickville

Ana’s bromeliads

“These plants are being thinned out from my street garden.
So they are in a pot ready to be replanted after a holiday at Underbelly.
My street garden is 8 years old & now covers a 3-storey factory as well as tubs on the other side of the street.
All the plants & tubs have been scavenged & given by neighbours.
There are doves nesting in the wisteria & cockatoos pruning the Solandra vine on the roof.”

Ana, Surry Hills

Still kickin’ on…

“Still Kickin’ was given to me when I was pregnant with my oldest—- sorry, only baby, who is now 6 months old. I left it at a friend’s place & it has suffered a lot – but there’s one beautiful pink & green leaf, very new & shiny, still going!”

Emma, Redfern

Black Mary’s umbrella

“By 1998, the corpse of “Black Mary” still lay rotting, taking up an entire bay of this building.
Tons and tons of soil were trucked in to form the mountainous backdrop to the story of Australia’s First Aboriginal Lesbian Bushranger. It held great theatrico-socio promise.
If our seating hadn’t collapsed on sponsors’ night, it might have been a different story and Carriageworks in its present gleaming form might not exist … but that’s speculation.
The lake they made downstage of the mountain had long since dried up. The live horses and their riders had disappeared. In their place were the ever increasing piles of waste and building materials from the workers who continued to use the building in its quiet years.
Rats were numerous
The hailstorms had punctured the skylights and let in rain. The rain fell on the mountain of unrealised potential.
Out of the old soil and filth grew this.
The mountain is gone (thank you Sydney Olympic Organising Committee – Ceremonies Department).
But this remains.”

Steve, Redfern

Mr Horizontal

“Mr Horizontal was salvaged from the hard rubbish from just up the street from my house. He was pretty sick & is still lying down”

Marty, Forest Lodge

Alex’s succulent

“This plant came to live with us and is now very happy.”

Alex, Marrickville

Charlotte’s Garden

“Even though I don’t have a garden nature has provided me with these plants that never seem to die, they need very little looking after. I am 83 years old and I have lost much agility that is required to look after a garden. Therefore these evergreen succulents provide me with much pleasure and will do so in the years that I have ahead of me.”

Charlotte, Bondi

Aechmea

“My plant Aechmea is my foster plant. I became its foster mother when my friend Zanny went to Indonesia for a few months. I think it will enjoy its plant holiday in the hanging gardens.”
xx

Claire, Marrickville

Ali’s friend

“I met Sierra when she lived at Lanfranchi’s. She lived in the front room that looked over Cleveland Street. Her room was cozy and colourful and had lots of great light. When she moved to a darker room she really started cultivating the little garden under the stairs and all the poor house plants trying to survive in the warehouse. I think this plant was originally one of them, but I’m not exactly sure. After Sierra moved to a ‘proper house’ I went to visit her and there was this huge plant growing in her bathroom. It was so tall it had reached the ceiling and was beginning to end over with nowhere else to go. She sliced off the top with a knife and gave it to me. ‘Stick it in a pot and it will grow’, she said. I also lived in a new house by this time and was trying to establish a garden in the courtyard so it felt more homely. I stuck the cutting in a pot and it withered and disappeared … Even after six months I couldn’t bring myself to face the fact that it had died … And then miraculously … it came to life … Thank you beautiful Sierra.”
x

Ali, Enmore

Cherie’s ponytail

FRIENDSHIP – LOVE – HOPE
“I love plants. After 7 years in one house, I had many … then there was a house fire … Sitting amongst the ashes a friend asking how I was going I answered that I mostly missed my plants … especially my ponytail plant. In my new house I was beginning to start my new collection … My friend came around with his beloved ‘ponytail plant’. He gave it to me as a token of new beginnings.
What a beautiful friend. Thank you Chris. I gave my plants away when I moved to Sydney … but this one I kept.”

Cherie, Strathfield

Sumu’s little Lucifer

“’Lucifer’ arrived on our balcony one day – he may have emerged from the Jungle or been abandoned by his previous owners – we are also unsure if his current state reflects our neglect or his own nihilistic streak?
Society made him what he is today.”

Sumu, Darlington