They’re finally here! The new “Plant Collectors” by publishers of design products VIJ5 are now available! At the end of last year, VIJ5 co-founder Anieke showed me a preview of the new cylinder plant pots that she designed with her VIJ5 co-founder Arjan. They are made of aluminium and coated with a special textured powder coating, which is also suitable for outdoor use. A wooden disk functions as a sturdy and beautiful “base” but also allows to connect the pots. The slim and tall pots are super sleek and modern and rather understated. You first see the plant and then the tall pot…
To accentuate the height of the Plant Connectors I picked two tall Alocasia Macrorrhiza for the tallest pots, and a young Monstera deliciosa and this Alocasia Polly for the lower pots:
Because the Plant Collectors don’t have a drainage hole, I added a layer of pebbles on the bottom of all pots. Of course you can also choose to place the plant with its grow pot inside the Plant Collectors, but I don’t like the look of a grow pot peeking out from a high quality pot. There is a hole on the bottom of the aluminium pot though, which allows you to use it without the oak disk and thus have a drainage hole. This works particularly well if you use the pots on the balcony or in the garden, as the oak disks are only suited for indoor use. For now I’ll slightly under-water the plants and regularly check the roots for signs of root rot.
This is what the VIJ5 Plant Collectors look like in our new guestroom. They give the tall Alocasia some extra height, which is something I always look for when styling a “plantgang”. A few tall plants give the group some height, then you add different textures, interesting pots and work with a nice color palette. Now that I look at it, I could even connect the lower pots to the tall pots and create two super high plant pots for the Alocasia Macrorrhiza!
Then I connected the two smaller pots together with the 2cm oak disk: it has a beautiful proportion in relation to the tubes. The bolts, nuts and rubbers used to connect the wooden disks to the tubes make them waterproof, so no leakage.
As publishers of design products, VIJ5 brings together a personal collection of design objects for the home. You may have seen some of their designs on the blog before, like in this post from Maison & Object in 2017.
In their own words: At the base of everything is designing beautiful and functional products for the interior. We collect concepts that touch us and bring them together in a personal collection. We then translate these concepts into producible products. We ensure that the products are made with care by professionals and finally we share the products with the world. Which means they work with a lot of different Dutch designers and have full control over the production of the items. All design products from VIJ5 come with a “Material Passport”, so you know exactly where all parts were sourced, produced, treated or mounted. The Plant Collectors are entire made in The Netherlands. The main materials are aluminium and oak wood, which are recyclable and make the pots a sustainable product. However the most sustainable products are the ones you actually use, keep (+ love) and use again.
The color coating of the Plant Collectors has a fine structure, that makes them look and feel a bit like terracotta. Similar to what we actually did to the cover of the Plant Tribe book. It feels like a terracotta plant pot and looks good when surrounded by plants and real terracotta pots.
The oak disc is milled from solid oak and then treated with OSMO hardwax oil:
This blogpost was created in collaboration with VIJ5, but all images & opinions are my own, as always. Thank you VIJ5 for creating these beautiful products!
