Eclectic Garage And Shed by Hershey Photographers Amy Renea
Did you read yesterday’s post? Ok, we’ll wait while you click here.
Be it ever so lovely there’s no place like home. What’s one thing you can do to your house to make it feel “homey”? Add plants. Greenery. Flowers. They give instant home appeal. This goes for staging your house for sale, as well. Plants make a room more inviting and more inviting gets buyers.
Portland Interior Designers & Decorators Jessica Helgerson Interior Design
Did you know that house plants can improve the quality of air in your house? The air quality in your own home is usually much worse than the outdoor one. Synthetic chemical cleaning products, foam in our furniture and carpet, and other building materials in our houses all emit toxins. Then there is mold, tobacco smoke, poorly ventilated cooking sources… I’m sort of freaking myself out. Open some windows everyone. I’m perusing around the web and a lot of folks concur these are some of the best house plants for air-cleaning (the site I’m looking at right now is DrAxe.com Maximize Your Health):
Areca palm
Reed palm
Dwarf date palm
Boston fern
Janet Craig dracaena
English Ivy
Australian sword fern
Peace Lily
Rubber plant
Weeping fig
Then there is the Feng Shui side to this. Plants bring great energy into your home. Plus, you can’t have good energy in your house if the air quality isn’t good. Bamboo plants create good feng shui AND clean the air in your home. Have you seen the Feng Shui Money Trees in Lowes or Home Depot? I think I’ve seen small bamboo ones even in dollar stores. Well, the logic behind these is any healthy, vibrant lush plant represents vibrant and well-rooted energy—a growing energy you would like to see reflected in your money (check out About.com Feng-Shui). Common ones are jade trees (a succulent) and Pachira Aquatica Bonsai. Do with this as you choose but a plant that can clean toxins out of my house, bring good energy, make my rooms look better, and maybe help me attract money? I’m in.
AND. According to a University of Agriculture in Norway study, indoor plants can reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses by more than 30 percent, partially by increasing humidity levels and decreasing dust.
AND. House plants make people feel calmer and more optimistic, says Bruno Cortis, M.D., a Chicago cardiologist. He says that studies have shown that hospital patients who face a window with a garden view recovered more quickly than those who had to look at a wall. What about watching the news? If I put 600 plants around my TV will I feel calmer over the government shutdown??
All this being said–I’m a plant killer. I try. I do. I water too much, I water too little, I put in direct sun, I put in not enough sun. Sigh. Here’s a list of the hardest plants to kill. I got this list from ivillage.com Clean House Happy Home where you can also see pictures.
Pothos
Aloe
Spider plant
English Ivy (also a good air cleaner)
Jade plant
Rubber tree (love these and also on the air cleaning list)
Diffenbachia
Peace Lily (air cleaning list)
Snake plant
Ficus (don’t do it)
A couple I am skipping because they look really ugly.
Fiddle-Leaf Fig
Areca Palm (This is also on the air cleaning list and I have had one for FOUR years. It still lives!)
I’m going to the store and getting 600 more of these tomorrow. We’ll see if it helps.
Why the “don’t do it” comment after Ficus?? As for difficult to kill, I can certainly vouch for that one! I’ve had my same ficus since I was in medical school!! It has traveled halfway across the country with me and survives repeated droughts and repottings.
Of course, I consider myself a plant killer, too. Besides the ficus, I have only kept 2 other plant-types alive for an extended period of time….a spider plant given to me by my sister-in-law and a pot full of mint – acquired on my (half) cross-country move from an old family friend who sheltered us on our journey.
Because there are so many “bad” fake ones that they make the real ones look bad. And those darn crispy leaves that fall all over the place…