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How Houseplants Enrich Your Home And Boost Your Health

Houseplants have always enjoyed some degree of popularity. After all, for centuries our ancestors spent more time outdoors than in. The desire to be surrounded by nature is in our genes.

Unfortunately, many homes are void of any live greenery whatsoever. Some don't even have artificial plants, making for a rather sterile appearance.

Every so often, someone tells me that she won't buy houseplants because she is sure she will kill them. Or, he doesn't have time to bother with them. And so on.

The happy truth is, that a range of houseplants exist for every level of indoor gardener, from the "brown thumb" to the veteran houseplant expert that writes books about indoor gardening.

Then there are people like me, who fall somewhere in between the two. I could do okay with the more delicate plants if I wanted to. Frankly, I don't have time to mist leaves every day and prune every week. I prefer houseplants that can sit in a semi-light corner of a room and give me beautiful foliage with minimal care, like this ficus.
ficus tree

[It's sitting up on a chair with a quilt wrapped around it to keep my 2-year-old from playing in the dirt. ;-) ]

Why do I insist on having house plants, despise my lack of time to care for them? My reasons are few, but significant.

Plants add an aesthetic quality to a room that you just can't get from floral drapes. In his book, Seven Layers of Design: Fearless, Fabulous Decorating, interior decorator Christopher Lowell insists on having a plant--either real or artificial--in every room. For him, room decor isn't complete until you have added some greenery in a pot.
Plants soften. Your mood and energy level are affected, in part, by what you see. The presence of plants has a calming effect on your mind, which in turn provides some relief from stress.
Houseplants are less expensive than many other interior decorating accessories. For example, if you have two lush peace lilies or dracaenas on either side of a window, you can easily forgo pricey drapery.
Certain houseplants aid in cleaning indoor air. Studies done by NASA have shown that some plants can help eliminate such air pollutants as benzene, tricholoroethylene, and formaldehyde. And it's not necessarily the leaves doing the work.

In the studies, when the lower leaves of plants were removed, exposing the soil, more chemicals were eliminated from the air. Scientist conclude that the soil bacteria and other biological factors may actually play a larger role in neutralizing the chemicals than the leaves themselves.

Whether the presence of plants actually aids indoor air quality in any significant way is debatable. Personally, I count on my air purifier to clean the air in my home, and any other way the plants add to it I count as a bonus.

Regardless, I would never be without my house plants. Currently, I have two peace lilies, a money tree, a rubber plant, and the ficus you see above. Oh, and I can't forget three pothoses (pronounced pot-hosess) in the master bath. And the three mint plants on my kitchen window.

Oh, yeah, and the bamboo in the family room.

I think that's it. ;-) And yes, they are all low-maintenance. In fact, there are many easy-to-care-for plants available in abundance at nurseries and home improvement garden centers. Following is a list of just a few house plants that are quick to forgive and slow to demand attention.

The cast iron plant requires little light and an occasional watering.
I had a dracaena in my classroom for years. It started out no taller than a foot, and eight or so years later it had multiplied into two plants taller than I (of course, in much larger pots than where the original had started).
The philodendron has the same requirements as the cast iron.
The ficus is said to be not very picky, as is the case with ours. But I've also known people whose ficus lost all their leaves if it was even moved to another room. So you need to be careful which variety you get.
I've had a rubber plant for years. They will do well for you if you are careful not to overwater them. But even if you do, it will eventually recover.
Spider plants are great for hanging in front of windows.
My favorite plant by far is the peace lily. The are extremely forgiving, will give you a pretty white bloom if you give it enough light, and you can easily turn one plant into several after a while.
My second favorite is the money tree. Twice I have had to completely cut it down (once it got exposed to summer sun; the other time I completely ignored it for too long and all the leaves started falling off). Both times it grew back within a few months with even more foliage than before.

May I coach you? If your home is lacking in greenery, try two or three small versions of any of the plants listed above. They will make a noticable positive impact on the environment of your home.

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