Green Plants for Health and Well Being

[SeaBreeze]

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Green plants enliven our homes, providing color and texture to soften living spaces. This kind of “green living” is increasing in popularity as science catches up with what gardeners have known all along—plants can help keep you healthy, make you happy and boost your creativity.


“Growing plants have a calming effect that can help lower blood pressure, reduce levels of stress hormones and keep heart rate at a healthy level,” says Bruno Cortis, MD, cardiologist and assistant professor of Medicine at Rush University in Chicago.


This explains why it’s not just for aesthetic purposes that commercial buildings often include living plants in their designs and that interior decorators recommend including as many plants as space allows in your home décor. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a super-green thumb to grow many species indoors.

Living Air Filters

Almost every residential or commercial space contains air contaminants. They include ammonia (household cleaning products, photocopiers, printers), formaldehyde (carpets, draperies, some furniture, paper towels, gas stoves), benzene (printer ink, paints, floor coverings) and xylene (caulking compounds, paints, wall coverings).


A landmark study conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the 1980s tested 50 houseplants for their ability to remove various toxic gases from the air in enclosed spaces, similar to those found in energy-efficient homes.

Researchers discovered that common species could remove up to 87% of airborne toxins in a 24-hour period. During the process of taking in oxygen from the air, plants remove harmful chemicals that can cause respiratory problems, headaches, drowsiness and irritated eyes.

Read more here: http://energytimes.com/pages/departm...tters1013.html

 

[Happyflowerlady]

This is a great article, SeaBreeze, and I agree with the idea that having the green living plants in the house is healthy and beneficial to our breathing and overall health. Even if they didn't purify the air, just the look of plants in the house makes me feel better, and happier. It is kind of like bringing the outside indoors, and especially in the winter, it helps me feel like spring , and green plants, will be coming back again.
Not to mention that we can grow herbs, and things that we can actually eat, not just look at.

 

[That Guy]

I used to have way too many house plants that caring for them became a major chore. Now, everything grows outside where it's a . . . breeze...

 

[SeaBreeze]

Love those herb planters Happyflowerlady! I like plants in the house, but only have around a half dozen. I have a black thumb, so I have trouble keeping them alive, hubby says I kill them with kindness. Also, not much sun comes into my house, so I have one plant light pole lamp, but the rooms are small and that's all I'm willing to dedicate. I had some nice small Bonsai plants, and they all died on me...heard that they really only thrive outdoors, and not in a cold dry climate like where I live.

 

[atwhatcost]

I'm facing the problem with green plants. Green plants like to be outside in the summer. One of my green plants is an aloe. Mama Aloe had a couple of dozen baby aloes before this summer. Everyone I know (who likes plants) has one of the babies. Mama Aloe got busy this summer and had 24 more babies in three months. I now have 40 "green plants" to bring in, not counting Mama, several Jades, a Luck Bamboo, Donkey Tail, Passionflowers, a succulent I never did find out what it is, the Bay (that is now a bush), the Lanterna and Sweet Potato. That's roughly 60 plants of various sizes to bring in and I only have one western facing window. I'm disabled. Mama Aloe now weighs more than I should pick up, but I can't kill her. She's Mama! I'm facing bringing in 1-3 plants at a time and each one has to go upstairs to that only window or squeeze in under the grow-light in the basement.

Eeek! Indoor green plants. I never thought they'd become a problem when I bought my first one a decade ago. lol

(Anyone want to stop by for an aloe or ten? lol)

 

[atwhatcost]

Love those herb planters Happyflowerlady! I like plants in the house, but only have around a half dozen. I have a black thumb, so I have trouble keeping them alive, hubby says I kill them with kindness. Also, not much sun comes into my house, so I have one plant light pole lamp, but the rooms are small and that's all I'm willing to dedicate. I had some nice small Bonsai plants, and they all died on me...heard that they really only thrive outdoors, and not in a cold dry climate like where I live.

No one has a black thumb. They merely found plants that weren't the kind they should have. lol

Bonsai? Go with a jade. It only needs watering once a week (in winter. Outside in summer, it's happier with twice a week, but it won't die if it rains from April through July like happened here this year. lol) If you actually want it to grow (which is optional) feed it cactus fertilizer in the summer. (Directions on the box and bottle.) It grows wider that way. As for height? It's a tree, but it tops out at six feet. (I've had mine for over a decade, and they're finally getting thicker than a pencil this year, because this is the first year I fed them too.) Warning: At six feet tall, you've probably had it for a couple of decades, so the trunk is about 20 inches wide--give or take a few inches. All it needs is a sunny window or a spot under a lamp you keep on most of the time. Branches will grow, but pluck back with your fingernails like you want it. (Every time you trim back a branch, it turns into two branches, but you can always trim off one, when it gets top heavy.) As an ex-black-thumber, it was the first plant that liked me.

Other choice is Lucky Bamboo, which simply needs to keep the vase filled with water and indirect light. (Not a sunny windowsill, but a lamp or 4-6 feet away from a sunny spot. You'll have to clean the pebbles and vase (tiny little thing) once a year. If you are the type to kill with kindness, than clean the vase and pebbles every season. At least you can tell when it needs water. If it's not filled up, it needs water. lol

Or, chives. Chives were the first herb I grew in my garden, and it's still there 14 years later. (I killed the first tomato plants I ever grew, so do understand, I'm not a green thumb. I was born a black thumb and through lots of trial and error, I've migrated up to yellow thumb. lol)