Indoor plants can provide your home with both style and healthy benefits
By Karla Hollencamp
Between winter weather and the pandemic lockdown, most of us are discovering a little greenery can go a long way in making our home space better.
“I can’t imagine not having plants in my home,” says Morning Sun Florist owner Darla Hiser. “They are very healing to look at, especially in winter. I can look through the greenery inside and it softens the view of the bare trees outside.
“As we close in for the time being, working and schooling at home, plants add oxygen to the air and bring life to our spaces.”
According to healthline.com, there are benefits science says indoor plants may provide. A study published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology found that indoor plants could have a calming or soothing effect on people.
In another small study, researchers put students in a classroom with either a fake plant, a real one, a photograph of a plant, or no plant at all. The study found that students who studied with real plants were more attentive than those in the other rooms.
Watering plants and puttering around them is a nice way to relax, take a deep breath and focus on nature. “The sensory experience of taking care of plants can be quite healing,” says Hiser. “My weekly trip to the greenhouse, smelling the damp earth, is life giving.”
Being able to look at plants and flowers may also speed your recovery from an illness, injury or surgery. Recent research revealed that people recuperating from several kinds of surgery needed less pain medication and had shorter hospital stays than people who didn’t have a view of plants while in the hospital.
Another study found that students in a campus computer lab worked 12% faster and were less stressed when plants were placed nearby, while another study revealed that people with more plants in their workspace took fewer sick days. “Now that more people are working more often out of home office spaces, I suggest that plants are part of creating a productive environment,” says Hiser.
