Sunday, October 2, 2011

Do You Keep Plants In The House?

I was watching P. Allen Smith on television in the wee hours.  He being a gardener and designer did a segment on having plants in the house. He said that they add healthy oxygen to the air, and also act as an air purifier, and therefore are a healthy thing to add to the inside of your home. He said you need a medium-large plant per 100 square feet, so in a 2000 square foot house you would need twenty plants.

Mmmmm.

I am not a house plant person. Dirt in pots, plants that get little buggy diseases, watering them, and worrying about enough light, are all things that put me off. I am attracted to those large fig trees because of the shape, and size, but still I never would have one in my house. I associate large potted plants with hotel lobbies, and I suppose if you want to extend the hotel look now a populist design trend in bedrooms to the rest of the house, you could add a potted palm or ten.

Anyway, what say you?  Do you keep plants in the house? Is the air more healthy for it?

Get figgy with it - Two large fig trees in a room from a weird new show on HGTV called Showhouse Showdown (which I would call Showhouse Smackdown) where two designers you never heard of decorate two new built identical spaces - Then hoards of unstylish regular folk are let in to "judge" the winning space - This designer won on the first episode

Fig tree as shown in the current issue of Traditional Home magazine

A little ivy plant in an urn - probs too small to add much of a health benefit - from Traditional Home

Two clipped ficus trees from Desire to Inspire - Just add 18 more for the average size house - but I'd rather have the trees than the sad flower arrangement on the table - just saying

7 comments:

  1. I'm not into houseplants inside. I always forget to water and then when I do water, the water spills everywhere. Last fall, I brought in several huge boston ferns that I was going to over winter so that they would not die outside. That lasted about a month. The dogs thought they were living in a jungle and thought it fun to sleep under them. But I kept getting water everywhere and leaves were falling...so one night I threw them out.

    Now that said...I currently have a table top full of plants. I bought several small ones on sale to put in a terrarium. But have yet to create the terrarium. Then a blogging buddy from Hollywood sent me a huge limb off his jade plant, I stuck it in a pot and it was like instant gratification.

    Now I am really babying this jade plant because it's super important to me because it came from Kevin in Hollywood. It's become like a pet in the house. I don't do good with pets that don't tell you when they are hungry and thirsty though. That is why I love dogs so much....they tell you what they need. I'm not very good with plants and fish.

    But outside I'm good with plants. I actually would love big ferns in the house....maybe.....but I just can't deal with the falling leaves and the water dripping.

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  2. I am currently babysiting a big dracena for a neighbor. It's ok where it is, but I'm going to replace it with the aluminum xmas tree in Dec. So much for nature..

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  3. I'm with you Valorie....I have 2 live plants to be exact, both small! I don't want to be fussing with big plants and their messes. For the winter though I will be bringing in 4 hibiscus since they can't take a freeze!

    Happy Sunday!

    xo

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  4. I love a house plant here and there. They add another dimension to the room.

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  5. What?! No dusty, "Phila-whatever" on top of the TV?

    You mirrored my sentiments on indoor plants, VV. They are, "indoor germ shops of horror."

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  6. Via FB
    Your article made me realize that I use mine as a substitute for curtains :) Their shadows and silhouettes are my lace, the folds of their leaves, my pleats.
    Robin

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  7. I have 11 plants just in the room I'm sitting in right now. I can't imagine how lifeless my house would feel without all the living plants. They absolutely make the air quality better. I notice a difference after spending a few hours in other houses. In all my years I've never had an issue with bugs -- although it does require effort to find the right spot in terms of light, and taking care of different watering needs I think it is so worth it! Having plants and flowers inside makes me happy.

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