The title of this blog post features a commonly asked question by customers who come into the shop; are plants good for our health? Happily, the answer is yes! Plants do play a positive role in our well being. What's also great is that there are so many types of house plants available, that no matter where in your house or workspace you want to place a plant there is one that will not only tolerate, but thrive in it's location. So, as well as looking good, having plants around can also provide us with some health benefits:
Selection of air purifying plants available in store.
There are numerous reports and studies available which investigate these benefits to human health, one that many customers seem to have heard of is the NASA study carried out in the late 1980's. NASA researched ways to clean the air in their space stations and discovered that many common household plants, not only absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, but also remove toxic agents including benzene, formalmehyde and trichloroethylene from the air - in very simple terms these plants purify the air around us from chemicals emitted from paints, detergents and many household objects. (The full report is available HERE).
Spider Plant
In more recent studies, there also seems to be positive psychological benefits to having plants in our homes, hospitals, workplaces and schools - benefits recorded include reduced stress levels, improved moods, lengthened concentration spans and improved productivity. The reports linked the correlation between better air quality and positive psychological results.
India Rubber Plant
I've compiled a list of plants we sell in the shop that are known to be particularly good at purifying the air (according to NASA!) and what their sun/shade preferences are. We are always happy in store to provide more information on how to look after your plants, just ask when you come in.
- Spider Plant (Cholorophytum comosum) - keep out of direct sun, likes light shade
- India Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica) - keep out of direct or full sun, likes light shade
- Devil's Ivy (epipremnum aureum) - likes light or full shade
- English Ivy (hedera helix) - like light or full shade
- Mother in Law's tongue/Snake Plant (sanservieria trifasciata) - likes sun and light shade
- Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii) - Likes filtered sun, light shade
- Kentia Palm (Howea forsteriana) - likes light shade
- Jade Plant (crassula ovata) - likes the sun
- ZZ Plant/Arum Fern (zamioculcas zamiifolia) - likes filtered sun, light shade
Ivy Plant
BREATHING CLEAN AIR SURVEY
Having plants around us to help with air quality is certainly something that seems to be capturing attention, especially in light of the news that many of our UK cities are exceeding the safe levels (and legal limits) of air pollution. Often, pollution levels are higher indoors than outdoors.
Locally, councils in Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside have been issued with an order from the government to take action to improve air quality along parts of the central motorway and a section of the coast road. Interestingly, among the councils proposals to tackle the problem (including a charging clean air zone and a low emissions zone with tolls), was the additional measure to install moss walls which absorb and filter out pollutants from the air. Moss 'living walls' seem to be proving a successful way of removing pollutants from city centres, with cities such as Berlin, Oslo, Paris and London all trialling living moss walls in areas that are known to have high concentrated levels of pollution. To view this report by our local councils, and to fill in the questionnaire in order to have your say on the proposals to combat the air pollution problem CLICK HERE. The survey is open until 18th May so act quickly if you want to have your say. (Apparently, at the time of writing this, the questionnaire has mainly been completed by males, it would be good to have more women's opinions put forward too!)
Mother in Law's Tongue
ZZ Plant, or Fern Arum
Devil's Ivy Plant
Please do visit us on Brentwood Aveue, Jesmond and take a look at our plant selection.
