Use Houseplants To Combat Your Stuffy Air
Wow, it’s chilly! Temperatures are dropping and it is getting darker earlier and earlier. This causes people to stay inside more. During the winter and holiday season with the heat running and family and friends coming over and spending time indoors, the air can get stuffy and stale quick.
Luckily stale air is easy to combat by simply placing a few houseplants or indoor trees around the home. If you’re hosting the family reunion or holiday party this year then a well placed indoor plant can have a tremendous effect on livening up rooms and providing tons of benefits.
The Benefits Of Indoor Plants
Plants in the home do an excellent job at providing more oxygen, which not only rids of the stuffy, old, and stale air, but also increases thinking, focus, and restful sleep. With large amounts of fresh air helping the brain, people often generate more creative ideas and focus for longer amounts of time.
Once we can draw in more air when we sleep, we can wake up feeling better rested and ready to put our thinking hats on for a more productive day.
Indoor plants also clean the air. As the plants draw in air, they purify it and filter out harsh chemicals and pollutants found in man made objects such as paint, cloth and dyes.
If you have a neighbor or family member that enjoys smoking, a well-positioned plant can catch the odors from cigarette smoke before it can drift around your home and cling to surfaces.
Relax. Houseplants help people have a calm sense of tranquility as they reduce levels of stress and anxiety. After a stressful day of Christmas shopping or work, coming home to beloved indoor plants can lower blood pressure and relieve stressful feelings by replacing them with a positive sense of well being.
No one has time to get sick! By providing an increased level of humidity, houseplants combat irritations like dry skin and sore throats. Typically the same air inside homes is breathed in multiple times, but once plants are there to filter it they take out cold causing contaminates. Also, plants rid of the stuffy, stale air that can cause headaches.
Best of all plants brighten up any room. They’re the perfect décor to tie in furniture, and they’re fun to watch as they grow new leaves, flower and even fruit. Houseplants are instant conversation starters that are fun to show off.
Which Indoor Plants Are Best?
1. The Meyer Lemon
Meyer Lemon trees are energetic citrus trees with lush green leaves to brighten any room. These exciting trees always seem to be blooming with tons of white blossoms or growing delicious lemons. They’re fun to watch and also give off a naturally sweet citrus aroma that fills the room with a crisp and clean lemon scent.
2. The Coffee Plant
That’s right, we said ‘The Coffee Plant’. When it comes to indoor plants the coffee plant is one of the most interesting varieties to grow. Its long and glossy dark leaves provide an exotic, tropical look. Coffee plants provide a variety of colors starting with their white blossoms that turn into coffee cherries (that house coffee beans). The cherries transition through multiple colors including green, yellow, orange, and finally dark red before they’re ripe.
If you aren’t interested in growing your own coffee beans, the coffee plant is still a contender for one of the top houseplants because it’s incredibly low maintenance and even thrives in shade. You don’t have to keep it by a sunny window, just make sure that it’s in a bright room.
3. The Benjamina Ficus
If you’re looking for a low maintenance tree with a lush, green canopy look no further than the benjamina ficus tree, also known as the ‘Weeping Fig’. These trees don’t need the pizzazz of flowering or fruiting to be an impressive indoor tree. It has a beautiful canopy that can easily be trimmed and shaped into designs. If left untrimmed, the foliage on the benjamina ficus naturally weeps attracting attention to its glossy green foliage.
This is a tree that can be planted and forgotten. All it needs is a little light and water to take off. The fuss free, drought tolerant tree is known to flourish in areas where other plants can’t. If you have a green thumb, the benjamina ficus is a perfect option to start out with.
For a space saving option, consider ficus bonsais.
4. Black Bamboo
For tranquility and Zen, add black bamboo to your décor. It’s much more common to see bamboo varieties with green or yellow stalks, so the fact that black bamboo has black stalks is rare. Its bright green leaves pop off of the black stalks to create a beautiful contrast in colors, not found with more common bamboo varieties.
Having a bamboo plant brings luck to the household, and we think it’s lucky how easy going it is. Black bamboo will adapt to full sun, or filtered light and it’s extremely drought tolerant. This is a hands free plant that will look pretty in any room of the house.
5. Sedum Tile
Sedum Tiles are the perfect houseplants for crafters because they have an endless amount of ways to grow and be displayed. Each sedum tile is made up of a variety of succulents woven together with coconut fibers. You can leave your sedum tile as is for a living doormat, but you can also cut it into different shapes for creative center pieces.
However, you can also pick succulents out and plant them in different containers, like cups, bowls, and terrariums. Succulents stay small when kept close together, but will grow larger on their own.
Sedums don’t need a lot of attention because they are succulents, meaning they store water in their thick, wide flesh. After placing your sedums on display step back and enjoy their unique colors ranging from light green to dark red.
6. The Christmas Cactus
The Christmas cactus, or ‘Zygo Cactus’, is a larger succulent that blooms during the holidays. Each year once Thanksgiving approaches this container plant erupts with beautiful white blooms. It looks as if it was covered with a light dusting of snow to fit in with the rest of your holiday decorations.
Christmas Cacti are harder to kill than keep alive, even when neglected. They can thrive in very dim locations as well as in direct sunlight, and have a very high drought tolerance. Water your cactus every once in a while and enjoy its blooms for years. Literally, years! The oldest Christmas Cactus is over 145 years old. Many are passed down from generation to generation as a beloved family heirloom.
7. The Lemon Eucalyptus Tree
Make room for the Lemon Eucalyptus. If your home is already filled with plants, you’ll need to make space for this amazing tree. It loves being grown in containers.
Lemon Eucalyptus trees are compact container trees that have a mighty aroma. They are incredibly fragrant and fill rooms with a sweet citrus scent. The strong scent spreads farther than any other houseplant’s to cover up dusty, stale odors. It’s like planting an air freshener, only the aroma is natural and not made up of toxic chemicals.
These wavy green leaves are filled with citronella oil, which is found in most pest repellents. Crush a few leaves to rub the oil on your skin in order to naturally repel pests. Lemon Eucalyptus trees are great at inviting guests in, while sending pests packing!
Enjoy Growing Indoor Plants
Don’t let the cold and dark winter fill you with gloom. Use an indoor plant to brighten and freshen up the place. You’ll love coming home from work or ending a long day of holiday shopping to your bright and happy indoor plant and all of the fresh air and sweet aromas that it will provide.
