Pure green plants: houseplants of the month for October

Plants as an indoor oxygen source – that’s totally eco, totally tech and totally now. Meet the Pure Green Team!

Your own eco squad

With autumn upon us, you want extra energy in your home to get through the darker months. Enter Team Pure Green: ivy (Hedera), Boston fern (Nephrolepis), potted gerbera and Spathiphyllum are not only lovely to look at, but they each offer something extra as well. For example, potted gerbera removes trichloroethylene and benzene from the air, Boston fern is an oxygen maker, and NASA includes Spathiphyllum and ivy on the list the most air-purifying houseplants around. All extra reasons to bring them into your home, alongside their attractive, varied appearance.

New harmony

Your pure green plants offer plenty of magnificent foliage (smooth, rough, hairy) and remarkable flowers, from the Spathiphyllum’s stylised pennants to gerbera’s bright colours. This group thereby fit perfectly into the interiors trend which is all about a healthy lifestyle filled with exercise and relaxation. The plants play a role in this as an indoor oxygen source, and look best in a high tech base. Plastic with 3D effects and pots with geometric patterns fit best with this style and reinforce the active look.

Particle interceptors

Plants can absorb chemicals that are floating in the air (called volatile compounds) and convert them into other things. Known unhealthy volatile compounds in the home are formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, acetone, ammonia and various types of alcohol. Plants also convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugars, and they can bond microscopically small particulates onto their leaves. That reduces the concentration of particulates in the air.

Recirculation in miniature

If you want to go a step further in creating your own wellness zone, you should place the pots of your pure green plants in decorative bowls of water, so that it can evaporate around them. This helps combat the dry atmosphere indoors caused by central heating at this time of year.

Caring for pure green plants

• Pure green plants like a light spot, but not in full sun.
• These plants don’t just provide a lot of energy – they also consume it. The soil should therefore always be slightly damp.
• A dose of plant food once a fortnight will help them to grow and bloom beautifully.

All-round greenery

Boston fern and Spathiphyllum are native to the tropical rainforest, and gerbera was also originally a tropical beauty. Ivy grows just about anywhere apart from in the desert (but mainly in the northern hemisphere). They’re all fairly easy plants that are also pretty resilient. If they start to droop and you get to them with a watering can in time, they will bounce back of their own accord.

Pure green plants trivia

• Pure green plants can purify the air thank to stoma on the leaves.
• Ivy symbolises persistence, carrying on in the face of adversity.
• Pure green plants also work well in offices and classrooms.
• It’s not just furniture, paint and equipment such as printers that pollute the air indoors. Human breathing also contributes, with emissions of acetone, ethanol, methanol and ethyl acetate. Pure green plants help to filter all that out of the air.

For more information see: www.thejoyofplants.co.uk

Published on: 28 září 2017