January 28, 2022
Help Your Home (and Your Health) with Houseplants!
Whether it’s winter and you’ve got your heating on 24/7, or you need the A/C running to get through the latest summer heat wave, it seems that dry air is just a fact of life. Unfortunately, dry air can bring about or aggravate a lot of health concerns. Yes, many of us will turn on a humidifier when we get sick, but if we can maintain those moisture levels over longer periods it would ease many health issues, including: dry skin, nosebleeds, and even reduce the effects of dust, allergies, and infections. And one of the easiest ways to increase your home’s air quality is with, you guessed it, plants!
Tropical houseplants, to be a bit more specific, since they’re the ones that sit (indoors) loyally by our sides as the seasons change. True, all plants will release moisture into the air through evaporation and transpiration (aka drinking and breathing/sweating – yes plants sweat just like we do) but varieties that originate from tropical zones will add more humidity to a room than those found in deserts. Tropical houseplants also tend to have more surface area, and the higher number of pores on their foliage means more points of escape for water molecules. All of this means improved air quality and better health benefits for you and your family!
But there’s no need to turn your home into a jungle or rainforest (unless that’s one of your life goals, of course). Even just having a few houseplants in your home will help improve your humidity levels. Go for varieties with large/wide foliage, as well as those that already love high humidity and will appreciate getting misted every day. Keeping bowls of water at the base of your plants, or using a pebble tray for your smaller plants, will also increase humidity. To make a pebble tray, fill a saucer or tray with pebbles, small stones, or clay beads. Set your pot on top and make sure that it sits level and won’t tip over! Fill the tray with water until it barely touches the bottom of the pot, and refill once the water evaporates. Easy extra humidity!
Interested in increasing humidity with houseplants? Here are some of our favourites:
Alocasia, Anthurium, Palm (any variety, except Sago or Cardboard), Fern (any variety), Baby Tears, Club Moss, Dracaena (especially wide leaf varieties), Chinese Evergreen, Dieffenbachia, Fiddle Leaf Fig, Rubber Tree, Peace Lily, Pothos, Philodendron (both trailing and upright varieties), Snake Plant, Spider Plant, Ivy (most varieties), and more!
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