Did you know that plants make their own food? Well, they do. They manufacture their own carbohydrates, fats, and proteins every day during a process called photosynthesis. So, if they make their own food, why do we have to feed them with all those different fertilizers? Well, we humans like our plants to grow fast, indoors, year round. And, when we grow blooming plants, we expect them to have lots and lots of flowers.

In their natural habitats, plants derive nutrients from soil which is almost always just right for their growing needs. That native soil is always being replenished with animal and vegetable matter that decompose into the soil, leaving it fertile and providing a veritable feast for foliage.

If you have all foliage plants, you can use any fertilizer that is formulated specifically for non-flowering houseplants. If you have flowering plants you will need a fertilizer just for blooming plants, and if some of those bloomers are African violets or orchids, you may also need a plant food that is specially formulated to meet their particular nutritional needs.

Whether you buy fertilizer that is organic or inorganic, in the form of a powder, a spike, or a liquid, is all entirely up to you. It just depends on what you feel most comfortable with. While some people will swear by liquid, others by powder, and yet others by time-release, the difference is really negligible and is just a matter of personal choice.

Once you decide on a fertilizer, it is important that you use it properly. READ THE LABEL. Do not ever use more than the label recommends. It is okay to use less, but most people err towards overfeeding which eventually results in small brown tips at the end of older leaves. Eventually, those brown tips can get pretty big and very unattractive and they are the result of the roots being burned by the excess fertilizers. This burning and the resultant damage will continue until those excess chemicals are washed out of the soil. Since it is often difficult to thoroughly drench an indoor plant without rotting the roots, it is better to err towards underfeeding. Better safe than sorry.

Indoor plants usually receive a lot less light than do your outdoor plants. Because of this, the plant is not manufacturing or using a lot of its own food. Therefore, if you add food, it may not even be used and may do more harm than good. In most cases, lightly fertilizing your foliage plants once or twice a year during spring or early summer is more than sufficient. Ditto for your flowering plants.

When applying fertilizers, always apply them to moist soil, even if you are applying a liquid or powder fertilizer that you have just mixed with water. Do not let any of the substance get on the stems of the plants as the chemicals in the fertilizer can cause damage to the plant tissues. Apply the fertilizer evenly over the entire soil surface so that it will reach down into the entire root system of the plant and not just into one area.

Indoor plants are proven to have generally a great effect on our psyche and morale as well as our physical health!

As we all know plants are natural filters who transform carbon dioxide into oxygen but on top of this extremely important role they normally perform for us, plants also seem to be “natural filters” that remove many other toxins from the air increasing air quality, especially in indoor environments, ultimately improving our health!

In office environments in particular, plants do a whole lot more! They decrease stress while enhancing productivity (studies show by 12%!); they lower operations and maintenance costs of office buildings; they improve employees’ state of mind, reducing stress and improving employees’ work-life experience; they improve the overall aesthetics of an office environment; and, last but not least, they reduce office distractions by reducing noise.

So… why should You choose Indoor plants?

Because:

• Houseplants clean the air of toxins like ammonia, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, benzene and xylem
• Indoor plants bring health benefits to your body  (Complaints about headaches, stress, heart/circulation symptoms and colds decrease when indoor plants are present.)
• Houseplants make people feel calmer and more optimistic
• Studies show indoor plants reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses by increasing humidity levels and decreasing dust
• Adding plants to your office does wonders for employee health and morale
• Indoor plants are pleasing to the eye
• Adding plants to your office enhances employee creativity and productivity

Need I say more?

I grew up in a home where my parents enhanced our interior living spaces by bringing in the vibrancy of our outdoor gardens. My father had built a rock bed in our family room to have the cluster of potted plants sit in (although I think it was also meant for catching the bird droppings from our caged finches). I wish I had an image to share, I don’t recall the names of the plants, I just remember tree-like plants, cacti, and seasonal flowering plants and perhaps a fern or two or maybe it was a spider plant that made me feel – even in the dead of a Rochester, NY winter – the life, color and warmth that these plants provided.

When I moved to my first apartment with my husband, we incorporated all of his plants that he had collected from his places of residence, including some from his parents home. I do remember that we had many spider plants, they were indestructible! Once we acquired our first cat that decided the dirt in the base of the planters would make a perfect liter box, we removed live plants from our living environments. We didn’t have plants until we owned a home – and those were outside in the gardens! (We still do not have any interior plants, only the occasional vase of flowers on the table) Currently, between the design of our home and the lack of direct sunshine on the first floor and the additional two cats and dog – we maintain exterior garden beds for our flowering plants, shrubs and enjoy the sugar maple trees that line our property.

I got a call from a client the other day asking me if I had any advice about bringing in the plants they had maintained throughout the summer on their back deck and front porch and creating a space for them inside of their home. It got me to thinking… I can name only two clients in the past ten years that have plants in their homes! Again, an occasional vase of flowers or a small counter top plant may have been spotted, but nothing like the “jungle” that I was familiar with in my childhood home. I had never been asked to design for or withr interior plants. I wasn’t quite sure how to guide them. Here are some of my thoughts that I shared with them.

I first gave them the name of an old acquaintance to contact: Susan Harvey of Susan’s Interior Plantscaping, Inc.. I had met Susan about 9 years ago at a networking meeting. She has a great business and I mostly thought of her as a resource for commercial clients. Corporate office, lobbies, restaurants, hotels and such. I had been in touch with her several years ago when I was contacted for services of redesigning a large corporate lobby. But now, I thought she also might be able to provide some guidance for this client. She could be consulted to assist my client with the variety of their existing plants and the needs of each plant in an interior setting. To be honest, my main thought was that the plants might need to be repotted into coordinating planters to match the interiors I had designed for them.

I now am planning to share with my client the article I came across this past week while reading my Natural Home & Garden magazine: Living Design: How to Decorate with Plants. (click on the title of the article and it will bring you to the article on-line) My take away from the article was:

1. “Consider using houseplants to accentuate areas of architectural interest in your home”
2. Plants help purify indoor air. Ask local garden center if they spray their plants with pesticides; if possible choose a grower that does not. It turns out that the pesticides are what emit VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Not helping your interior air quality at all!
3. Purchase planters made of natural materials such as clay and ceramic and not plastic.
4. Don’t think of plants as an afterthought – they can be an integral part of the design.
5. Repeat colors or forms from your exterior plants in your interior plantings to connect both of your environments.
6. Know how to best care for your plants to make them flourish and last for many years.

I also consulted a book I had purchased a few years ago entitled: Homes That Heal and those that don’t  by Athena Thompson. She speaks about research that NASA had conducted in the early 1980’s about indoor air quality and how plants can affect this. There are several plants that can be used in our environments that can clean the air in a sealed space containing pollutants of ammonia, formaldehyde and benzene. These are products that are often found in our cabinetry, carpeting, flooring and wall coverings. Below is a list of the top fifteen houseplants recommended by NASA:

1. Philodendron scandens `oxycardium’, heartleaf philodendron
2. Philodendron domesticum, elephant ear philodendron
3. Dracaena fragrans `Massangeana’, cornstalk dracaena
4. Hedera helix, English ivy
5. Chlorophytum comosum, spider plant
6. Dracaena deremensis `Janet Craig’, Janet Craig dracaena
7. Dracaena deremensis `Warneckii’, Warneck dracaena
8. Ficus benjamina, weeping fig
9. Epipiremnum aureum, golden pothos
10. Spathiphyllum `Mauna Loa’, peace lily
11. Philodendron selloum, selloum philodendron
12. Aglaonema modestum, Chinese evergreen
13. Chamaedorea sefritzii, bamboo or reed palm
14. Sansevieria trifasciata, snake plant
15. Dracaena marginata , red-edged dracaena

Here is Athena’s top ten houseplant recommendation:

1. Bamboo palm (Chamaedores seifrizii)
2. Rubber plant (Ficus Robusta)
3. English Ivy (Hedera Helix)
4. Dwarf Date Palm (Phoenix Roebelenii)
5. Boston Fern (Nephrolepis Exaltata “Bostoniensis”)
6. Peace Lily (Spathi Hyllum)
7. Corn Plant (Dracaena Fragrans)
8. Kimberly Queen (Nephrolepis Obliterata)
9. Florist’s Mum (Chruanthemum Morifolium)
10. Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera Jamesonii)

I also realized that I have seen many interior photographs of kitchens with potted herbs growing on the window sills. Were those plants placed in that location just for the photo or can one really grow herbs on a window sill? Again, I turned to my Natural Home & Garden magazine and there was an on-line article regarding herbs. Four Easy herbs To Grow for an Indoor Garden. Not all herbs can survive let alone grow next to the chill of a pane of glass. This article shares which are the hardiest as well as some recipes.

I am not an expert on interior plants, but I do know that plants can greatly improve our indoor air quality as well as add significant texture, color and visual stimuli to our interiors. If this blog encourages you to purchase some interior plants, please choose organic and locally cultivated varieties.y Lisa

Ferns, botanically known as Filices, are native to all parts of the world, but are most often found in the tropics and subtropical areas. Some are epiphytic in nature while others make their homes on the shaded floors of tropical wood forests.

Many interiorscapers dismiss ferns as being too messy and therefore too hard to maintain. But, while some of the messiness seems characteristic of certain species, it can be reduced by proper care, and, there are alternative species which are more exotic and less problematic.

Here are some common indoor ferns: Acrostichum aureum (“Leather fern”); Asplenium (“Birdsnest ferns and Mother ferns”); Cyrtomium falcatum (“Holly and Fishtail ferns”); Nephrolepis exaltata (“Bostons, Lace, Feather, and Sword ferns”); Pellaea rotundifolia (“Button fern”); Platycerium (“Staghorn and Elkhorn ferns”); Polypodium aureum (“Hare’s foot and Crisped blue ferns”); and Stenochlaena (“Liane fern”).

The biggest problem with ferns is the lack of humidity occurring in the dry air of highrise office buildings. If you install ferns in these difficult environments you will surely experience the light browning and abscission of foliage characteristic of low humidity. Light, regular misting is essential wherever these plants are installed, but it’s best to save ferns for residential clients or for offices located in older buildings with windows that open.

In trying to combat the low humidity symptoms, it is not unusual to overwater. With some species, such as nephrolepis which is usually very rootbound, this is not usually a serious problem. But, with asplenium nidus and polypodiums, overwatering can spell death. Ferns like to be moist but they don’t like to get their feet too wet — that goes for their rhizome “feet” too. While underwatering may cause leaf loss, that is only a temporary condition. Overwatering can be a death sentence with ferns.

Ferns require little fertilizer. They obtain most of their nutrients from the air and unless they are sitting in more soil than roots, they should be fertilized only very lightly and only when the soil is moist. Overfertilization results in burning and tipping. Light feeding twice a year in the growing season is sufficient.

Ferns do well in warm or temperate conditions but may suffer cold damage if temperature drop below about 50 degrees F. They can tolerate light levels ranging from about 100 to 1000fc but will really thrive up to 3000fc. Anything over that is likely to be damaging.

Ferns suffer few diseases, but, like most plants, they have their share of pests. The most common problems are brown scale and mealy bug. These problems are particularly common to the smaller leafed species, such as nephrolepis, but are also found on pellaea and stenochlaena. With nephrolepis, both can infect the root system very quickly and be extremely difficult to control. As usual, careful plant selection is of the utmost importance in preventing infestations before they begin, and close inspection during maintenance will alert you to a problem before it becomes a catastrophe.

Putting plants in the workplace could be one way to celebrate Earth Day, but research shows that it may also promote staff well being.

If your job makes you feel dreary, it could be time to introduce vegetation to your personal breathing zone — an area of six to eight cubic feet (0.2 cubic meters) — where we spend most of our working day.

Office plants have become more popular over the last 30 years, with research reinforcing the belief that they improve the atmosphere, reduce stress, and sharpen concentration.

Aside from boosting oxygen, indoor plants such as yuccas, lilies and palms also remove airborne toxins emitted by carpets, furniture, paints, and other synthetic products in the office. They could also alleviate health claims relating to “Sick Building Syndrome.”

“If every employee urges their boss to adopt new plants, they will be greatly appreciated for the suggestion,” says M.J. Gilhooley from Plants at Work, a U.S.-based education campaign, which promotes office vegetation.

Plants release moisture into the air alleviating the dry atmosphere generated by air-conditioning and central heating units, as well as computers.

Leaves, stems, roots and microorganisms in the potting mix also act as a filtering system. During photosynthesis — the process when the plant absorbs carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen — organic tissue absorbs airborne toxins.

Plants at work may also stimulate employees’ concentration by reducing excess carbon dioxide.

A study by Professor Derek Clements-Croome at the University of Reading, England compared the performance of schoolchildren in classrooms with and without plants. Better results were achieved in classrooms with vegetation, the study said.

Absenteeism relating to “Sick Building Syndrome” also decreased when plants were part of the office, according to research by Professor Tove Fjeld of the Agricultural University in Oslo, Norway.

And Jon Naar, author of “Design for A Livable Planet,” suggests that 15 to 20 plants are enough to clean the air in a 1,500 square foot office area (139 square meters).

But if the unkempt office plant in the corner is left untended it can soon turn into a health hazard.

“Mould (on plants) can irritate asthma, increase upper respiratory problems, cause headaches and affect concentration,” Dr. David Miller an expert on indoor air quality from Carleton University, Canada told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Interior plants and modern architectural designs go hand-in-hand. The people who do the internal decoration of buildings understand that all rooms are improved when healthy, natural vegetation, is present, whether flowers or leaves. The atmosphere in these areas becomes alive, rather than sterile and unwelcoming.

They may be placed in pots that are positioned to break a hard, uncompromising line in the architecture. Their presence adds warmth, creating an ambiance that is synchronized with the nature around them. They grow and change, making people get a sense of life from their surrounds and even become more aware of their natural environment.

Any decoration is worthy of its place especially if it also serves a purpose. Vegetation put into a building has many roles. It can create a certain atmosphere or bring a dramatic dimension if used for a focal point. By introducing lighting, this becomes more pronounced and adds art to the group arrangement, which will be eye-catching.

Shrubs can define an area when placed so that they divide a room. For this, it is important to select ones that have plenty of interesting leaves and are tall enough for the task. They double as sound dampeners, reducing noise from both newly-created spaces. Baskets can hang down to meet them and other color coordinated pots could be put onto shelves etc. To attractively finish off the division.

Suitable foliage can be used to hide unsightly features such as water pipes along a wall. These necessary evils are very unattractive in any inside walls. Having beautiful plants in position to vie for attention in these areas is a sensible way to handle the problem.

When considering them as part of window treatment, these delightful, life forms can break the monotony of big expanses of glass. The whole area can be made to look more interesting by them being present. Another important aspect is that they can have the effect of making the external scenery seem like an extension of the indoor living area.

If the glare from light entering is too bright, an obvious way to tone it down is to place vegetation in such a way as to partially filter the illumination. This is a win-win situation as everyone benefits. The atmosphere inside becomes soft, cool and natural. The area also looks more interesting due to the three-dimensional effect that achieved.

It is interesting to note that plants, by virtue of their soil and ability to photosynthesize, do a lot of good for any internal place. They effectively make the air healthier by adding oxygen, and removing carbon dioxide, while the soil micro-organisms take up volatile organic compounds that are emitted from electronic equipment like printers, faxes and computers. The benzene, xylene and toluene compounds that are released can be harmful to humans.

There is a pleasing variety of indoor plants available. They have different sizes, shapes and colors so it is easy to choose suitable ones for any space. As a result, wherever a person goes into a building, they are bound to encounter at least one that is tastefully displayed. It is an irrefutable fact that people must surround themselves with these living decorations.

Particulate matter was measured around the rooms on various surfaces away from the plants.  Dust was significantly lower throughout both rooms when plants were present than when they were absent.  Dust was reduced by as much as 20% with plants.  This study confirmed that the use of plants to remove particulate matter, which has often been used outdoors to control deposition, also is effective on the scale present in interiors. 

Clearly, water will transpire from plants that are added to a room.  What was not clear before this study, was whether the amount of transpired water was sufficient to make a significant or meaningful contribution to the overall humidity in the room.  Some even speculated that the increase might be so great that moisture damage could result. When plants were absent from the rooms used in this study, the relative humidity was very low, and often below the range of 30% to 60% recommended for human health and comfort.  When plants were added, the relative humidity rose significantly, but not excessively:  in one case, for example, relative humidity without plants averaged 25%, and with plants it averaged 30%.

In addition to being simple, a white color scheme is perfectly wintry. White dishes and napkins are elegant and evoke a snowy look, while silver accents and glass remind of ice crystals. HGTV adorns a centerpiece of evergreens with silver ornaments, sparkly snowflakes and shiny pewter votives.

Another perfect way to accent a white color scheme is with Christmas flowers such as a tulip sand pine bouquet. The pine boughs give the delicate white flowers a festive feel. Another choice is white lilies, hydrangeas and silver candles which offers a dramatically beautiful focal point for dinner guests. Thank you Teleflora for the ideas.