My mother loves her plants more than her children. No idea why, I don’t really try to understand her as it gives me a headache.
We have plants because the air seems fresher with them. Especially during a cold Wisconsin winter, when we don’t ventilate the house at all because it’s freezing out there, a couple plants will do wonders to freshen the stale air.
To say nothing of raising the home’s humidity as they slowly dessicate in that dry Wisconsin winter air.
Quick! I think we have found a market niche to exploit!
You have bigger plants than I. Or else Super Mario Bros. venus flytraps!
I love houseplants! We have a bunch of large tree style houseplants - they all go outside starting in May and come back in Sept/Oct. I mean big: you need a two-wheeled cart to move them! That first two weeks when they come back in makes it feel like you’re in a jungle!
Because some people have a much higher tolerance for the uncanny valley
Houseplants remove low levels of volatile organics from the air. This is due to action from microbes in the soil working together with the plant itself. I read it in a peer reviewed paper. Please don’t ask me to cite.
This. It would be really cool to grow carrots and potatoes and so on in the house, but most ‘food’ plants (aside from herbs and I think maybe some kinds of tomato) take up too much dirt to be reasonable indoors.
The main problem would be lack of light. Indoor plants are usually species that evolved to make the most of low light levels.
If I’m not mistaken, sweet potato and avocado plants grow well as houseplants.
As for why I have houseplants, I don’t know. I enjoy going to the store and getting all the cheap discounted plants no one wants and nursing them back to health.
I doubt that the sweet potato would produce large edible roots, or that the avacado would produce fruit, though.
My first snark of 2010!
No they don’t. My friend has an avocado pland that hasn’t produced fruit in its 10 years of life.
I think “fancy” things require “fancy” plants that fit in with the decor, and artificial plants are bigger and showier than the average live plant. I mean, have you ever walked into Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or A.C. Moore? :eek: A poor struggling little potted plant would be overlooked, if not out of place, in a sea of chintz and Precious Moments figurines.
Off the top of my head we have over 25 live plants (mostly green, non-flowering) plants in our house. My SO has a huge green thumb.
One palm plant we bought was about 6 inches high when we got it 23 years ago, and now it is easily over 10 feet high - in the front foyer.
Another plant/tree was “dead” and he took it from a friend who was throwing it out 15 years ago - it is now the tallest tree in our house - over 20 feet - and stretching from our family room downstairs up through the hallway into the upstairs.
My late aunt bought us a Poinsettia for Christmas 10 years ago and before they delivered it, they called. I hate those poinsettias for a specific reason and asked if they could send us a “regular” plant instead. That is now a full-sized group of palms in a tin planter that is easily five feet high.
Like I said, my SO has a major green thumb and all of these plants thrive and the house is filled with green plants.
Add to that - we have given “sprouts” of some of the plants to others and there are currently offspring in NYC and Phoenix and LA. One of the plants came from Berlin and, well, our house is very, very green.
Why?
Well, looks nice - great source of fresh oxygen and makes the house seem warmer.
BTW, the “trick” to keeping plants alive? Water them once a week ONLY - and that means a deep soaking - and then leave them alone. Add some dirt about once a year - keep them in semi-light area (no direct sun) and that’s it. Belive it or not, many plants do not take well to moving them around the house. Leave them in one spot and don’t move them.