If you enjoy the great outdoors it’s worth remembering that with house plants, you can bring the life boosting benefits of nature indoors anytime.
There are lots of reasons to add house plants to your home.
Plants pump oxygen into the atmosphere. They also regulate humidity, which is better for your health. Some studies have even shown that house plants can improve sound levels, reduce stress and help you concentrate.
Along with the health benefits plants add life to any decorating scheme.
Adding greenery will bring lightness and freshness to a room with warm colours such as neutrals, whites or yellows and give extra zing to rooms with cooler palettes such as blues or greys.
You can also use plants to enhance a room’s scale.
In a large airy room, for instance, tall, slender stems and a large potted plant or tree will enhance high ceilings, while also making a wide, open space feel less empty.
Plants that like sunlight will often be put next to windows but this does more than help them grow.
By framing the views from the garden or the outdoors, window-based plants help to give the feeling of bringing the outdoors in. They also filter harsh sunshine and can provide a bit of extra privacy if you like to keep your windows bare.
An attractive pot of the right size will not just look good but help your plant stay healthy as well. Just remember to match the scale of the pot to the height and spread of the plant and make allowances for fast-growing greenery.
Another option to consider are baskets. Shorter plants with good ground cover, look lovely in wide, shallow vessels like a terracotta pot while taller ceramic pots suit slimmer plants, and so on.
With plants that trail, like ivy, think about using smaller pots and placing them up high, a mantelpiece, or bookshelf is ideal. You can also use hanging planters in front of a window or to brighten up a dull corner.
In a large, bright living or dining room, something like a bamboo palm has a striking shape, while a rubber plant is good for darker or cooler living rooms. Even better it hardly needs any looking after which makes it ideal for the less green fingered.
Here is a tip for those who are not confident of their gardening skills and feel a bit daunted by getting to grips with indoor plants - mix some life-life faux flowers and plants with the real thing.
Another tip is to grow really low-maintenance varieties such as spider plants. They will quickly produce lots of smaller shoots, which can be re-potted around your home, and their spiky leaves look good just about anywhere.
