Plants and living flowers are one of the more enduring, thoughtful, environmentally-friendly gifts you can give as a house-warming present. Green leaves have a timeless appeal that not only last for weeks, months and years after other gifts have been relegated into the back of the cupboard, but offer many surprising benefits to the new home owner’s health and well-being.

When you give indoor pot plants as a housewarming gift, you are not just ticking the box or adding something green to their hallway or patio, you are giving a living entity that interacts with everyone in the room without them even knowing about it.

We’ve looked at most of the common rooms in a house and come up with a number of reasons why plants for pots are the best gift ideas for those spaces.

Better Breathing in a Bedroom at Night

Placing the right plant types like Gerberas, succulents and orchids in a bedroom can improve oxygen levels, helping the occupants sleep better. These clever plants actually take in carbon dioxide at night and release oxygen, keeping bedrooms fresher when the room is dark, and people are asleep.

Plants also release up to 97% of the water they take in as moisture vapour into the air as part of photosynthesis, increasing the humidity of the air in the room they are in. Scientists have shown that by placing a few plants together in a bedroom, the incidences of dry coughs, colds, sore throats and even dry skin are reduced. Plants don’t have to always be eaten to be good for you.

Cleaner Air in the Kitchen and Study

Plants are great at removing toxins from air in a room. NASA research shows some plants get rid of up to 87% of the harmful organic compounds in the air in an enclosed room every 24 hours, which includes substances commonly found in rugs, vinyl flooring, shopping bags, inks, paints and solvents in many kitchen and study areas.

Interestingly, benzene is one of those compounds that plants do great job of weeding out of the air, this harmful product is often found in high concentrations in study settings where there are lots of books and paper. An indoor pot plant or two or three in the kitchen and study is a naturally safe way to clean the air throughout the day and night, no filter changes or on-and-off switches necessary.

Healthier and Happier in the Dining Room and Lounge

We all know pot plants in hospital rooms helps speed recovery rates. Research proves that patients in rooms with plants have lower blood pressure and heart rates, need less pain medication, and feel less tired and anxious than those in rooms without plants. And in another study done by the University of Norway sickness rates fell by a staggering sixty percent in offices that had indoor pot plants.

Plants don’t need to be in a hospital room or office to work their magic, that toaster or set of bath towels you were thinking of giving as a housewarming gift does not come with the built-in healing power that a plant has.

Sharpening the Focus where the Desk Is

A study at the English Royal College of Agriculture found that students showed 70% more focus when they were taught in rooms that had plants in, and that student attendance was higher for lectures given in classrooms with plants.

Late night assignments, exam study time, last-minute proposals need all the help they can get, show just how much you care with an indoor pot plant for the next-to-the-desk area.

And for the Bathroom?

Peace Lilies, a very popular living flower plant for pots, can remove mould from the air, making them ideal for bathrooms or damp areas in a house. With a small amount of maintenance, an indoor pot plant can grow with the home and family, surviving multiple house moves and become a living part of a person’s or family’s story.

We can’t always be at a friend or colleagues house-warming, and for those times businesses like giveplants.co.nz are indispensable, with a simple online ordering facility that lets you send healthy and health-giving indoor and outdoor plants as gifts, carefully boxed with a personalised card ready to turn any house into a home.

Categories: Home & Garden