Practical Guide to Choosing Plants for Your Home

One of the best decisions you can make to enhance the decoration of your home as well as its pleasant and soothing ambiance is to grow and care for house plants. Aside from making interior spaces look good, house plants also boost our mood, increase our productivity, and reduce stress. Decorative indoor plants bring the calming effects of nature into our home or office in a way that no other interior design elements can.        

You can do away with your lifeless, wearisome place and transform it to be more exciting, inspiring, and rejuvenating through the addition of decorative house plants. 

Considerations in Choosing House Plants 

In choosing the right plants for your home, you can be as creative and imaginative as you can be. You can choose plants that best suit any area in your home you want to enliven. You can opt to place plants in a bright corner close to a window, a spot in your living room, or a dim nook in a bathroom. Regardless of the size of your house, there are plants you can display that can bring out the best in your house interior. Plants that provide rich shades of green, a variety of shapes, textures, and sizes are available for you to choose from. It is good to consider plants with the foliage, colors, flowers, and scents compatible with the design and mood of your interior. Choosing how you want to display your plants is your decision and will in a way define your style and taste. What is important is that you can satisfy your purpose for having the plants for your home, which is having a constant source of delight and inspiration every time you stay in your home. 

Where You Can Source Your House Plants

Be sure to get your plants only from a reputable and reliable shop you know are experienced growers and properly care for their plant products. When you receive your plants in good shape, you can get reasonably confident that they are healthy and can live long.   

Other good sources of plants especially rare and exotic species and plants with special varieties are catalogs, plant societies, and gardening magazines, which usually have a section featuring unusual plants. 

Seeds of many varieties of plants are available from mail-order suppliers. When purchasing via mail-order, choose a supplier that offers a money-back guarantee. When you receive your plants damaged, dry, or diseased, you can ask for a refund or replacement.

You can also try to grow plants from cuttings off relatives’ or friends’ plants.

Tips in Choosing Plants for Your Home

• Consider the indoor plant’s light, watering, growing, and other care requirements. Be sure you can satisfy them and fulfill your responsibility as a plant owner.  
• Select the plant with foliage that is lush, full, and green; new growth is evident; and with natural leaves, not waxed or oiled to look fresh. 
• Check that the stems are firm, not wilted or distorted. 
• Look closely to look for insects and signs of plant disease. Plants infected with the mealybug, red spider mite, or scale can easily infect the rest of your plants. Note that plants requiring lots of light that are grown outdoors during warmer months easily attract insects. Likewise, insects are common in plants imported from areas and are grown there. 
• Avoid buying plants with flowers in full bloom as they generally tend to fade quickly. Choosing plants with numerous buds with few in full bloom will last much longer.  
• Check the soil. It should not be loose or too compact. Ordinary soil that is used as garden soil stunts growth and becomes too hard when dried. Repot plants planted on poor soil when necessary.

The secret to choosing the right plants for your home is to know what you need and want and selecting the house plants that meet them. They are sure to provide you the benefits you expect and the fulfillment of growing and caring for them.