Add Tropicals to Your Home This Spring

With the season of spring soon upon us many are turning towards vegetable gardening and what they can do outdoors. However, the groups of plants known as "tropicals" or "houseplants" Has become more than a little popular in past years.

Everyone knows the concepts of the benefits of houseplants and how they can improve the air inside your home. What many generally forget is that the ability for a plant to help improve the air in your home depends directly on how much light it receives. This is because the process by which plants produce oxygen, known as photosynthesis, requires light as part of the process. If a plant is placed in the dark, it may exist, but it will not help you with the improving of the air inside your home.

There have been several studies that have been done in past years on the benefits of plants in indoor environments. NASA did one in the 80s. That study listed several plants that were known to help improve the air quality inside buildings by not only converting carbon dioxide back into oxygen, but also by filtering other toxins out of indoor air.

Plants that were studied in NASA's study are listed as follows. English ivy (Hedera helix), Spider plant (Chlorophytum elatum), Devil's ivy, Pothos plant (Epipremnum aureum), Peace lily (Spathiphyllum 'Mauna Loa'), Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum), Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii), Variegated Sanseviera, (Dracaena trifasciata 'Laurentii'), Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron cordatum), Selloum philodendron, lacy tree philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum)

In addition to this study, there was one done by Kamal Meattle in the late 2000s where he shared his findings on a Ted Talk video. The three plants at the top of HIS list were; Bamboo Palm, "Money Plant" or Pothos, and the Snake Plant or Sanseviera.

In this study Meattle claimed that a person could live in a glass jar and have all the oxygen they would ever need, if they had a half dozen "8 inch sized" plants from his list. While I don't know how eager I would be to be sealed in a glass jar, the idea of plants helping us improve the air HAS been proven.

We pride ourselves in having a great selection of tropical foliage plants to brighten your home, all year long. The next time you visit us, you can browse our selection of items to help make your indoor environment more enjoyable.

We're excited about all that we'll have to offer you this season! In addition to our wonderful storefront, we've also added a "Grow Store" to our website. Now you can browse many of the plant items that we carry right from our website and even purchase online for In-store pickup. Our website is; http://www.handyandysnursery. com.

We look forward to serving you this season and wish you happy growing!