Your Home Office Needs A Home Plant
You are either stuck or choose to be working from home and have created some kind of a niche area from which to work. You want to be focused and productive and may have to zoom meet from there several times a day or every now and then. What will help make that mini-environment be appealing to you and others, augment your alertness yet lower stress levels? A plant or two! You have probably heard or read that there are lots of studies indicating that plants clean the air and increase focus and creativity besides just making a place look warm and inviting.
But not just any old plant. Something that is easy to care for and will stay healthy to be an attractive complement to your space. Like so many things, if you do the proper preparation, your life will be easier in the long run. First, choose a plant that is likely to thrive. Big box stores sell so many plants that are not necessarily easy to care for – the biggest temptresses out there need higher humidity or higher light than most of us have in our homes. Don’t fall for the ferns or cheap palms or even the ivies and small leaved ficus! They will readily get spider mite or drop their leaves when they don’t get just the right temperatures, light or humidity. So what WILL make you look and feel good without having a horticultural degree? Here are some of the currently popular plants with which you will probably have great success:
Want a tree?? Skip the old fashioned small leafed ficus benjamina (weeping fig) and get the fabulous fiddleleaf fig!
The fiddleleaf is much more tolerant of changing temperatures and lower light. Other tolerant big plants are bird of paradise and dracaena cane plants such as lisa or corn plants.
But you LOVE succulents. Fine, but make sure they get LOTS of light. A south facing window would be great. Or right under your lamp.
AND you want color besides shades of green? Get an anthurium, orchid or bromeliad for long lasting blooms.
More information about those in another posting but you will be happy with them longer than most any other blooming plants.
Probably most of these plants are going to be in their plastic nursery grow pot. It is good to leave them in those. It is best that their roots fill out the pots to the point of being root bound, rather than being overpotted in extra soil. Putting that grow pot inside of a decorative pot which is waterproof or sitting on a saucer, will help it have air circulation which is just as important as water for the plant.
So here is the big reveal about how to take care of your plants…. Ready? Water the plant only when it is dry and don’t water it when it is wet. Really! That is 90% of what you need to do to succeed with those plants. Don’t mist, don’t fertilize for the first year, don’t get special needs plants. Not yet anyway, until you have mastered these handsome, low maintenance plants that will reward you with vibrant life and beauty. You can do it! No green thumb required!