Houseplants can boost your mental health
Topeka Capital JournalAug 29, 2020
“I probably don’t fit the description of a plant person but, (it’s about) the energy and mood it puts me in,” he said.
#Plants has over 34 million posts on Instagram: photos of crawling ivies and philodendrons, massive monsteras and leafy parlor palms taking over houses and apartments like jungles. Like Galvez, many plant parents started or grew their collections during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“All this probably goes back to ... the origin of our species when we saw green, leafy plants and that meant there was something around that we could eat,” she said. “That gave us a psychological boost.”
These days, Augustin said, taking care of plants can give you a feeling of control over your physical environment, which has been shown to enhance cognitive performance. The act of caring for something and watching it grow is also beneficial: “If you’re caring for the plant, that gives you a feeling of accomplishment, which is desirable.”
“One of the highlights is waking up in the morning and checking our plants to see which ones have new leaves and which ones have new growth,” Azizi said. “You get to take a moment out of your day to actually focus on something else besides yourself.”
In two years of collecting, Lauterbach said she has accumulated over 70 plants. She said she especially likes large plants, which take up a lot of space. “I’ll be living in a jungle if I get any more,” she said.
But too many plants can add clutter and stress, Augustin said. Plants that are particularly difficult to care for, like orchids, might also introduce frustration. She said to opt for just a few low-maintenance plants to experience the most positive mental health effects.
“I’ve learned the lesson of how many plants you can actually own before it doesn’t work out in your favor,” Azizi said. To find her balance, she scaled back from 75 to 50 plants by giving them away. Azizi connects with other plant lovers on Instagram — an online community she said has grown during the pandemic as more people have started showing off their collections.
Galvez said he’s also part of the plant community. For him, the
Galvez said plants also provide hope for the future because caring for them now is caring for what they will grow into tomorrow. “The more you put into them, the more they give back,” he said. “If you take care of these plants, they’ll take care of you.”