Guest Blog by Naturalist Kate Porter: The Plants

Ficus gracing the lobby of the Well-Being Center for Health.  Other plants at the Center include Prayer plant, Vining-Hearts, Swiss-Cheese Plant, Chinese Evergreen, Peace Lily, and Dracaena

Guest blogger Kate Porter is a naturalist, gardener, plant-whisper, soap maker and avid snow-shoer.  She has often admired the plant life at the Center.  I asked her write this blog entry telling us what she sees from the perspective of one who knows plants.


Kate, take it away.....

One of the first things I noticed on walking into the Well-Being Center for Health was how many huge, happy plants they had around the office. Clearly, some folks with serious green thumbs were working here.  I was particularly struck by a big, old ornamental begonia, the same kind I'd recently seen Martha Stewart posing with on the cover of some magazine at the supermarket. I mean, if Martha Stewart was endorsing this plant, you know it's going to be a pain in the you-know-what to take care of. And yet, here it was, thriving in the lobby of the Well Being Center for Health.

You can't fake a love of plants. Folks that get plants because they like the idea of having them often have trouble keeping them alive, especially the more sensitive ones. It takes a degree of awareness and level of attention that just isn't possible in the absence of love. (Take hibiscus, for instance: in order to nurse a hibiscus through the winter you have to practically commune with the thing on a daily basis, tenderly spraying the undersides of its leaves to prevent spider mites from devouring it, carefully monitoring the moisture level of the soil so that all the leaves don't suddenly fall off).

This is why I always take it as a tremendously good sign when a health practice has lots of big, beautiful plants. Plants are like a living testimonial to the kinds of people who work in a health practice and the sort of care you can expect to receive: here are people who are sensitive to the nuances of spaces, who pay attention and care.

Beyond the obvious statements plants make about spaces and the people who create them, they also have an impact on the health of places and the people who inhabit them. Buildings and indoor spaces - like it or not - have significantly poorer air quality than the out-of-doors. Some common indoor air pollutants include benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene. Even mild exposures to these common toxins can cause symptoms like dry eyes, chronic sore throats and headaches.

Concerned about air-quality issues on space-ships, a NASA scientist did a bunch of research on a variety of common houseplants back in the 1970's. This guy discovered that a large houseplant can filter up to 87% of the air toxins out of a room within 24 hours. As a general rule of thumb, I've heard that one large houseplant for every 100 square feet does the trick.

Beyond what NASA has to say about the value of houseplants, anyone who has ever been to the Well-Being Center for Health, someone's house who has a lot of plants, or inside a greenhouse, intuitively knows that being around plants makes you feel better. They help you relax and heal, they improve your outlook on life. And it goes without saying that a relaxed, positive attitude can have a dramatic impact on what we experience and create.