Fresh flowers and house plants are wonderful accessories to complement your decor and brighten up any room? But which ones do you choose?
The easiest way to freshen up our homes is by opening the windows and allowing in the scent of fresh flowers. Unfortunately, that isn’t always practical as the weather outside might be terrible, or there could be lots of bugs about. So, what options do you have when you need to leave the windows closed?
Well, you could plug in some air fresheners, but their fragrances can often be quite strong and overpowering. Thankfully, there is a better way to freshen up your home that will add some lovely, natural aromas to it. You just need to add fresh flowers and plants to your home!
Plants and flowers are great at purifying the air and adding lots of extra oxygen as well as their beautiful fragrances. Not sure which plants or fresh flowers would work wonders in your home? Here are some of my favourites.
Peonies
Peonies are often referred to as ‘romantic’ blooms and are seen in vintage and wedding bouquets. They are incredibly pretty and come in a variety of colours from deep red to blush pink. As fresh flowers they look gorgeous on display.
Lush with a rounded bloom, Peonies are said to embody romance and prosperity and are regarded as an omen of good fortune and a happy marriage.
Lillies
I’m also crazy about lilies – any lilies, but especially large and colourful blooms. Lilies work with any decor, don’t require any other flowers to accompany them, and they have an oriental vibe – well, to me they do.
When you buy a bunch of fresh flowers and all the buds are closed you don’t know what colours you’ll get. And then they gradually open and explode with life.
There are many varieties of lillies from which to choose. But if you want them all year ’round, then how about bedlinen? I love this range of lilly and floral bedlinen by Lily Pulitzer available from Garnet Hill.
Dracaena
There are lots of varieties of Dracaena (forty in fact!), so you will certainly have a lot of choice when you are looking to bring this plant into your home. It’s quite a simple plant that doesn’t require much looking after, which makes it perfect for busy homeowners or use in offices.
Mist plants with room temperature water and group with other plants to encourage humid conditions. However, Dracaena aren’t a good option if you have pets in your home as they are quite toxic to animals.
Peace Lily
Lilies are a favourite with most florists like A Touch of Class Florist, so ask your local one if they have any gorgeous peace lilies in that you can buy. You could buy these in a bouquet with some other flowers to display in a vase on your dining table.
Alternatively, you might like to keep things simple and simply place a pot of these lilies on your mantelpiece. Known for their fantastic air-cleaning abilities, these lilies carry a lot of pollen so just make sure you don’t knock them or all that pollen will sprinkle onto the floor!
Aloe Plant
Aloe plants are known for their healing gel that is found in their leaves. It is often used to treat burns on the skin. But these plants also have some fantastic air-cleaning abilities as well.
They work very hard at clearing out all of the various pollutants that are often found in the air of homes, especially those that come from cleaning products. As long as the plant is placed in lots of sunlight, then it should grow well without too much attention.
Weeping Fig
The weeping fig plant is sometimes called ficus, so it’s a good idea to have both of these names in your mind when you are shopping for it.
This is a great place if you have an empty corner in your home that you need to fill as it can grow really tall and fill most spaces – in fact, some people claim that their weeping fig has grown up to 10 feet tall!
It’s a great plant for purifying the air and is very low maintenance.
Which plant do you fancy? As long as you pick one from this list, you can be sure that your home will have clean air!