First impressions are everything. It’s not just the home they’re judging, the place they’ll be living in, it is you, the landlord, and your place of work. Having a dank and dreary leasing office or entry room in the property is no way to impress them as a caring and responsible landlord. Not only that, having a bright and cheery office makes your day better, as well.
Not everyone can go all out with a pretty, well-maintained rose bush and open windows with a fresh breeze coming through. In more populated areas, the air outside can often be muggy and thick with local pollution. And inside, bland walls and fluorescent lighting can be a nasty, dull first impression. For a bright, cleaner smelling office, sometimes the quickest, easiest solution can fit into one potted plant.
The Best Plants for a Happy Office
In 1989, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration originally published the NASA Clean Air Study. The study compiled a list of air filtering plants that could remove toxic agents and reduce carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. National Geographic agreed, claiming plants – and “tree walls” – have great effect on mood, sleep quality, and more. While National Geographic states that tree walls could remove ten to thirty percent of air pollution, most people have to settle for something like a few plants. The final suggestion was to have one plant per one hundred square feet or 9.3 square meters.
Many of the plants NASA studied were larger green masses of leaves, as one could expect, but several do have colorful flowering buds. Check out our favorite pretty air filters for your office.
Aloe Vera
Yes, yes, this one does not actually have a flower, but it is the only one on the list that doesn’t! What it does have is household popularity with easy-to-recognize stubby and short stems. It’s an easy conversation piece as not only does it help filter air, but many will recognize it from its commercial use in everything from cosmetics to yogurts to healthcare to some oddity based alternative medical practices.
When a tenant walks in and notices the plant, it’s easy to begin a friendly demeanor. Yes, that’s my aloe vera, my mom used to keep it around for her psoriasis and kitchen burns. Do you take a shot of it with your Jamba Juice? There’s a shop right around the corner of our property. Isn’t it great how well this is working for you?
Chrysanthemum Morifolium
Often called the florist’s daisy or the hardy garden mum (do you know why? Leave a comment below and let us know), this plant’s petals can be red, white, yellow, and even lavender. The branches are described as silky to the touch. These are very old plants, dating as far back as 500 B.C.E. These bright bulbs of color bloom in October, making your office the one bright and colorful spot in a space filled with skeletons and black bats for Halloween decorations.
Gerbera Jamesonii
The barberton daisy is known for its vivid red or orange coloring. The flower’s home is in Barberton in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. This particular daisy made history as the first Gerbera to be scientifically studied and was featured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1889. While it can grow best in the full light it will handle darker areas well if it has moist but not drenched soil that is well fertilized.
Spathiplyllum Mauna Loa
The peace lily will be an elegant touch to pretty much any office. It has a touch of a misnomer, as lilies are known for their toxicity to humans and pets were one to accidentally ingest them at a poisonous level, but the peace lily is far less so. Instead of causing kidney failure in some cats and other dangerous symptoms, the peace lily would cause more minor symptoms like nausea and is therefore not considered a real lily and is not from the family Liliaceae.
These plants, while pretty, were not listed by for their colorful visage. NASA instead studied these plants for their ability in a static condition to remove harmful agents from the air. NASA specifically targeted tests and found these plants to be able to remove benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene and improve oxygen levels. While the results have been more varied when plants are not in a literal space station, a lovely plant is still bound to brighten any room and give a breath of fresh air to both your residents and applicants.
What is your favorite kind of household plant? Let us know in the comments below!
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