You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to learn how to take care of a plant. Here are an expert’s top picks for novice plant owners.
It can be tough keeping plants alive indoors, especially during the dark, dry, winter months.
But if they can thrive, indoor plants have all sorts of benefits. Plants can regulate indoor humidity, and they’ve been shown to make people feel content and peaceful around the world. In Norway, office workers report that having plants at work helps them stay productive and healthy. In Japan, plants literally fight crime — a Tokyo neighborhood dealing with a spate of break-ins planted flowers and saw its burglary rates fall 80%.
Even rocket scientists agree: when NASA studied houseplants in the 1980s, the space agency found that they can remove dangerous organic chemicals from indoor air, like formaldehyde, benzene, and the industrial solvent trichloroethylene.
Business Insider spoke to New York City plant expert Matthew Schechter, who’s worked in a family plant business his whole life.
Tech: 5 health-promoting plants that will clean the air in your home — and are very hard to kill
