Item No. 55: Buy a Houseplant

(Source: Houseplants for Healthier Eyes)

An easy way to make a house a home, is to add a houseplant.  It can be fake, but what's the fun in that?  Living houseplants add life, and can enhance the air we breathe (like a natural air purifier). Unfortunately, when it comes to plants, I have a history of killing them, and I don't mean by eating them.  I have over the past 10 years, killed every house or outdoor plant I've owned, Oops!  Each plant I've owned has been a different species, and each succeeding plant seems to live longer than its predecessor (that's a good sign right?).  Yet, I will not give up on my ability to care for one.  It seems that my house plants have a better hope of survival since I am inside everyday, and don't always get outside to tend to the outsiders.  So for item 55 on my list of 101 things, I came across this article Houseplants for Healthier Eyes And Cleaner Indoor Air, by way of my optometrists website.  Its a good article about houseplants that clean the air, which in turn, improves eye health, and our health in general by removing indoor toxins.  Listed in the article was another article, The Top 10 Plants For Removing Indoor Toxins which also helped me in my search for my next plant/experiment/victim.  And of course I searched Pinterest for more houseplant ideas.  From my sources I have come up with a few options:

Philodendron:
Comes in many varieties.
 I am particularly partial to the
hanging variety, maybe for my mantle.

Boston Fern:
This is also listed on NASA's list
of plants that improve air quality.
I'm thinking this could go on a
stand in our bedroom upstairs.

Spider Plant:
I love the way the branches hang,
and new "babies" are born,
from which you can create more transplants.
There is a hook in my ceiling in the
living room that I could hang this from.

 Succulents:
I am very attracted to these,
I will probably look for a pre-made
arrangement to start with.
This would be a nice touch to
the kitchen or bathrooms.

I haven't included some other common "easy" to care for plants, because either I've already killed them, or I wasn't partial to them for myself.  And I most certainly am not going to consider the Lucky Bamboo plant, it would be extremely bad luck if I end up letting it die!  Actually, when I look a these plants, I am reminded of my late Nana & Papa's house in Monterey, CA, and also my Grandmother's house in Alameda.  They were both full of lovely houseplants, including some, if not all, of these plants I have chosen.  My next step is to research which plants are best suited for the environment I live in, find a local nursery to see what they suggest, get some prices, and figure out where I will place my plant(s).