Celebrating National Indoor Plant Week and the Benefits of Houseplants

We had a blast at Healthy Houseplants celebrating the recent 2014 National Indoor Plant Week. The festivities included fun Facebook contests, including being the first to answer questions like, “What is air-layering for your houseplants, and give two good reasons to airlayer a corn plant (Dracaena fragrans)?”

Contest winners became the proud owners of prizes like a lovely lipstick plant and an autographed copy of Indoor Gardening the Organic Way.

National Indoor Plant Week also gave us a chance to celebrate the joys of indoor gardening. No matter the weather outside or even the time of day, you can always garden indoors. It’s a great hobby for all ages and for those with limited physical abilities. Indoor gardening gives you innumerable mental and physical health benefits. Houseplants also clean your indoor air of harmful toxins, and they make your home look comfortable, lived-in and gorgeous! What a joy to admire a collection of colorful African violets when it’s cold and rainy outside.

(Photos, Costa Farms)

Of course, we wouldn’t find it so easy to enjoy indoor gardening if it wasn’t for growers like Costa Farms, which has an indoor houseplant division that features 1,500 products. During National Indoor Plant Week, Garden Media Group did a tour of college campuses in Pennsylvania and gave away more than 700 houseplants from Costa Farm’s Plants of Steel Collection.

“The purpose of the tour was to spread the word about the joys of indoor gardening and ignite a love of nature,” says Garden Media Group’s Stacey Pierson. She orchestrated the tour, which included tables with signage and postcards featuring the benefits of plants. “The plants from the Costa Farm’s collection are super easy to care for and provide a great introduction to the fun world of growing houseplants,” says Pierson.

For your viewing pleasure, watch this wacky video filmed during the tour at Florida International University. See students getting their new houseplant “babies,” and enjoy some “dancing plants.”