Research carried out by the Flower Council of Holland in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands has found that flowers and plants have a positive effect on us especially during lockdowns or working from home.

Courtesy of The Flower Council of Holland

• Flowers and plants remain important during lockdowns and working from home.
• During this period consumers are looking after their houseplants and garden plants better.
• Buying flowers and plants online remains popular.
• Many respondents have a more negative view of their current and future financial situation.
• British consumers expect to buy more houseplants for themselves. We do not see this trend in the other countries.

Now that the government has ruled that things can start returning to normal, including our working situation we hope this means more plants in work situations too.

The Biophilia ‘trend’
Biophilia is now being referred to as a trend by many although those of us in the trade have known about its importance for some time now and have presumably been spredding the word successfully. In brief, Biophilia is recognised as our need to connect with nature, so surrounding ourselves with natural materials including the obvious one, plants in the form of houseplants, makes complete sense.

image by Alexander Suhorucov via pexels

With lockdown having increased the need and the popularity for houseplants, we’d be surprised if you can find an office at home or in a traditional space, that doesn’t have plants. At least we hope so.

Houseplants help our mental health, to absorb and deflect noise levels, to refresh the air, to reduce levels of minor ailments and to improve our productivity and creativity. They’re such all-rounders, it’s a wonder they didn’t become a must-have product much sooner.

Thanks to Instagram and lockdowns houseplants are now trending everywhere and we love it.

A glimpse of nature
Apparently even a glimpse of nature is good for our souls – and our brains. A ‘nature boost’ or just a glimpse of nature through a window for instance helps our brains to re-engage.

image by Alleksana via pixels

Making workplaces safer
Even though the restrictions aren’t in place any longer, if you would like to improve the spacing in your workplace, plants@work members have the tools to help make workplaces safer with plant barriers, mobile planters, groupings of plants and much more. Talk to us for more information.

Shinrin-yoku

In Japan, a popular activity to reduce anxiety and stress is called Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. This involves walking in forests or woods to reduce tension.

image via pexels

Studies have found that this method:
• Reduces blood sugar levels
• Improves hormonal and nervous system functions
• Burns more calories than other type of waking
• Reduces blood pressure and pulse rates and stabilises heart rates
• Reduces anxiety and hostility
• It also improves stress levels – in fact the higher the stress levels the greater the effect

Gardening
Again lockdown brought gardening back into favour and introduced a lot of first timers to this wonderful pastime. We guess you can include indoor gardening to that too from the number of youngster who collect houseeplants/

Outdoors, at the moment it’s more about planning for spring and summer crops but follow the likes of Monty Don for more tips.

Whatever you do, make sure you improve your life by connecting with nature whenever you can.

#connectwithnature #houseplants #biophilia #forestbathing #getoutsideinnature #bringnatureinside