Windows open and spring in the air, we take a collective breath to welcome earth’s rebirth. Spring means winter is over.

For me, the worse part of winter is when the house is shut tight and my inner engineer tells me this ain’t natural.  I want to breathe fresh air.  I want my indoor air to be refreshed.  The most natural thing in the world for me, is to open doors and window to bring in fresh air to replace the stagnant air within.

I remember reading once when Martha Stewart was looking for office space in New York City, one of her criteria was a building where the windows could be opened.  I knew then, we were like minded thinkers.

When one of my children are sick, I go into this super purifying mode – I clean sheets, the room and I open the windows to let in fresh air.  There may be evidence to support the benefits of this but that isn’t why I do it.  I do it because it’s intuitive.  Out with the bad and in with the good. I often think this is analogous to blood letting of ancient times, but I get better results.

Also during the winter, I bring in tropicals to winter over.  My home in the winter makes room for palms, Aloe Vera and other succulents, orchids, various Dracaena, ferns, Corn Plant, Peace Lilies, plus an array of cuttings I’m propagating.  These plants keep company with a few plants that stay indoors year round.  Having these over-wintering visitors keep the darker days sane.  But as the days grow longer and the anticipation of spring arrives, I become most anxious to move them outdoors.  Of course the reason for this is if they are outdoors, then so am I.

Recently, I had the good fortune to visit Costa Farms Costa Farms in Florida.  It was a media tour where I expected to learn about the company and the plants they grew.  I knew of Costa Farms, because I see their plants at local retailers and use their plants in many of my designs.

My take away was the benefits of the plants they grow.  Perhaps I should have known this intuitively, especially since I am a gardener and know a little bit about plants.  But I wasn’t familiar with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research study conducted, in part, with Dr. B.C. Wolverton and presented in layman terms in the book entitled, How To Grow Fresh Air.

I could have gotten my geek on and researched the raw data from the study, having worked as an air pollution engineer for 20 year; I always found some perverse pleasure in interpreting data.   But intuitively I knew the data made sense, because I lived with the effects.  I just didn’t know how well until I read the book.

The book addresses 50 houseplants and their benefits for cleaning indoor air pollutants.  Each plant was given an overall rating based on the ease of growth and maintenance, resistance to pest, efficiency at removing chemical vapors, and transpiration rates.  Each are important factors to make air more breathable. So now after this winter, not all those over-wintering plants will go back outside, and if they do, I will add a few more plants to be year round residents.

Who knew a 6’ Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) transpires ~1 quart of water every 24 hours and was consistently rated among the best houseplants for removing all indoor air toxins tested in the study which encompassed 87% of indoor air pollutants?  I didn’t.  I knew it as aesthetically pleasing and something that immediately calmed me during times of stress.  But now I have evidence, that it also clears most of the indoor air pollutants.

During my visit, I learned that to reduce the maximum amount of indoor air pollutants, place a plant every 100 square feet.  I’m sure this is based on some average plant size and average ranking of plants for air purification abilities.

So, for my living room, measuring 18’ x 13’ or 234 square feet, I need to have 2.34 plants for the best benefits.  I discovered during a quick count, there are five plants residing during the wintering time period of first frost to last frost months, but there is typically only one plant in the living room year round.

I now have a good excuse to purchase another plant or two, to add in this my living room. What I didn’t learn was what if I have twice as many plants or 10 times the minimum needed?   Would the benefits be 2 or 10 times as effective?  Probably not.  My intuition tells me, though, the aestictics and stress reducing qualities, will increase.

Although during my visit to Costa Farms went into a direction I didn’t see coming, I also kept a keen eye open to the business and how well it was managed by looking to employees, the site’s tidiness, overall morale, all signs, in my opinion, of a good work environment.  From what I could see, all indicators scored high.  Perhaps it because they work in an environment surrounded by plants.  Maybe this is my best argument for wanting to add more indoor plants to my work environment.  Well, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.  Gotta run, I need to go plant shopping…as a minimum, each of my kids will come home to a new plant sitting on their night stands.

To see more photos from my trip, visit Gardening With Confidence™, Facebook page.

My visit to Costa Farms was as part group of other garden communicators for Costa Farms’s first-ever Social Summit.  Also at the Summit were Justin Hancock of Better Homes and Gardens, Steve Bender of Southern Living, Stacey Hirvela of Martha Stewart Living, Judy Lowe of Christian Science Monitor, Aaron Able of Apartment Therapy, Brenda Haas of BG Garden, and Chris Tidrick of From the Soil.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.