# Houseplants for Clean Air?



## Time Waster (8 Jan 2022)

Over the years I've read many a newspaper article about houseplants for removing the toxins produced in a modern home by various sources including electrical/electronic devices. Whether true or not I think a little greenery is nice.

That leads me to ask what you have? What do you recommend? Do you have any interesting ways to fit more plants in your house?


----------



## CanucksTraveller (8 Jan 2022)

We're a house of succulent and cacti buffs, there's (I think) something like 70 or 80 around the house, pretty much every flat surface has spiny things growing there.


----------



## KnittyNorah (8 Jan 2022)

I have a massive spider plant (chlorophytum; apparently that is one of the best plants for air purification. I regularly have to cut mine back and always try to give lots of the baby spiders away. For a couple of years I potted them up, grew them on a bit and gave them in batches of half a dozen, to a local charity shop - but not all charity shops will accept plants. Very 'active' plants with a large surface area of transpiration ie lots of leaves are best according to an article I read which said that spider plants were one of the top three plants for air purification. 
I forget what the others were - one of the indoor climbers IIRC and I can't remember the third. But all are good, even relatively inactive, slow-growing plants. Seem the soil area also offers some of the benefits, so hydroculture plants aren't as good as the same plant growing in a pot of compost.


----------



## Reynard (8 Jan 2022)

I used to keep cacti, but when you have a tortoiseshell cat that loves to pee in the plant pots, the outcome is inevitable. 

The only thing she hasn't managed to kill is a large opuntia-type cactus and a spider plant. She chews the latter as well, but it's big enough to withstand being trashed.


----------



## MontyVeda (8 Jan 2022)

8' draconia, 3' shefflera and a calathea. 

Google is your friend as to which are the most efficient air purifiers.

I have mine mostly for aesthetics. I like a bit of greenery in the lounge.


----------



## avecReynolds531 (8 Jan 2022)

We currently have aloe vera, a peace lily, a spider plant, and a snake plant (mother-in-law's tongue). 

We're partial to our small cacti collection too. 

Too many plants have tried to survive here - we seem to have too little skill and knowledge & too much talent for allowing them to die.


----------



## Drago (8 Jan 2022)

Simply get Mayor Khhaaannnn! to declare a ULEZ in your house and drive an electeic car around indoors. Your air will be cleaner than Prince Andrews stand up routine in no time.


----------



## KnittyNorah (8 Jan 2022)

My Christmas cactus is in full bloom for the ... ? seventh ? year running. Last year it behaved very oddly, half of it flowered in _October _than the other half at Christmas and into the New Year. I'm apt to forget to feed it. I'll try to do better this year ...
It cost £1.99 from Aldi in November 2014 or 15.


----------



## Pat "5mph" (8 Jan 2022)

KnittyNorah said:


> My Christmas cactus is in full bloom for the ... ? seventh ? year running. Last year it behaved very oddly, half of it flowered in _October _than the other half at Christmas and into the New Year. I'm apt to forget to feed it. I'll try to do better this year ...
> It cost £1.99 from Aldi in November 2014 or 15.


My Christmas cactus, acquired years ago from a cutting, flowers twice every year, once in the summer, once in December.
All it's "babies" that I gave away do the same!


----------



## Mrs M (8 Jan 2022)

We used to have spider plants and a lovely palm indoors many years ago.
Gave up with houseplants as the spider plants were squashed by cats, who though they made cosy nests and the palm was seen as a challenge (to destroy).
Don’t think any indoor plants would fare better with our current 2 moggies, or the Ginger Ninja!
My hardy palms are mostly potted at the side of the house, one is planted out back and regularly de fonded! 😟


----------



## Pat "5mph" (8 Jan 2022)

Mrs M said:


> a lovely palm indoors


Same here: destroyed by 🐱 that had full outdoors access too!
I'm lucky that my current two don't bother with house plants, still, I keep the minimum


----------



## Time Waster (8 Jan 2022)

CanucksTraveller said:


> We're a house of succulent and cacti buffs, there's (I think) something like 70 or 80 around the house, pretty much every flat surface has spiny things growing there.
> View attachment 625503
> 
> View attachment 625504


Ooh! When I was a kid I'd have fun identifying the species of all those. I think I got up to about 15 different species. My first was an off shoot of my parents 15 year old cactus. It flowered for the first time and I took an offshoot then grew it on, eventually growing about 5 off that one which flowered twice. I had a Kalanchoe Katy and a "Mexican hat plant". The one that kept producing little plantlets in the notches of its leaves only to drop them into the pot and grow on. Eventually they take over. 

I was a cactus and succulent aficionado with an obsessive interest in reading ID books. When I went to garden centres with my parents I'd spend my time identifying the cacti. It's not unusual for me to spot a naming error on the ID label.

I loved the idea that some normal looking plants and spiky succulents were the same genus, like euphorbia. A fairly common garden species but also sold as a houseplant among the cacti and succulents.

Not so good for this house, we get direct sun into the windows but the sills aren't that deep and we have blinds there. So we're looking for plants that need less direct sun. Some succ might do though.


----------



## Time Waster (8 Jan 2022)

Reynard said:


> I used to keep cacti, but when you have a tortoiseshell cat that loves to pee in the plant pots, the outcome is inevitable.
> 
> The only thing she hasn't managed to kill is a large opuntia-type cactus and a spider plant. She chews the latter as well, but it's big enough to withstand being trashed.


Opuntia Robusta. A nice flat disc cactus that is actually frost hardy outdoors even in British weather. The only proviso they don't like waterlogged compost. High grit content in raised beds or pots. Even placed under shelter like an outside seating area with a cover or gazebo. Grow one outside perhaps your cat might not pee on it, or the pee won't matter.


----------



## Reynard (8 Jan 2022)

Time Waster said:


> Opuntia Robusta. A nice flat disc cactus that is actually frost hardy outdoors even in British weather. The only proviso they don't like waterlogged compost. High grit content in raised beds or pots. Even placed under shelter like an outside seating area with a cover or gazebo. Grow one outside perhaps your cat might not pee on it, or the pee won't matter.



Here is the cactus... And the cat...  Although she was about 5 months old in this pic, and she's now well over 12...


----------



## Time Waster (8 Jan 2022)

Ivy is supposed to be the best for cleaning the air. We just bought a little one. It's in the circular window above the TV. When it grows it should take out anything the TV releases.

We have a spider plant, rubber plant and a money plant that's popular in Chinese households I understand, Crassula Ovata iirc. We've just bought a few other foliage plants and our son got a cactus. I want to get more foliage plants and when i find a nice, shallow pot I quite fancy potting up a selection of cacti. I like those shallow pots with a variety of cacti and a layer of gravel on top but I want to do it myself. The local garden centre has a great selection of cacti from tiny to expensive, larger ones. I've not found the right pot yet.


----------



## Time Waster (8 Jan 2022)

Perhaps something with vicious spikes instead? I used to have an Opuntia Microdasys. Not exactly spikey but you only touch it once before you learn better. Instead of spines it had lots of fine, barbed hairs that stick in you at the slightest touch. Although it's unfair to buy something that will hurt your cat. Better to give up on things it likes to destroy.


----------



## Reynard (8 Jan 2022)

Time Waster said:


> Perhaps something with vicious spikes instead? I used to have an Opuntia Microdasys. Not exactly spikey but you only touch it once before you learn better. Instead of spines it had lots of fine, barbed hairs that stick in you at the slightest touch. Although it's unfair to buy something that will hurt your cat. Better to give up on things it likes to destroy.



I did have one of those - but never underestimate the power of a determined cat to piddle in the pot 

It's just easier not to bother tbh, especially given that so many houseplants aren't actually cat safe.


----------



## CanucksTraveller (8 Jan 2022)

Time Waster said:


> Ooh! When I was a kid I'd have fun identifying the species of all those. I think I got up to about 15 different species. My first was an off shoot of my parents 15 year old cactus. It flowered for the first time and I took an offshoot then grew it on, eventually growing about 5 off that one which flowered twice. I had a Kalanchoe Katy and a "Mexican hat plant". The one that kept producing little plantlets in the notches of its leaves only to drop them into the pot and grow on. Eventually they take over.
> 
> I was a cactus and succulent aficionado with an obsessive interest in reading ID books. When I went to garden centres with my parents I'd spend my time identifying the cacti. It's not unusual for me to spot a naming error on the ID label.
> 
> ...


Yeah! My wife has stacks of books on cacti and succulents and she keenly studies them, she also likes spotting mislabelled succulents in the garden centre too. 
I think we have about 50 different species.


----------



## Time Waster (9 Jan 2022)

Just read a book on cacti in a garden centre today. They described medicinal uses of cacti and succulents. IIRC there's a type of lythops (living stone) that's got a active ingredient that's similar in effect to LSD? Is it called peyote? Definitely not one for a house with a plant nibbling cat or dog!


----------



## Time Waster (9 Jan 2022)

CanucksTraveller said:


> Yeah! My wife has stacks of books on cacti and succulents and she keenly studies them, she also likes spotting mislabelled succulents in the garden centre too.
> I think we have about 50 different species.


I grew out of it and one by one they died. Last one to go was my first which was the one I grew from an offset from my parents only cactus. I used to joke that I had brown fingers, that even cacti died on me. Truth was I lost interest as it took time and I was a kid with other priorities. Repotting, watering, feeding, etc. I no longer had the time. Then I went to uni.


----------



## ClichéGuevara (9 Jan 2022)

Most plants have a very minimal benefit for clean air, especially when compared to simply opening your windows, never mind reducing the products used in the home that create the problems, but cacti are an incredible plant, with a host of attractive variations for blossoms.


----------



## Time Waster (9 Jan 2022)

Can be difficult to get them to flower, apart from a few genus which flower really easily like mammilaria.

Echinocactus parryi is a nice cactus also Echinocactus texensis which I had and once got a few flowers from.


----------



## raleighnut (9 Jan 2022)

Reynard said:


> Here is the cactus... And the cat...  Although she was about 5 months old in this pic, and she's now well over 12...
> 
> View attachment 625534


Love the 'eye' when Kizzy get's that look you know to keep away............................. or duck


----------



## MontyVeda (9 Jan 2022)

ClichéGuevara said:


> *Most plants have a very minimal benefit for clean air*, especially when compared to simply opening your windows, never mind reducing the products used in the home that create the problems, but cacti are an incredible plant, with a host of attractive variations for blossoms.


I think the trick is to have about 300 in each room


----------



## steveindenmark (9 Jan 2022)

I have no idea of the answer. But they always seem to gravitate to my favourite corner of the house.


----------



## dave r (9 Jan 2022)

In our kitchen we have a large Spider Plant and a small money plant.







In our lounge we have a pair of African Violets.


----------



## Reynard (9 Jan 2022)

raleighnut said:


> Love the 'eye' when Kizzy get's that look you know to keep away............................. or duck



Hah! Tell me about it... 

Madam Poppy is in purrfect Tortie Working Order.


----------



## MrGrumpy (9 Jan 2022)

No live plants at all in our house as they just die  . Honestly we forget a very busy house and don’t get much time at all to sit on my arris .


----------

