Healthy rituals | Harnessing the power of plants | Leaf Envy
Like Pentire, Leaf Envy began on the water with a powerful belief in the power of plants. However, whilst our ideas were brewing on a board in North Cornwall, the vessel of choice for founder of Leaf Envy, Beth Chapman, was a boat on Regents Canal, where she held her first floating jungle pop-up in 2019.
Beth started Leaf Envy with an innate desire to help others connect with nature by creating beautiful botanical spaces in their own homes. Fast forward two years and Leaf Envy now offers a carefully curated selection of unusual, high quality plants and pots that can be delivered directly to your door, along with a hub of super helpful advice and care tips to help your botanicals to flourish.
It’s pretty clear from our foliage-filled social media feeds of beautifully crafted roomscapes that houseplants really can transform a space, helping to soften and inject subtle yet rich accents of colour. But beyond this, the ritual of caring for plants can help to make us feel good too. Research has shown links between plant care and a range of emotional, physical and mental health benefits from air purification to boosting productivity and creativity, as well as reducing stress.
Biophilia, a term used to describe our innate love of nature, suggests that our attraction to plants has been built through hundreds of thousands of years of living in agrarian environments. By introducing plants into our home, we create spaces that are sympathetic to our genetic coding and overall health, making us feel good.
We caught up with Beth to figure out how we can harness the ritual of plant therapy to help us feel good. Here are 5 things she told us:
- Detox - Many houseplants are air-purifying and have detoxifying effects on polluted air, which can make your immediate living space more comfortable and cleansing to spend time in
- Personalised space - Going through the process of selecting and placing plants in your home can be one of great enjoyment and immersion, particularly if you are renting and want to make a house or flat feel like home
- Hands-on-activity - Unlike so many of the screen-based activities that take up much of our attention and time, spending time caring for plants can bring you an alternative sense of fulfilment through practical activity
- Personal achievement - The cultivation of plants and watching them flourish as you nurture and care for them brings a huge sense of personal achievement
- Focus - If meditation isn’t really your thing, or even if it is, sharing your space with plants has been shown to help with focus and caring for them is a mindful activity that can help you switch off from other distractions.
Like all living things though, plants need nurturing to flourish. And that’s not always an easy task, particularly when you’re introducing lots of different varieties into your home that require varying levels of water and sunlight exposure.
We asked Beth to share one of her best tips for a first plant buyer to help their green babies flourish. This is what she told us:
Finding the perfect spot for your plants is key. So make sure the first thing you do is understand its' light requirements, bearing in mind the natural light that your home receives. A very common mistake people make is putting house plants directly on the window sill! When in fact most plants prefer indirect light as full sun rays can scorch your plants delicate leaves. What plants can stay on the window sill? Some species that love direct sunlight are: Cacti, Succulents & Snake plants. Also, don't be afraid to move your plant around until it finds its' forever home! Some species are undeniably lower maintenance than others, and for beginners, we'd recommend starting with a collection of easy-care plants.
And finally, We asked Beth to share her recommendation for a plant and pot combo.
Personally, my favourite plant & pot combination is the rare and extremely photogenic Anthurium Clarinervium paired with our best-selling Broadway pot in Sea Spray. The stunning symmetrical and velvety dark green leaves of this Anthurium pair perfectly with the earthy tone of the simple Broadway pot.
For some beautiful botanical inspiration, check out the Leaf Envy instagram page @leafenvy, or visit their website at www.leafenvy.co.uk. We personally love the roomscapes section of their website where there are heaps of visuals to help inspire our room styling through smart placement of plants.