We need a trillion more indoor plants.

[DougF]

These green buildings are very cool looking and i think there are a Good idea,

The only thing I seem too remember a concern about the plants breaking apart the fascia of the buildings. ( the way roots can crack concrete)

I still think this is a good idea we just have to make sure it does not destroy the building. (I think this looks better then paint).

[Ganoderma]

yes i agree....much better in every way except plants do destroy buildings! i seem to remember somethign on Discovery Canada talking about a Ford Factory refitting for a "green" veiw....they has some fancy *** roof technology to avoid this very problem (roots)...that was years ago, i cant remember what exactly it was.

 

i would think this is only good for conrete buildings as wood ones run high risk of fungus, insects and rot! even concrete run risks of roots damaging them, but far less risk than other materials!

 

The Empress hotel in Victoria BC Canada has ivy growing all over it and has so for many many years! thats expensive 100 year rock buildings for ya!!!

 

[Michaelangelica]

ARAAAAGH!!

This is terrible!!

Giant Plastic Trees To Save Planet by the Removal of CO2

Could US scientist's 'CO2 catcher' help to slow warming? | Environment | The Guardian

Don't we have leaves on plants that do this??

The prototype so-called scrubber will be small enough to fit inside a shipping container. Lackner estimates it will initially cost around £100,000 to build, but the carbon cost of making each device would be "small potatoes" compared with the amount each would capture, he said.

How many plants could you buy for $200,000-$250,000?

When they start to look crappy you could turn them into charcoal.

Less detailed article with space for nasty comments here

Giant Plastic Trees To Save Planet by the Removal of CO2 : EcoWorldly

 

Screen Shots of LeafLab

[freeztar]

I would need to see some stats on those plastic trees to make a call on it, but it does seem rather silly...

[Michaelangelica]

I would need to see some stats on those plastic trees to make a call on it, but it does seem rather silly...

Stop being scientific and get emotional like me THEY ARE PLASTIC AAAARGHHH!:)

[Michaelangelica]

 

The Empress hotel in Victoria BC Canada has ivy growing all over it and has so for many many years! thats expensive 100 year rock buildings for ya!!!

 

Sorry I missed that post in my horror about plastic plants

I went to a Univesity that was being built as I attended it. It was in the days of 60's cement modling architecture (In fact the fashion was over 1967- but no one told Macquarie's architect) Many of the buildings looked like French or German Gun emplacements of WW1

For some bizarre reason, I was in the first debate at Macquarie which was "That this University should be covered in Instant Ivy".

I have been back to the Uni in recent years. It is even worse now with Multi story car parks everywhere. (of course it was placed well away from public Transport- great planning)

 

One of the less 'brutal' buildings at Macquarie. There is a surprising? lack of photos of its buildings on Google.

[Michaelangelica]

In an article published in a recent issue of Horticultural Science, researchers at Texas State University in San Marcos found that workers who had at least one plant in their offices

• rated themselves as happier in their work
  
• more satisfied with life in general
  
• happiest of all were those with windows and greenery
  
• but it is more important to have a plant than a window,
  
• plants provide a calming visual cue for the troubled
  
• create a link to humans' evolutionary past.
  

South Bend Tribune: A greenish tint to office health

 

Another study on plants in hospitals:-

Findings of this study confirmed the therapeutic value of plants in the hospital environment as a noninvasive, inexpensive, and effective intervention for surgical patients in a general hospital ward.

Patients exposed to plants:-

• experienced shorter hospitalisations,
  
• fewer intakes of postoperative analgesics,
  
• more positive physiological responses,
  
• less pain, anxiety, and fatigue than patients in the control group.
  

Outcomes of this study will substantially affect patientsâ and hospital administrators decisions that indoor plant intervention can:-

• foster improved medical outcomes,
  
• increase satisfaction with providers
  
• and be acceptably cost effective as compared to other alternatives
  

.

K-State Research Exchange: Randomized clinical trials evaluating therapeutic influences of ornamental indoor plants in hospital rooms on health outcomes of patients recovering from surgery

[Michaelangelica]

17/9/07 - 'Green roofs' could cool warming cities

NewScientist.com news service -Catherine Brahic

 

Covering city buildings in vegetation – creating “green roofs” and walls – could substantially save energy by reducing the need for air conditioning on hot days, say researchers.

 

Green roofs and walls can cool local temperatures by between 3.6°C and 11.3°C, depending on the city, suggests their new study.

 

Eleftheria Alexandri and Phil Jones at the Welsh School of Architecture, at the University of Cardiff in the UK, mimicked the microclimate around and inside buildings using computer modelling. They compared local temperatures when buildings were made of bare concrete with when the concrete was covered in vegetation.

 

Such green surfaces are already in use – roofs that are strong enough to take the additional load can be covered with mosses, turf and even trees. In Switzerland, roofs covered in alpine plants that require little soil are becoming increasingly common. Walls can also be greened, often by climbing plants planted at ground level.

 

Temperature drop

 

The researchers compared the effects of green surfaces in nine cities around the world, including subarctic Montreal in Canada, temperate London in the UK, humid Mumbai (India), and tropical Brasília (Brazil). In all cases, they studied the month during which that city sees its hottest temperatures.

Action HOPE: TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES

[Michaelangelica]

17/9/07

- 'Green roofs' could cool warming cities

NewScientist.com news service -Catherine Brahic

 

Covering city buildings in vegetation – creating “green roofs” and walls – could substantially save energy by reducing the need for air conditioning on hot days, say researchers.

 

Green roofs and walls can cool local temperatures by between 3.6°C and 11.3°C, depending on the city, suggests their new study.

 

Eleftheria Alexandri and Phil Jones at the Welsh School of Architecture, at the University of Cardiff in the UK, mimicked the microclimate around and inside buildings using computer modelling. They compared local temperatures when buildings were made of bare concrete with when the concrete was covered in vegetation.

 

Such green surfaces are already in use – roofs that are strong enough to take the additional load can be covered with mosses, turf and even trees. In Switzerland, roofs covered in alpine plants that require little soil are becoming increasingly common. Walls can also be greened, often by climbing plants planted at ground level.

 

Temperature drop

 

The researchers compared the effects of green surfaces in nine cities around the world, including subarctic Montreal in Canada, temperate London in the UK, humid Mumbai (India), and tropical Brasília (Brazil). In all cases, they studied the month during which that city sees its hottest temperatures.

Action HOPE: TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES

[Michaelangelica]

The Lucky Bamboo Is A Perfect Desktop Plant

If you wish to place a nice green, indoor plant on your desk, or bedroom table, that only requires a minimum of care, then the Lucky Bamboo can be just what you are looking for. Despite the name, Lucky Bamboo is not really bamboo at all, they just look like bamboo and I don’t really think they are lucky.

 

Their requirements are minimal. All you need to do, is provide them with regular cleaning, change the water weekly and allow lots of light, but not direct sunlight.

You don’t need to reproduce them, or feed them, or plant them, or weed around them, like traditional plants.

dersalsites.com | Sallys Gardening Tips | Gardens, Plants, Gardening, Indoor Plants, Landscaping, Organics, Hydroponics, Flowers, Gardening Tips, etc

[Ganoderma]

They are great....i am not sure why but i always get "peeved" (do you say that in AUS?) when they call it bamboo...its a dracaena (sp?)

 

anyway, i agree they are great. very hard to kill and grow pretty good with low light and nutes....i think they may even be better suited for indoor (crap) conditions than Pachira! i am going to go raid the farm tomorrow and get some cuts for the house i think :cup:

 

i think that bromeliades are also a HAVE TO HAVE HOUSE PLANT.

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks Ganoderma

Mostly we use pissed or pissed off but my lady-like wife gets peeved.

 

I agree about names. You would get very "P ---fill in own letters here--d" if you saw the Nursery industry misinformation here.

 

Just bought in a big pot of small bromeliads. They are popular garden plants around here. I only just realised they will survive indoors. You certainly can't kill them in the garden. Although they are supposed to be epiphytes I sprinkled lots of osmocote (slow release fertiliser) over some biggish ones and they took off like rockets- flowering profusely and doubling the size of the clump..

I am told that each "piece" only flowers once. Has that been your experience?

[Ganoderma]

yes, but they pup regularily. and some, like the pineapple, have a new plant after the flower. they do GREAT indoors.....even in canada where they HAVE to be indoors in the winter they plug along nicely. i only even planted them on wood in vivariums and they sure grow faster when in dirt.

[Michaelangelica]

So do you pull out the old ( already flowered ) plants?

[Michaelangelica]

Indoor Gardening | Gardeners World Online

Indoor Gardening

 

 

Plants can be just as useful as furniture in you home decorating. Aside from their beauty, they also have some health benefits - use carbon dioxide and product oxygen.

 

So how do you take care of your indoor beauties?

 

Lighting:

 

Plants need light to live and grow. Darker leaved plants usually don't need as much light as others. Be sure to research the light needs of your plants before you set them out.

 

There are varieties of plants that usually don't require a lot of light:

 

* Philodendrons

* Boston ferns

* African violets

* Cyclamens

* Creeping Fig

 

Watering:

 

All plants need water to survive. But be careful not to over water them. And be sure the roots don't sit in water all the time - they will drown and die.

 

Potting:

Indoor Gardening | Gardeners World Online

[Ganoderma]

So do you pull out the old ( already flowered ) plants?

 

to avoid rot/bacteria etc yes i throw out the dead material. with things like pineapples i just cut the top and start a new plant via cutting. or you can let the plant pup on its own ;)

 

 

 

Creeping Fig is a favourite of mine! nice tiny leaved foliage plants! Actually i like all Ficus sp. and many do well indoors by a window. Croton (sp?) also do well indoors, but i *think* they are toxic when eaten.

[Michaelangelica]

House Plants Clean the Air

 

If you read Self-Assessment to Determine if You May Have Biological Pollutants in Your Home, then you know how important indoor air quality can be, and how widespread indoor air contamination really is.

 

The good news is that a classic NASA study found that common house plants could improve air quality. In fact, they reported that houseplants were able to remove up to 87 percent of air toxins in 24 hours. The recommendation? Use 15 to 18 "good-sized" house plants in 6- to 8-inch diameter containers for an 1,800 square-foot house.

Plants can remove a variety of toxic air emissions including ammonia, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, benzene, xylene and trichloroethytene. See the box above for some of the best plant varieties to choose, and remember-the healthier the plant, the more purifying it will be.

 

An excellent resource for anyone who's serious about using plants to their clean air advantage is How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home or Office.

 

Plants Make You Happy

http://www.sixwise.com/images/articles/2005/02/01.houseplants2.jpg

 

House plants make people feel calmer and more optimistic, says Bruno Cortis, M.D., a Chicago cardiologist. Interestingly, he says that studies have shown that hospital patients who face a window with a garden view recovered more quickly than those who had to look at a wall.

Plants Fight Fatigue and Colds

 

According to a University of Agriculture in Norway study, indoor plants can reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses by more than 30 percent, partially by increasing humidity levels and decreasing dust.

 

The Health Benefits of House Plants, Including the Top Nine Healthiest Plants!