Fake Poser Plants vs the Health and Wellness Benefits of Real Plants
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Selling Fake Plants Isn’t My Jam
Imagine trying to convince people to buy fake plants for a living. In the world of affiliate marketing, every day aspiring writers and affiliate marketers people write detailed, informed articles about the reasons to buy fake indoor plants, rather than experiencing real ones.
We’re not talking about any run-of-the-mill plant like this oversized, palm fan leaf above from West Elm. A plant can be so outrageously fake as to have a modern design aesthetic.
I’m talking about well-written, affiliate-marketing articles designed to sell poser plants — the kind that get dusty in the corner of a room, while offering you no or minimal health benefits.
Plants are way beyond “having a moment’, as one reviewer hawking fake plants noted. AOC agrees. So why not create some human connections in our digital waves world?
Biophilia in Our Lives
Plants are one of the most effective health and wellness essential supplements in our lives. Whether in the park or purifying air in our bedrooms, nature’s greenery delivers tangible, well-researched benefits to human wellbeing in the form of house plants.
Yes, fake plants can add a pop of color to your indoor interior, if you can get beyond the fact that most plants are made of plastic and create serious questions about sustainability. Yes, there is progress on the Stella McCartney-approved fake plant front, but most poser plants have no sustainability cred.
A Pop of Color vs Poser Plant Fakery
Martha Stewart says that fake plants can feel icky, but it’s time to for us to let the stigma go, because she has found some real beauties.
Dear Martha is selling fake plants on the Martha Stewart website, as part of the same article. Make no mistake, we love Martha, and of course, she will make a strong case for the poser plants.
If anyone can find the best fake plants around, it should be the indefatigable Martha Stewart, especially in the company of her close friend Snoop Dogg.
Fake Plant Foolery
Many of us know the irritating experience of being seduced by some really beautiful flowers or an attention-captivating floor plant across the room.
It plays coy, refusing to come to us, knowing that it’s an absolutely enticing botanical specimen and we will make the first move. The vision reminds me of a man I know.
Getting out of our comfort zones, we walk over for a human experience of “smelling the roses”. Preparing to inhale, we our senses discover cold, lifeless fakery. We might even blame our brain for tricking us into this inert foliage encounter.
Human brains are supposed to know the difference between real and fake plants, and we’re irritated and feeling duped. Communing with greenery is supposed to lower blood pressure, not send a shot of annoyed adrenalin throughout our COVID-world bloodstreams. These poser plants cause our cortisol stress hormone levels to rise instead of dropping.
No Botanical Fakery on Anne of Carversville
You will not find Anne of Carversville promoting the benefits of living with fake plants. And very few people actually have a “black thumb” and are unable to care for low-maintenance varieties of live plants. You should consider your empathy quotient and connection of nature generally, if every plant dies in your presence. Perhaps you are just too busy to keep anything alive.
Note that if your companions include cats, dogs or young children — but not a bestie, spouse or significant other — live plants could be a problem.
If one is committed to biophilic design — as I’ve been always without knowing the name for my feelings — adding live plants to your living space is the easiest way to establish a thriving connection to nature. The health benefits are plentiful and based on a mile-high mountain of evidence.
America’s Plants Arrived on Slave Ships, Not Only the Mayflower
Humans didn’t suddenly discover the health benefits of plants. It’s part of our psychological DNA. A knowledge of medicinal and edible plants by at least some community leaders in the sacred communities of Africa was well established.
If we are honest with ourselves, regardless of our skin color, most of our ancestors came from animistic cultures. They believed that all things — including plants — hold a spirit. At the risk of public censure by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, let me say that many of America ‘s favorite plants and seedlings arrived on slave ships.
“The story of African crops is little known and poorly understood,” explained UCLA professor of geography Judith Carney in National Geographic. “To look at these plants is to engage the organization of the slave trade as corridors for the diffusion of African plants to the Americas.”
Carney has written a book In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World, in which she traces the origins and trajectories of Africa’s major crops as they traveled the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships.
Okay, Anne. Give Us the Science, Please
In the coming weeks, we’ll dig into generally-accepted health benefits of living with plants. What exactly is the science around each of the alleged benefits? We’ll drill down on the facts. Remember, though, that the placebo effect in medicine is very real. If humans believe that a remedy is going to cure them, it often generates a positive outcome.
These health benefits of living with plants include:
Indoor plants are believed to assist in reducing stress levels and sharpen cognitive function.
Tending to plants indoors and outdoors is part of a growing discipline called horticultural therapy. The ancient practice has positive impact on depression, anxiety, dementia and other conditions. Medical clinics in Manchester, England are now “prescribing” potted plants to patients with depression or anxiety symptoms. Limited research indicates that being able to look at plants and flowers can speed up hospital recoveries.
Plants may boost your productivity. With companies like Apple and Google, joined by Microsoft and Facebook, leading workplaces devoted to biophilic design, significant research is emerging from large populations of workers on plants, productivity and a positive attitude.
A single plant can’t result in replacing the purifying efficiency of modern biofilters, but making plants a significant presence in your household probably can. NASA uses plants to improve the air quality in a sealed spacecraft. A 1980s study prompted NASA researchers to conclude that phytoremediation — using plants to reduce contaminants from the air — is effective.
Returning to the long and joyous friendship between Martha and Snoop, I wondered if they ever get out of the kitchen. Googling “Martha+Snoop+green plants”, I said “silly me” over Google’s top returns. They include: Martha Stewart is teaching Snoop Dogg to grow plant-based food and more recently in Jan 2021 Martha Stewart’s New CBD Line Was Inspired by Snoop Dogg. Ah yes, Martha’s latest venture.
That’s another future health and wellness article for AOC.
This global traveler has a meandering mind, but one under control these days. Before delving into CBD in any way, AOC is committed to exploring in the many reasons for you to live with an abundance of foliage nearby — preferably live and away from children, dogs, cats and hamsters, when required.
This recent plunge into “the original Anne” — prompted by my move to Virginia, earth-friendly fibers and a determination to make my own GlamTribal collection 95% sustainable — has my mind and body absolutely on fire.
On that note, I must go pick up new Krobo beads from Ghana in the mailbox, with a stop at the gym along the way. Then again, perhaps a walk back along the river. Life is good in Virginia. And it’s about to get even better. ~ Anne
