Office Plants

My husband and I both moved into new office spaces recently. He has an office, I have a cubicle. Three gray walls hug me each day, a computer screen send its radiant waves into my face, flourescent lights pelt me from above. Even though I work in the medical profession, I've never felt so unhealthy.

On my Christmas wish list are two items to green my workspace:

Plants

and

A Salt Lamp

First, plants: From a NT Times article on hardly houseplants, I have narrowed the selection to these stalwarts:

WAX PLANT (HOYA CARNOSA VARIEGATA) Can sprawl some 15 feet along a bamboo pole, from one window to another. The wax plant takes its style cues from “Desperately Seeking Susan”: the new vines are hot pink; the flowers, patently fake. The secret to raising it to adulthood, is “to back off the water” in the winter, imitating the plant’s natural dry period. 

RABBIT’S FOOT FERN (DAVALLIA FEJEENSIS) A hanging basket made of wooden slats provides a comfy home for this fuzzy native of the Pacific Islands. Encouraged to “creep around the bottom of the basket it can make a kind of fern ball.” In the summer, the fern swings from the branch of a peach tree in the courtyard. 

BIRD’S NEST FERN (ASPLENIUM NIDUS)A shade-loving plant, whose form resembles “a badminton shuttlecock” turned “upside-down.” The new growth from the central rosette is chartreuse, the older fronds, which may be a foot wide, are dark and shiny. 

CROTON (CODIAEUM VARIEGATUM) Finally, a plant that matches everything: the whorls of brightly colored leaves can be yellow, red, green and orange. When the shrub grows large and woody, it can practically steal your date at a party. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s conservatory you can see it from 50 yards away, looking through the glass.

Multimedia

Slide Show

Plant Experts’ Picks for Hardy Indoor Plants

★ CAST-IRON PLANT (ASPIDISTRA ELATIOR) Like vending machines and cosplay, the aspidistra is big in Japan. Maybe it’s the ground-level flowers that bear an unlikely eight petals — the botanical equivalent of a two-headed goat at the state fair. Or perhaps it’s the plant’s indifference to light and water. Ultimately, you can treat this plant like a piece of furniture. That is to say, remember to dust its foot-long leaves every once in a while.

MOTH ORCHID (PHALAENOPSIS) The colors and cultivars of these popular orchids may outnumber iPhone apps. The cultivar called Baldan’s Kaleidoscope is yellow with red stripes; amabilis resembles a clean white kimono. Though some consumers think of these gift-plants as disposable, with enough sunlight they will flower again and may ultimately span two or three feet. “You could keep it forever — 10, 20, 30 years. 

PEACE LILY (SPATHIPHYLLUM) Growing a peace lily for its “dark shiny leaves” might be like listening to Rufus Wainwraight for the bass line. What sells this plant, be it desktop-size or six feet tall, is the cup-shaped white flower with the studded stamen. From a commercial standpoint, if it didn’t have those flowers, it probably wouldn’t exist.

PONYTAIL PALM (BEAUCARNEA RECURVATA) Name aside, this native of arid Central America isn’t a true palm. And the burst of long, thin leaves on top looks less like Charo than Rod Stewart (in his “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” years). In any event, this plant is no diva, subsisting on weak light and occasional watering. There’s not a lot you need to do to it..

MALAYSIAN DRACAENA (PLEOMELE REFLEXA) With its thin, upright trunk and tangle of shiny green foliage on top, this Pleomele resembles a pompom noisemaker from New Years Eve. In the winter warmth of Florida, plant growers “look for the reds and the purples.” But the “consumer in Boston or Minnesota, stuck inside, really likes to see green.” 

★ SAGO PALM (CYCAS REVOLUTA) “You could drive a truck over it, and you couldn’t kill it. Do we hear a challenge?

Among these choices there should be something suitable for my husband's sunny office, or my fluorescent lit cubicle. Do you have a office plant suggestion? Please share... 

Now, second, a salt lamp:

First, what is a salt lamp (from Wikipedia):

More recently, large crystal rocks are also used as Salt lamps. A salt lamp is a lamp carved from a larger salt crystal, often colored, with an incandescent bulb or a candle inside. The lamps give an attractive glow and are suitable for use as nightlights or for ambient mood lighting. The largest producers of this product are located near to the source in Pakistan, with Poland and Iran also offering variations.

Now, why a salt Lamp?

Today, people are continually bombarded by harmful positive ions, whether they realize it or not. These positive ions are generated by diverse factors, including subterranean sources, Hartmann networks, and the vast increase in electrical appliances and power lines. The harmful waves produced by these networks can alter our health and disturb our mental dynamism, although we may not be aware of it. Crystal salt lamps offer a practical, unambiguous solution to these problems. A Himalayan crystal salt lamp is a natural ionizer. (Clemence Lefevre's book Himalayan Salt Crystal Lamps:)

The salt crystal lamp binds the negative ions with the excess positive ions. When the lamp becomes warm, it absorbs moisture and the crystal will be damp on the surface. This builds up the ion field. Through the lamp, the positively charged atmosphere of a room can be neutralized.

In order to battle all the positive electrons that are besieging me daily, form the computer screen to the telephone ear piece strapped to my head and the phone, fax, copy and various other medical machines, I need the negative ion balance from a few hundred salt lamps. But I'll start with one, I think it's worth the try.


Have you benefited from a salt lamp, tell us how?