If you suffer from allergies you may wonder if bringing in plants into your home is a good idea. Pollen and other parts of the plants are known to cause irritation to allergy suffers, and bringing that into your home can be a huge pain. Many allergy sufferers feel doomed to live a life without the joys of greenery in their home.
Never fear though, there are many plants that will live well with allergy sufferers. In fact, many of these plants can actually help improve air quality, which can help reduce the problems that allergies cause. For those looking to bring some plants into their homes, without the additional irritation, here are 4 of the best plants for people with allergies.
4 Plants for Allergy Sufferers
Peace Lilies
First up we have the beautiful peace lily. Peace lilies are not only beautiful to look at, but are also known as one of the best air purifying house plants. NASA did a study, and found that they can break down and neutralize a lot of irritating gases, and ultimately makes the air in your home easier to breath. While there is some question on the overall validity of these results, it certainly can’t hurt to have a potentially air purifying plant in your home.
The other great thing about peace lilies is their ease of growing. Peace lilies are known to grow in lower light conditions, and be generally low maintenance, making them perfect for indoor growing. They also tend to “droop” a bit when needing water, taking a lot of the guess work out of that as well. This all makes them one of the easiest indoor plants to grow, and gives your lots of options on where to place them.
Spider Plant
Another great plant for indoor air quality and allergy sufferers is the spider plant. This plant is also shown to remove irritating gases from the air and improve overall air quality. While the peace lilly is generally considered better at this, the spider plant is an excellent contender.
Spider plants are also very easy to grow and extremely hard to kill. With low lighting and water needs they will continue to grow happily for years. It would take some serious neglect to kill one of these champs. If you’re looking for a more set and forget type plant then the spider plant is an excellent choice.
English Ivy
English ivy is another great choice, and is an excellent low pollen plant perfect for allergy sufferers. They are also a very beautiful plant that adds some much needed greenery to any home.
Ivy is a climbing plant, and can be grown traditionally, or out of hanging baskets. This gives them a bit more versatility, and is great for those looking to maximize space usage. Ivy will naturally tend to “climb”, which creates a visual treat and looks great in both traditional containers as well as hanging ones. It’s also a fairly easy plant to grow indoors, and will do well in most homes.
Weeping Fig
Lastly, we have the weeping fig. The weeping fig is part of the ficus family, and resembles more of a small tree than a houseplant making it the largest plant on this list. It too is great at filtering your air, and will do wonders to improve the air quality in your home.
That all said, the weeping fig is also the most difficult plant to grow on this list. That’s not to say it’s hard or impossible, it’s just that the other plants are all so easy. The weeping fig has larger water and lighting needs, so make sure to keep up with it. You’ll want to have a bright, sunny spot for this plant to grow properly. Done properly though, and you’ll end up with a beautiful plant that will last for over 2 decades.
What Causes Allergies From Houseplants?
When it comes to houseplants, there are two main causes of allergies. Minimizing these sources is the key to enjoying their beauty without the pain. This is important when you’re shopping for other plants that aren’t on this list. Look for plants that minimize the below issues and you’ll be more likely to suffer less allergy problems.
Mold
A significant allergen is mold. Mold grows in cool, damp places, which perfectly describes the soil of many plants. A key to reducing mold is simply not to overwater. If given the correct amounts of water, plant soil should never grow mold. The presence of mold in your soil is actually a serious problem know as root rot, and this can kill your plants.
For most plants, you’ll want to check the top inch to check for dampness before watering. Many only visually inspect the topsoil, which will dry out before most plants need more water, so make sure to check a few inches deep before watering. This prevents overwatering, and in turn helps reduce the chances of mold growing in your plant’s soil.
Pollen
Pollen is another large cause of allergies. If you’re an allergy sufferer, you know how miserable the spring can be when plants are in full bloom. The last thing you probably want to do is to move that pollen into your home.
In order to minimize pollen the key is to pick either a variety of plant where females do not produce pollen, or ones that produces minimal pollen. In addition to this, certain air purifiers can help to reduce the pollen in the air. There are a number of plants that don’t produce pollen, so look to grow these if that’s a know irritant for you.
Best Plants for Allergies?
We’ve only briefly touched on some plants that will be beneficial to allergy sufferers, but there are many more. For starters, check out our article on indoor air purifying house plants. All these plants have air cleaning characteristics, and will likely be a good fit for allergy sufferers.
Outside of that, keep mold and pollen in mind when choosing your plants. Mold can be prevented with proper watering, and pollen count can be reduced by picking the correct plants. Everyone can enjoy the benefits on indoor gardening, it all comes down to picking the right plants and caring for them properly.
