Plants & Flowers
Why flowers should be on your weekly shopping list
Photography: Donna Griffith | Story: 8 Flower Arrangements for Your Spring and Summer Soirees
Plants & Flowers
Why flowers should be on your weekly shopping list
They can do your home good and your mind good too.
In the dark depths of a long Canadian winter, a colourful bouquet of flowers may be all you need to brighten up the mood in your home. For most of us, flowers equal happiness – something that is backed by scientific evidence.
If flowers aren't already on your weekly shopping list, you may want to make it a New Year's resolution to add them to it.
Here's why:
1. They help your home décor cause.
Visually, flowers offer vibrant pops of colour — a little amount can make a big difference — and can complement your interior design in each room, offering a range of sizes, shapes and colours. Fresh flowers are the easiest way to change the look of a room or piece of furniture. If you have a soft spot for at-home social media snaps or are trying to list a home for sale, flowers will make your photos get more double-taps as they photograph well. Furthermore, they offer a sweet, memory-inducing fragrance, add freshness and vibrancy to a space, make guests feel welcome and show you care about detail.
2. They improve your emotional state.
Aesthetics aside, flowers are proven to have positive effects on our emotional health. A 10-month behavioural study conducted by Rutgers University explored the link between flowers and overall life satisfaction, finding flowers a natural moderator of moods and emotions. Researchers discovered that participants in every age group experienced happiness when receiving flowers in addition to a long-term positive effect on moods. After receiving flowers, they experienced less anxiety and agitation, in addition to greater life satisfaction.
While the act of being surprised with flowers could have influenced the level of immediate happiness — as opposed to buying them yourself — once they're in a vase and on display in your home, the colours have the ability to brighten your mood. Yellow, for example, is psychologically the “happiest” colour on the spectrum, representing the warmth of the sun. Similarly, orange is often associated with energy and excitement. Blue often triggers feelings of calm and freshness. Of course, red symbolizes love, with a dozen (or two) red roses being the ultimate statement of the intense emotion — even if you're buying them for yourself.
3. They enhance creativity.
You may want to consider making fresh flowers a household staple if you work from home often. An eight-month-long study from Texas A & M University found that flowers and plants in the workplace increase creativity and improve problem-solving skills. Male participants generated 15 per cent more ideas when working in an area with plants and flowers compared to their flora-free counterparts. Female participants generated more creative and flexible solutions to problems with the presence of plants and flowers.
4. They're good for your physical health.
Not only does a beautiful bouquet of flowers fill your space with a sweet therapeutic aroma, but flowers can also filter and clean the air in the room.
According to studies, peace lilies, gerberas and bromeliads can help to eliminate harmful toxins in the air and offer up a healthy dose of oxygen, helping your sleep cause. Flowers don't just add character to otherwise drab hospital rooms; studies have shown that hospital patients recovering from operations in a room with flowers reported less pain, stress and fatigue than those in rooms without flowers.
Don't wait to be sent flowers; treat yourself. Adding fresh flowers to your weekly shopping tab doesn't have to dent the wallet; simple grocery store flowers will do the trick.
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