Anyone who knows me knows my current obsession is peace lilies.
Image courtesy of http://thespiritscience.net/2015/03/29/9-houseplant-clean-the-air-and-are-almost-impossible-to-kill/.
I could talk about these almost magical plants all day long, but here are the top 10 reasons you should be growing peace lilies in your house.
They clean the air. NASA conducted studies in the 1980s looking into which plants would be most useful on a spaceship or habitable space station. Peace lilies ranked very highly on their list, pulling benzene, formaldehyde,, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene, and ammonia gases out of the air. One 8 to 10 inch potted plant can clean up to 100 square feet of indoor living space. Source: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930073077.pdf
They clean the soil. Their roots pull benzene and other chemicals out of the soil. Source: benzene, formaldehyde,, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene, and ammonia.
They help you stay happy. Taking care of plants makes most people feel happier anyway, but peace lilies are known for being low-maintenance but beautiful plants. Plus, you can rest easier knowing that they are also cleaning your air. Source: http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/houseplants/peace-lily.html
Speaking of which, they are gorgeous. Peace lilies have a few white flowers perched on delicate stems, surrounded by some of the darkest green leaves you will ever see.
Image courtesy of http://jerryhildebrand.com/portfolio/flowers/.
They are really hard to kill. Like, really hard. I have used dirty laundry water to water them (think, nasty soap chemicals that bleach some clothes and can't be poured outside without breaking the law). They didn't seem to mind.
They are insanely cheap to propagate. The first ones will cost a few dollars at your local Home Depot or Loew's or online or at a flower market. But once you have them, you can separate the roots and stems every spring and get new plants. That means that theoretically you can have 20 lilies to clean a 2000 square foot house within a year or two, all from one original plant.
They are not lethal to your pets. Like all lilies, they are poisonous to small animals and should be kept out of your furbaby's reach.
They really, really like to be kept out of the sun. This makes growing them indoors much easier, since you're not forced to find a full sun area while you are away at work.