On Houseplant Appreciation Day we're extolling the virtues of adding a bit of greenery to your office.

A new year and everyone turns to new beginnings, clean starts.  But what about your house and office?

It's a little early for spring cleaning but you could brighten things up by bringing some nature indoors in the form of house plants, not only that but you'll clean the air too.

Researchers at University of Exeter found that plants in the office make us more productive, ‘Green’ offices with plants make staff happier and more productive than ‘lean’ designs stripped of greenery, new research shows,  enriching a ‘lean’ office with plants could increase productivity by 15%. Details here.

The presence of greenery makes us more productive and it's good for the indoor environment too, multiple studies have shown that plants act as air purifiers one of the first well publicised studies was by NASA in 1989 looking at removal of organic pollutants such as formaldehyde and benzene.  The researchers concluded that: "plants can play a major role in removal of organic chemicals from indoor air." (read the study short overview here and full study here.). It's still considered one of the best studies on plants and pollution.  Both NASA's research and other later studies show that the soil and micro-organisms are almost as important as the plants themselves - so artificial ones just won't do!

You can find an excellent quick infographic guide on the LoveTheGarden.com website, here.