Brighten up the Home in 2024 with Mood Boosting Houseplants

Above: New year, new house plants for the home

Having enjoyed a house full of festive colour, the home can feel bare and unloved come the new year.  There is an amazing choice of versatile houseplants available guaranteed to brighten the home and make a bold statement – as well as bring along mood boosting properties, perfect to ward off the feelings of January’s ‘Blue Monday’!  With so many choices of houseplants, there’s certainly something just right for every space in the home!

Houseplants are proven to lower stress levels too, helping keep blood pressure low and contributing to a calmer environment.  The presence of these home-loving plants is believed to contribute to making us more productive too.

Here are Squire’s Garden Centres houseplant recommendations for 2024: –

Hanging and Cascading Houseplants

While houseplants that are hanging and cascading have been a trend for a little while now, this is certainly a trend set to grow in 2024. The extra dimension, scale and interest they bring to the home has certainly fueled their popularity, with some fabulous examples including plants like Aeschynantus (Basket Vine), Asparagus Fern Ceropegia (String of Hearts), Epipremnum (Devils Ivy) and Senecio Herreianus (String of Beads).

Big and Bold Foliage Givers

Plants that deliver a big statement in the home, with their impressive leaf size and shape, and can also bring about wellbeing benefits too with their calming colours and general presence. Great examples of these include Alocasias – Alocasia Stingray and Alocasia Zebrina, Calathea Medallion and Orbifolia.  Textural houseplants offering ‘scrunchy’ or ‘textured’ foliage are also likely to be popular over the coming months, providing a great accompaniment for smooth-leaved plants that have been popular recently.  Good examples are Dizygothica (False Aralia), Phlebodium Blue Star and Asplenium Crispy Wave (Birds Nest Fern).

Colour is always something that has great influence on choice and as acontrast to green, pink-toned plants are destined to be big next year. Recent introductions to the Aglonenema (Chinese Evergreen) include Pink Star, Pink Leafed Begonia Rex, Callisia Rosato (Pink Turtle Plant), Fittonia Pink Special (Nerve Plant) and Philodendron Pink Princess are all plants that will drive the pink trend.

Space-savers – If you want to keep houseplants neat and contained, consider a bottle garden (from £10) – a tiny garden that can be kept right in your home. These small green wonders bring about a living universe enclosed in a glass container with minimal upkeep.  Alternatively, for striking colour, introduce an impressive  orchid or two to the home (from just £6), with their slender silhouettes, they take up minimal space, require little maintaining but are no less impressive.

If you’re looking to spruce up your home with some gorgeous greenery in the new year, Squire’s has a brilliant new selection of houseplants offering amazing value for money (from just £8.00) waiting to find their forever homes!  With stunning foliage, they will look striking in the home once the Christmas decorations have been packed away!

Sarah Squire, Chairman of Squire’s Garden Centres comments: “Houseplants offer an instant mini refresh and stylish addition to any space in the home, without getting out a paintbrush or the wallpaper paste.  Another benefit of houseplants is they bring gardening into the home, even if you don’t have outside space, you can still reap the rewards plants bring.”

Above: Asparagus Fern Ceropegia (String of Hearts)