The inside story

Indoor plants are very much in favour again as homeowners and even office workers include greenery as part of their interior decor. These lush leafy plants are highly appealing to younger gardeners, too, many of whom are just discovering the joys of growing plants.

The interest in greenery indoors is part fashion and part science. New and vibrant containers — pots, hanging baskets, vertical gardens and terrariums — have given indoor plants new life as decorator items at the same time as research has uncovered that indoor plants offer health and wellbeing benefits.

Plants and the potting mixes they grow in can filter harmful contaminants from the air, which makes the indoor atmosphere healthy to breathe. There’s also research from around the world to show that having greenery indoors, or to look out on, improves wellbeing, lowers