Take your houseplant for a walk

The world is celebrating Take your houseplant for a walk day on 27 July. Houseplants have been a trending topic since the launch of lockdown in 2020 and although walking your plant like a puppy might be an odd concept, it could benefit you both.

The benefits go both ways

In 2020, plant-crazed Capetonian, Saffron de la Rouviere started an online business called Saffron’s Garden, tapping into an industry that has seen enormous growth since the Coronavirus pandemic locked the country down. Her houseplant hobby had turned into a proper business overnight and people from across all corners of the country started buying plants from her for their homes or as gifts for others, mainly with the benefits of greenery in your home in mind. The benefits of having plants in your home include stress relief, reduced fatigue and a boost in concentration and productivity. It also boosts your mood, it clears the air from toxins, it increases humidity and it produces oxygen.

In return for all its benefits, it’s only fair to take your houseplant for a walk, don’t you think? It is said that when you acquaint your houseplants with their immediate environment, it is good for them. Plant enthusiasts are encouraged to offer their indoor plants some well-deserved sunlight every once in a while. After all, these plants work hard in providing aesthetic comfort and mental health in your home.

The origin of Take your houseplant for a walk day

Many plant enthusiasts see Take your houseplant for a walk day as an opportunity to bond with their plants. This international holiday was copyrighted by Lebanon-based Thomas and Ruth Roy, under a list of unique holidays on their website, wellcat.com. The site boasts eighty reasons to celebrate life and its many quirky moments.

Wellcat.com states that walking your plants around the neighbourhood enables them to know their environment, thereby providing them with a sense of knowing, bringing on wellness.

Make your houseplants happy by moving them around. Image: iStock

Do plants really have feelings?

According to Jack C Schultz, a professor in the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia, plants “are just very slow animals.” He says that we too often dismiss our houseplants as part of our furniture and that plants are as alive as any animal, and they exhibit behaviour like any animal. Much has been written about plants and their behaviour, including a book called What a plant knows by Daniel Chamovitch from the Tel Aviv University in Israel, in which he says that a plant’s sense is not much different from our own.

According to a study done by H.M. Appel and R.B. Cocroft, plants “respond to herbivore-generated vibrations in a selective and ecologically meaningful way.” They have found that plants react to the vibrations caused by insect feeding can elicit chemical defences. They also found that plants discriminated between the vibrations caused by chewing and those caused by wind or insect song.

Rather put in new batch of plants than nurse those not looking good

Alternatives to taking your houseplant for a walk

If taking your plant to the park goes beyond your comfort zone, consider just taking it for a walk through your home and perhaps moving it to a different spot. With the seasons changing, the sunnier spots in your home also change and moving your houseplants around might just give them that needed boost to bloom.

Or, you could take a cue from Saffron de la Rouviere and do a dance-off with your plants. Yes, the owner of Saffron’s Garden dances with her plants every Friday, sharing her videos with fans and friends online. She says it makes her plants happy.

 

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A post shared by Saffron ???? Indoor Jungle Guide (@saffronsgarden)

Saffron’s Garden has a plant club to which you can subscribe. As member, you receive a monthly surprise package filled with beautiful houseplants and plant goodies.

Whether you take your houseplant for a walk, move it to a different spot in your home or challenge it to a dance-off, be sure to jot down 27 July as a quirky way of celebrating life with Take your houseplant for a walk day.