While Plant Shelves Look Good, They Can Also Keep Your Plants Happier Too

If you're a big plant person, then you may have almost every surface of your home covered in leafy babies. From large pots on the floor to stylish stands, planters, countertops, shelves, and even hanging pots for those trailing pals, there are so many places to display your greenery. But did you know that keeping your plants on shelves is one of the ideal ways to help them thrive? While bigger species usually need to stay on the ground to avoid tipping over or becoming too heavy, placing your small to medium plants on shelves isn't just a common sense way to display and store them. It turns out that keeping your plants on dedicated shelves can also allow them to get better airflow, more natural light, and even retain humidity when placed near other plants.

Your plants require more than just water and sunlight to thrive, and placing them up high where they can get better airflow has a variety of benefits. Some perks include helping them absorb nutrients, grow a more solid structure, fight off some diseases, and even share gases with other plants nearby. There are actually many benefits to keeping your houseplants all in one place, including better humidity levels during winter, however, it's important to remember that spacing them properly is necessary, as grouping plants too close could be actually be detrimental.

When you're hanging your plant shelves or deciding which plants to add where, keep sunlight in mind. If you don't have a lot of empty surfaces in your home, consider making the most of vertical space and decluttering your home with floating shelves to give your plants a space to live. Floating shelves make it easy to control how much they will get. Every plant is different in how much sunlight it needs, so different shelving levels give you more range to pick and choose which greenery goes where. Keeping your leafy pals higher up rather than hidden behind furniture will give them more opportunity to absorb any sunshine that comes in. You can even attach a plant light over the shelf to give them extra nutrients and help them thrive during darker times of the year.

While placing just one plant on a shelf can have benefits in terms of lighting, consider grouping your greenery together so each one can help give the others moisture. Transpiration, which is how plants share humidity when placed near each other, could help each one grow. Placing plants on a shelf together also makes it easy to check in on them frequently and keep them all happy. Lastly, when you put plants up on shelves, they will also be more protected from everything from pets to daily foot traffic, which could affect leaves, vines, and other parts. Avoid certain mistakes when placing your plants on shelves, like forgetting to dust them, which can make your greenery seem dull and dirty.