Flowers + Plants 101
The Science of Having Flowers Around You
Monday, August 10, 2020
It’s hard to find a person that doesn’t love flowers. Whether in their home, in the yard, or out in nature, humans enjoy interacting with and being around flowers. There is a reason for this obsession. Science tells us that having flowers around you actually has a number of amazing benefits.
Benefits of Flowers Surrounding yourself with flowers can provide a lot of benefits. Here are five of our favorites.
1) They can help sick patients recover faster. A 2008 study published in HortTechnology found that putting flowers in hospital rooms allowed patients to recover faster. The study looked specifically at patients recovering from abdominal surgery, but the results can be extrapolated to others in the hospital as well.
This study essentially proved what people have known for years. Sending flowers to a loved one in the hospital is an important way to help them get better. The result of the randomized trial was that patients with flowers and plants had a better hospital experience. So, don’t skimp on the flowers the next time you have a loved one in the hospital.
2) They provide a boost to anyone’s mood. In addition to helping hospital patients recover faster, flowers can boost anyone’s mood. A flower gift, like our flower subscriptions or live plants at BloomsyBox, can stimulate the creation of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone often known as the “bonding hormone.” Thus, the gift of flowers helps you bond with your family and friends, which lifts your mood.
Flowers can also stimulate the release of serotonin. Serotonin is a chemical used in the regulation of our moods. Flowers are a great way to trigger a serotonin release, which is important for our mood and mental health in general.
3) They improve concentration and attention span. This is an important benefit for both children and adults. Flowers have been shown to increase our attention spans and the ability to concentrate. That is a big boon to students who can use that concentration in their studies. But, if you are a business owner—or if you are now working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic—a greater attention span is ideal.
They can also increase our memory retention as well. A study at the University of Michigan found that flowers around a person can increase their memory retention by 20%.
4) They can help you sleep. To receive this benefit you will likely have to choose the right flowers. Lavender, jasmine, and gardenia are all flowers with scents proven to help people fall asleep. The scents of these flowers aid in relaxation, which helps you fall asleep faster.
Of those three, lavender is probably the more well-known. There are lavender essential oils and lavender-scented pillows for a reason. Now you don’t need to spend your money on those products, placing some lavender by your bed will work just as well.
5) They provide a number of health benefits. We could list out all of the health benefits of flowers one by one. However, this list would become extremely long, so we’ve grouped them together instead. There are a large number of proven health benefits of flowers. These include shortening the common cold, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress-related diseases.
Some flowers are even used as herbal medicine. In order to make flowers into herbal remedies, you typically have to do something to the blooms, like creating a poultice or infused oils. Because this transcends simply putting flowers in your home, we have not talked extensively about herbal medicine in this post. Yet, the healing properties of flowers are one of the reasons humans are so interested in them, as you will see in the next section.
The Science of Flowers Now, you are probably wondering why flowers create the benefits listed above. That is a great question, and scientists are just beginning to unravel the answer.
First of all, there is one of the more obvious reasons: their scent and beauty. The scent of many flowers has relaxing properties. These can allow us to fall asleep faster and reduce our stress. We’ve already mentioned lavender. Roses, Sweet Alyssum, and Wisteria are also very beautiful smelling flowers.
The attraction of flowers is more than just their smell. Flowers are colorful and beautiful. We all love bringing beauty into our homes. This is one of the reasons that flowers have been found in archaeology sites at least 12,000 years old!
A second reason humans love flowers is our evolutionary history. Even before humans began cultivating flowers, they meant something important to us. Typically where there were flowers, there would be fruit and berries. These sweet, edible foods are essential for hunter-gatherers, as they helped to indicate a food-rich area. That preference for flowers has continued in humans even as we have evolved. It is no wonder that flowers provide us so many benefits.
The final reason is that flowers represent nature to us. Nature is a powerful and healing force. Like flowers, spending time in nature can reduce stress, blood pressure, and increase sleep. Flowers are a part of nature. So, having them around us is like having nature near us as well.
Where to Purchase the Best Flowers Clearly, flowers provide a lot of health benefits. We live in crazy and stressful times. Why not reduce your stress and anxiety by purchasing flowers from BloomsyBox today? Our farm-to-table blooms ship directly from the farm to your door. This ensures they are the freshest and most beautiful flowers around.
Our flowers also last longer than our competitors. Therefore, you can reap the benefits of flowers for a much longer time. You can also choose to become a member of our flower subscription program. As a part of this service, you will receive a specially curated bouquet of flowers weekly or monthly (depending on your plan).
Don’t delay. Start living your best life by surrounding yourself with BloomsyBox flowers today!
The scent of many flowers has relaxing properties. These can allow us to fall asleep faster and reduce our stress. We’ve already mentioned lavender. Roses, Sweet Alyssum, and Wisteria are also very beautiful smelling flowers.