It's defiantly a micro-trend at the moment, plants are quite literally everywhere! But why? Where did this trend come from?
I am personally completely obsessed with house plants at the moment, and they are everywhere. In everydirection I am overwhelmed with the presence of plants, in the supermarket, homeware stores and even clothing shops. It's no longer the physical plants themselves the trend has advanced and gone much further and now is filling all of the subcategories.
Cosmopolitan had a very interesting article on "Getting to the root of the Millennial Plant Obsession". The quote I found most interesting and relevant was "Part of this is our fascination with whatever "wellness" is; perhaps we also want to add a dash of greenery to the disgusting railroad apartments so many of us call home. But a leading theory is that plants make us feel like grown-ups. When the traditional signs of adulthood — marriage, homeownership, children — are delayed or otherwise out of reach, it’s comforting to come home to something that depends on you"
This makes perfect sense to me, I have personally just moved out of my family home to go to university so for the first time I'm living fully alone. I have filled my room with a array of different types of houseplants. Many people living in the cities don't have there own garden so being able to have houseplants that are easily in sight and manageable is defiantly a positive attraction.
Not only do I think plants fill a space very quickly with minimal effort , but also that green symbolises freshness and has a strong emotional correspondence with safety. Is the green man which symbolises its safe to cross the road really the reason were bringing plants into our homes? I don't know but I can certainly see the connection.
I think also in this 'wellness' trend currently , the idea of being to buy plants that are going to purify the air and 'make you healthy' is another massive drive within this current obsession.
Artist and researcher Justine Lai told Cosmopolitan. "Gardening was one of the few available job opportunities and formed the basis of those early immigrant communities. So learning about plants meant learning about people and gaining historical perspective."
The houseplant obsession has been around a lot longer within immigrant communities, using houseplants as being a way to grow food and nurture something creates a sense of achievement and happiness.
No one actually knows why we are so obsessed with houseplants and I'll leave it up to you to decide on your own theory, but I personally think due to the whole Brexit troubles recently this could have caused the want for safety within our homes and houseplants bring that safety.
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