When selecting a houseplant, there's a lot to consider. Can you keep it alive? Is it toxic to your pet? Does it go with you're home's aesthetic? But if you're also looking to attract luck into your home, you'll want to think about which plants can help balance your living space's energy (or chi). While it's believed in feng shui that most healthy, well-maintained plants can enhance positivity, there are certain houseplants that are especially lucky, says Diana Hathaway, an interior and feng shui designer and founder of Gorgeous Color. Keep reading to see which are the luckiest.
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The money tree (also known as a Pachira plant) is probably one of the most famous houseplants in feng shui. It's believed to attract prosperity, wealth, good luck, and positive energynot only to the space around it but also to its owner, explains Angela Higgins, principal designer and owner of Nourished Home and member of the International Feng Shui Guild.
According to Chinese legend, it's believed a Pachira plant once brought great fortune to a desperate farmer, Hathaway reveals.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb
But don't let the money tree's reputation pressure you into putting this plant in your home if it isn't your style: Higgins says this is a common feng shui mistake. "Feng shui is about surrounding yourself with things you love that resonate with you, so make sure when choosing plants, you choose ones you like, can care for, and fit into your lifestyle and home."
The jade plant is sometimes referred to as a money plant due to its coin-shaped leaves. In fact, it's believed these very leaves are what symbolize good luck and fortune.
Higgins explains that, according to feng shui, any plant with soft, rounded leaves will bring luck by promoting gentle and nourishing energy in the home.
On the other hand, sharp plants like cacti are believed to be unlucky because they "drain energy" from your environment, says interior designer Audrey Scheck.
Jade plants tend to be common housewarming and new business gifts because of the belief that they'll bring wealth and good luck, Hathaway notes.
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Lucky bamboo, not to be confused with traditional bamboo (which grows outside and is not a houseplant) is believed to symbolize good fortune in the home, according to feng shui. It's also believed to bring good luck, prosperity, and wealth to your workspace.
"It encourages personal growth and positive energy," Higgins explains. Hathaway adds that lucky bamboo's gracefully curving shape "encourages the seamless flow of good feng shui chi energy."
Another reason this plant is traditionally used in feng shui is that its tall, thin stalks complement wood decor nicelyand wood elements are one of the five main elements of feng shui, believed to bring vitality, growth, kindness, and flexibility into your home, Higgins says.
Whether you call it a snake plant or its nickname "mother-in-law's tongue," this houseplant does not sound lucky. But its vertical leaves symbolize the upward growth of positive energy and prosperity in your home, Scheck explains.
In addition, the snake plant purifies the air in your home, which "promotes good oxygen levels, clean healthy air, and energy, which is the basis of positive feng shui for well-being," Higgins explains.
This is why you want to make sure any plant you bring into your home is "vibrant, lush, and healthy [as] dead or dying plants are bad for feng shui," Higgins adds.
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This beautiful and hardy houseplant is known for how easy it is to care for and how long it lives, two qualities that promote good feng shui energy.
Moreso, though, philodendrons are lucky because of how their leaves resemble flames and are associated with the fire element of feng shui. Fire elements in the home are believed to symbolize fame as they help increase your visibility in the world, Higgins explains.
The leaves can also "fire up the chi energy in dark spaces of your home," Hathaway notes.
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The Best Houseplants to Attract Luck, According to Feng Shui Experts - Best Life
On a leafy hillside facing the sea, the remote rural settlement of Lai Chi Wo in the north-eastern New Territories of Hong Kong is sheltered by a crescent-shaped cluster of soaring evergreen trees that experts believe could hold the key to Chinas green future.
For the dense groves of broadleaf trees that surround the walled villages white-washed cottages and temples form a fengshuilin, or feng shui forest, that has protected this farming community from the elements ever since it was first settled by the Hakka, descendants of Chinas ancient Han people, around 400 years ago.
This fengshuilin is one of tens of thousands of preserved, pristine woods dotted around Chinas southern and central provinces. The clumps of old-growth trees are regarded by their custodians as sacred and are believed to bring prosperity and health to the communities that have been nurturing them for more than 1,000 years.
Now ecologists believe these species-packed woodlands and the villages they protect could play an important role in Beijings drive to make the country carbon-neutral by 2060. Currently the worlds biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, China is planning to increase its forest coverage to 26 per cent by 2035.
Its ambitions include planting two new forests covering an area the size of Ireland. While fengshuilin are modest in size the lush forest around Lai Chi Wo measures only seven hectares they are rich in biodiversity. The broadleaf evergreens they harbour are renowned for being huge carbon sinks and resistant to pollution.
The feng shui forest behind the village was preserved for the cooling effect in the summer and protection from the monsoon in the winter. It is a kind of natural air conditioner, Dr Billy Hau, a forest ecologist at the University of Hong Kong who has worked with the villagers of Lai Chi Wo, tells i.
Dr Chris Coggins, professor of geography and Asian studies at Bard College at Simons Rock in the US, has been fascinated by feng shui forests since he first encountered a luxuriant patch of large trees on a small mountain above a temple at a village called Guizhuping in the Meihuashan Nature Reserve of south-west Fujian province on a research trip 30 years ago.
He tells i that these community-protected forests have survived as villagers believe they improve local feng shui the ancient Chinese system for determining the most auspicious locations and designs for towns, villages, houses and other buildings based on the flow and quality of life-sustaining energy known as chi.
Dr Coggins adds that each fengshuilin also has a practical purpose, as they help villagers to manage resources, protect against soil erosion and flooding and improve water conservation for crops.
While Dr Coggins says that many Chinese people had been unaware of the forests, as feng shui was viewed as feudal superstition and a forbidden topic during Mao Zedongs regime, now urban planners are looking at these forests as models for modern sustainable city growth, with communities surrounded by biodiverse pockets of greenery better able to withstand the harmful effects of pollution.
A decade ago, a project was launched to encourage urban dwellers to move to Lai Chi Wo to help its few remaining indigenous inhabitants revitalise their village. At the same time, its fengshuilin was used for seed collection to reforest other areas of Hong Kong.
Ecologists taught villagers how to use bio charcoal, created from farm waste, in the soil to protect the carbon sink as they grew crops. In turn, the Hakka villagers shared recipes, craftwork and dialect lessons with the newcomers. At weekends, they now offer guided tours to visitors around the 200 houses, temples and ancestral halls.
It is a remarkable turnaround for what had been a moribund village. Once home to more than 1,000 residents, its population declined sharply in the 60s when local farmers were undercut by produce from mainland China.
Agriculture stopped being a viable way to earn a living, so many residents left, says Tsang Wai Yip, the current head of the village.
The villages pioneering recent work was acknowledged when it received the Special Recognition for Sustainable Development in the Unesco Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
And now, elsewhere in rural China, there is official recognition of the role fengshuilin can play.
China wants to move towards a greener economy, says Dr Coggins. And I think theres a broad appreciation of feng shui forests among the people as well as government officials.
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Ancient feng shui forests to be expanded in bid to soak up China's ... - inews