Day 58: Apartment Goes Green

I have always been fascinated with life in general, including plant life. While I am not a garden enthusiast, nor have I tried seriously growing plants, I appreciate gardening and enjoy marveling at the growth of a plant. Just last week my flatmates have decided to keep some. So with a little research on which indoor plants good to keep in an apartment, we decided on the following list:

1. English Ivy - listed by the NASA as the best air-filtering houseplant. It absorbs formaldehyde. It is very easy to grow, and is adaptable to many environments.
2. Spider Plant - effective at fighting pollutants including benzene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and xylene.
3. Basil - a culinary herb; main ingredient of pesto
4. Bromeliad - decorative plant, but hard to bloom

Across Farmers Market, at the corner of General Araneta and General McArthur Avenue in Cubao, are scores of plant shops. The problem is that most of these shops have salesladies that are harder to find than the plants we wanted. Of the ten shops we went to, only three have actual persons we could talk to. In the end, these were our finds:

1. Vietnam Rose [Php 50]
2. Jade [Php 15]
3. Spider Plant [Php 75]
4. Basil [Php50]
5. Foxtail Plant [Php 100]

Shown below from top left clockwise: foxtail, jade, spider plant, vietnam rose, sweet basil.