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Lifestyle / Society

The 'Arctic Gardener' explains why it’s time you turned to indoor plant therapy

By Anders Røyneberg

Photo: Getty

With tens of thousands of fans on Instagram and two bestselling books to his name, not to mention hundreds of houseplants, Anders Røynberg is one of Scandinavia’s leading advocates for turning your home green

“What’s so great about having so many plants?” That’s the question I’m often asked on Instagram, where I go under the name @arcticgardener. It may seem a bit crazy having 300 houseplants at home, I can see that. But I do have a philosophy underlying this horticultural extravagance.

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Plants are good for me in more ways than one: I’m inspired by their beauty, happy that they produce oxygen and purify the air around me, and they make me feel calmer. Research shows that plants can improve mental well-being — there’s even a GP surgery in the UK that prescribes plants for anxiety and depression.