Happy Valentine’s Day (or as some of you refer to it, Singles Appreciation Day). It’s a day to take time and appreciate the love in your life.

Why limit this to people? At Good Earth Plant Company, we’ve had a love affair with plants for more than four decades. This is a relationship built to last the test of time.

More and more people agree with us. Growing numbers of people, especially among the Millennial generation, are bringing plants into their homes and caring for them.

For many people, plants have become more like pets than just decoration. We love you for it!

More offices and businesses are incorporating plants into their indoor environments too. Human resources experts and facilities managers appreciate the many benefits to the health and wellbeing of their employees. Healthy, happy employees work smarter and harder. What’s not to love if you’re the boss, an owner, or a shareholder?

So on Valentine’s Day, we are feeling the love too. These are ten reasons we love plants.

Plants help us breathe better by cleansing the air, absorbing carbon dioxide and turning it into life-giving oxygen. Plants also add humidity into the air, which can help keep your respiratory system healthy and help you fight off illness.

Plants can scrub indoor air of harmful chemical pollutants, such as benzene and nitrogen dioxide.

Plants reduce noise around us: noise from busy roads, or noise from inside buildings, such as open offices. Forget the headphones, surround yourself with plants!

Productivity jumps 15 percent when work environments are filled with even a handful of indoor plants. Plants help with memory retention and they encourage creativity.

Plants help us build homes (wood from trees), communicate (paper), and show someone we love them (flowers).

Plants can boost your mood and alleviate depression and anxiety. Just walking in nature can reduce stress. In Japan, people immerse themselves in nature in a form of therapy called “forest bathing.” Plants really do make people happy.

When plants are incorporated into therapeutic landscapes, they can help promote physical, mental, and spiritual healing. When hospital patients can see gardens and green spaces, they heal faster.

Plants and flowers help preserve relationships. Seriously, how many men do you know who have survived saying or doing something incredibly stupid thanks to a beautiful bouquet of roses or an arrangement of favorite flowers?

We wouldn’t have the amazing Tournament of Roses Parade without plants and flowers. Especially in Southern California, we can’t imagine starting the year without it. Which leads to the most important reason of all …

Plants are beautiful! Do we really need any more reason than this?

Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at Good Earth Plant Company!