Aloe Vera in Feng Shui and Ideal Placement at Home
If we should pick the most famous succulent plant on the planet, Aloe Vera must be the one. Famous as a medicinal plant, and a part of many drinks and skin care products, many people forget that Aloe Vera is also a beautiful succulent, which can bring harmony, luck, or at least good vibes to your home, as long as you follow the ancient Chinese traditional practice of Feng Shui. Aloe is native to Arabian Peninsula, Africa and Madagascar, but traders brought it to China many centuries ago. This succulent certainly has a place in Feng Shui, and now we will look at the right place in your home :).
Before we start though, I want to emphasize one thing: You should always keep on your mind the needs of the plant. Regardless of what location you’d prefer for your Aloe, or what Feng Shui suggests, you should always place an Aloe in a place with bright indirect sunlight, such as windowsill or shelf near a window that gets a lot of light. Remember that only healthy plants can bring good things to your home and life. The key is to place your Aloe to a location where it can thrive, and not merely survive…
According to Feng Shui, Aloe Vera can bring luck to your house, and absorb negative energy in its thick leaves
Before we look at the suggested placement, let’s discuss the basics a bit, and what Feng Shui says about Aloe Vera. According to this ancient Chinese practice, Aloe Vera is an excellent place to have at home, since it absorbs negative vibes and energy to its thick leaves. Some people actually believe that Aloes may die and their leaves burst open, if they are in a household where negative energy reins for a long time, and they cannot absorb it anymore.
On the top of that, the plant is considered a good-luck plant, and one that (with its beauty and natural harmony) can bring harmony to your relationships, and optimism to your living space. Combine it with health benefits of the plant, and a great look of a healthy Aloe, and you immediately know why this plant is such a crowd favorite.
Place your Aloe Vera in a living room or kitchen
Considering the benefits the presence of Aloe has on people in the house, and on relationships between them, you should place it in a room where people meet, and spend time together. In most households this will be a living room or a kitchen (where we eat together). In both of these places you should make sure it gets enough indirect sunlight (you can use a grow light as well, but why spending money and energy when your Aloe can get light from the sun).
It is also important to consider the color combinations, and how it fits with other plants an objects in the room. Green like the one of Aloe goes well with brown (just like in nature), but also with white and black. You can also keep this on your mind when choosing a pot for your Aloe. At the end of the day, Aloe Vera can fit into the surroundings, but it can be also a central point of attention, standing out with color and design in your living room. It really depends on the effect you want to create, but according to Feng Shui, it is better if it fits with other objects in the room. It shouldn’t stick out.
Avoid placing your Aloe Vera to the bathroom, or to the corridor with no light
Bathroom isn’t a good place for Aloe Vera, not only because bathrooms often have small windows or no windows, and Aloe just won’t get enough light there (and will die eventually), but also because the humidity is often too high for Aloe, and it won’t thrive in bathrooms. What’s more, this placement isn’t recommended in Feng Shui.
Entrance hall or corridor of your house is another story. Feng Shui suggests placing different succulents there, because every person entering the house passes through the hall, and hence such a placement can maximize the benefits the plant brings to the house and to people inside of it. However, most halls have no windows, and your Aloe Vera will not thrive in such location. Having said, you can use a workaround here. Move your Aloe to some sunny spot in the house in the morning, and then move it to the entrance hall in the afternoon, the time when you receive guests and other members of the household come home. Following this scenario, your Aloe will be happy, and you will reap the maximal benefits when it comes to the positive vibes it can bring to your relationships.
Aloe can help us, but it won’t solve our problems alone
Even if you follow the instructions of Feng Shui to the point, or perhaps buy ten Aloes and place them around the house, it won’t alone turnaround a bad situation or negative energy you face in your family (if that’s the case). No doubt there is some truth to Feng Shui (just as it is to Tao, and other old Chinese philosophies). But you should not rely on plants to solve your problems.
They can help, they certainly purify the air, and can make your home more harmonious in appearance. But the key is to always work on yourself, and do what you can to maintain good relationships with people around you. Do not rely on Aloes or other plants. Accept the responsibility, and admit making mistakes. That’s the only way to move forward in your relationships…
Where to place Kalanchoe (Flaming Katy) at home
At the end of the day, we all seek balance and harmony in life. And while it is often hard attaining this ideal in our work or personal life, following the principles of Feng Shui we can at least reach it in our flat or house. Plants play a big role in this endeavor. Not only do they purify the air and add a living aspect to the otherwise “dead” walls and furniture of our meager living spaces. Plants like Kalanchoe can contribute to the right balance of light and colors, and they can even bring good luck and productivity to our life, if placed correctly in house. But where should you place Kalanchoe according to Feng Shui? And does it work? I will try to answer these questions on the following lines.
Let me start with a quick summary, before we dive into some details. According to Feng Shui, you should place Kalanchoe either in the entrance hall of your house (close to your door), or in your office or working space. Living room can also work for placement, as long as the bright red (or purple) colors of Kalanchoe flowers do not interfere in an undesirable way with the color scheme of the living room. Two places you should rather avoid are the bathroom, and also the room where you sleep. Especially placing Kalanchoe close to your bed, such as on your night desk, isn’t a good idea according to Feng Shui. Let’s have a look at some more details and things you should consider.
Feng Shui is one thing, Kalanchoe needs another
In order to benefit from a harmony Kalanchoe can bring to your house, the plant itself should thrive. Kalanchoes like full sun, or at least bright indirect sunlight (such as when you place them close to the window where sun shines on the glass for at least six hours a day). What I try to say here is that in order to light up your house with freshness of green Kalanchoe leaves, and sparkle of the famous red flowers of Flaming Katy, you cannot place your plant to some darkish corner.
That’s why you should think twice whether the placement in the entrance hall (corridor) is a good idea. Is there enough light? Will your Kalanchoe attract the visitors with its beauty, or, on the contrary, will they subconsciously feel there’s something wrong in your house when they see a semi-wilting plant? In my opinion, following the secondary placements of Kalanchoe in Feng Shui (office space, living room with an exact spot close to the window) is much better if you want to acheive desired results.
Color combination plays a big role in Feng Shui
Placement isn’t the only criteria in Feng Shui. Colors matter as well. Bright powerful red, such as the one of your Kalanchoe’s flowers, can bring a lot of energy to your home. However, with Feng Shui we never seek extremes. We seek balance. You need to balance the energy with matching colors. Different shades of yellow are a great match to the red color of Kalanchoe flowers. You can purchase succulents that flower yellow, such as Echeverias (some types), or Mammilaria cactus for example. Of course you can also get some yellow flowers in a shop and place them in a flower pot on the table of your living room or office, so they complement nicely the red flowers of your blooming Kalanchoe.
You can also try to create a different effect, however, such as a “halo effect”, when you use Kalanchoe to actually disturb the otherwise monotonous appearance of your living room and office. Maybe the place lacks some spark, it is rather monotonous in colors, and can feel even boring to the visitors. Placing a few blooming red Kalanchoes (or even just one) on the table in the center of the room, can easily add a new spark to your living or working space. It can form a central spot of attention though, so think twice whether you want your visitors to focus on this exactly.
Plants can only contribute to the harmony and balance and prosperity. They won’t crate it.
It is also important to realize that while Feng Shui works, and right placement of Kalanchoe and other succulents in your house can somehow change the dynamics of the place, and how it feels to the guests, Kalanchoes (or any other plants) alone won’t help you reach the desired balance. Before anything else, you need to seek harmony within you. Once you have it, you will easily transfer it to your guests, and Kalanchoe and other plants will give you just a small helping hand… What I try to say here is that when your mind is always occupied with something, when you never stop thinking, when you carry some heavy burden on your shoulders, right placement of Kalanchoe won’t save your situation.
The same goes with prosperity. Many people believe that succulent plants are good luck in general. You place them properly and they will attract success and money to your life. That’s not how it works, however. You need hard work and discipline to become successful in your field. Sure, success is like a big puzzle, and many small details matter. Right placement of Flaming Katy can help you concentrate better in your office, or feeling more energized, and it can eventually contribute to your success and prosperity. But it is just one part of the puzzle, and certainly not the most important one. Keep it on your mind before you lose yourself in rearranging your plants at home again and again, hoping that money will start falling from the ceiling once you finally get it right…
Final thoughts on Kalanchoe and Feng Shui
Kalanchoe is a special plant with colors that can awaken desire, passion, but also negative emotions like envy and anger. According to Feng Shui, if you place it in your hall or office or living room, and if you match it with fitting colors (shades of yellow), it can add to a special harmony of your place, and impact how you and your guests feel in the room.
And while there is certainly something to the theory, you should never forget two things. First one: put the needs of your plant before the suggested placement according to Feng Shui, Vastu, or other philosophy. And secondly, to achieve anything meaningful in life, you always have to work hard. Right placement of Kalanchoe and other plants in your house can help you with concentration, but unless you put in the hours of work, the results just won’t arrive…
Snake Plant in Feng Shui
Many people believe in Feng Shui. If you are one of them, location of your succulent is not a simple choice anymore. Plants are believed to bring luck or prosperity if you locate them in the right places in your home or office. Snake Plant is especially considered as a plant that can bring good luck or good energy to your home or business, if it is positioned in a right location. Let me explain how it works :).
South, southeast, and east is the answer
Generally speaking, the southeastern, southern, and eastern spots of the house are great for the placement of your succulents. However, for snake plants, their best places are in the house entrance, home office, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. There are many reasons why these places of the house are perfect for snake plants.
Your house has an energy map known as Bagua. These points in the house invite positive energy for luck and success. Placing snake plants in proper places will not only boost the aesthetic feature of your indoor space. It will also attract luck and abundance. And who doesn’t need more of that in their life?
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Snake Plans in a home office
Putting one or two snake plants in your office (whether in a corporate environment of back at home) should help you gain focus and concentration, which will in turn help you boost your productivity. Depending on the size of the snake plant, you can place it on top of your desk, on the bookshelf, or on the windowsill.
Placement in living room and physical attractiveness
Another great place for snake plants is the living room. These plants will not only boost the aesthetic value of the space. They will also attract positive energy. It is believed that snake plants in the living room actually improve the physical attractiveness of the people living in the house.
As suggested by the Feng Shui principles, the entry halls windowsill, shelves, and living room tables are perfect places for these lovely succulents.
Snake plant and dining room
According to the Feng Sui placing snake plants in the dining room can bring tremendous wealth. And though it hasn’t worked in my case (at least not so far, but who knows, maybe this blog will grow very big over the years and I will get rich–then I have to thank the plants and the Feng Shui teachers), you risk nothing by trying it.
In the worst case possible, the plant will help to purify the air, and you can always look at it and find inspiration in how calm and peaceful it is, perhaps helping to find you your inner peace. Maybe it is even more important than financial wealth?
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Rooms in southeast and east parts of the house, southern rooms
Feng Shui teachers believe that placing snake plants in such areas will help you boost motivation and creativity. If you feel like lacking energy and motivation, you might want to try this technique at home. Just place a couple of snake plants and see what happens.
One more thing I want to stress out here. Fire is one of the key elements of Feng Shui, which is related to courage and ability to make sound judgment. The Feng Shui experts believe that the element is located in the rooms in south area of the house. Therefore, placing snake plants in such an may help you and all the inhabitants develop more courage and better capabilities in making good decisions. Hell, that’s something I would need at times! Now I think I will propagate some more snake plants and place some in the southern parts of the house.
However, keep in mind that at least in this case, size matters. Larger snake plants are believed to bring negative energy. That’s why you should place in the key areas of the house one-foot long snake plants, or one and half foot maximum. Bigger than that are not suitable.
A few things you should avoid when it comes to the placement of snake plants
As I have already mentioned, it is not always a great idea to place snake plants indoors, and you need to consider a few things, especially if you believe in energies and stuff. As they right say, it is better to be safe than sorry, and you can always find some good placement. Let me give you a few points you should remember, at least if you want to maximize the potential effect of having a snake plant at home.
1. Avoid artificial snake plants
Artificial snake plants, or the fake ones, should be avoided at all costs. Although fake snake plants do not necessarily bring negative energy, they do not bring positive energy either. What’s more, they do not have any benefits real succulents offer to you, such as air purification, good smell, and having a living thing in the midst of material possessions.
Having said that, I have seen many people put fake plants (like this one for example, which looks good and is hard to tell from a real snake plant) inside their houses. And they are still here… If you are a firm believer in the Feng Shui principles, however, you need to choose genuine snake plants instead of fake ones. Keep on mind also the other benefits of real plants, when compared to fake plastic ones.
2. Avoid dying snake plants
Dying snake plants, according to Feng Shui principles may only bring negative energy. The key here is to keep your snake plants healthy. The energy that comes into the house depends on the health of the plants.
Final Thoughts
Snake plants, according to Feng Shui, can bring positive energy or luck to your house. However, you need to put them in the right places of your house. Placing them at the entrance of the house, in the home office, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom is your best bet.
However, make sure that you only grow healthy snake plants in your house. Dying snake plants can attract negative energy, and we have enough of that in our world, even without plants…
To sum it up, you have many good locations for snake plants, and as long as you follow the tips from this article, you are good to go. And even if it doesn’t work and you won’t become rich with ten snake plants in your office, at least you have some beautiful succulents in your living place. In my book it is better than nothing :).
Ponytail Palm in Feng Shui
Buying a palm is one thing. Finding the right spot for it in your home another. According to ancient Chinese tradition of Feng Shui, succulents can bring good luck, prosperity, and harmony to your house. But you have to place them in a right spot. What does Feng Shui say about a ponytail palm? And is there anything else you should consider when deciding about the placement of the palm? We will try to find the answers on the following lines.
Let me start with a brief introduction. Ponytail palm isn’t common in discussions of Feng Shui experts. This succulent is native to Mexico, and palms in general haven’t been common in China in the ancient times. Many succulents were common, but not palms. Hence we have to go mostly by abstraction here, looking at placement they suggested for other succulents, and at the same time taking into consideration the specifics of ponytail plant. Please keep it on your mind while reading the following lines.
Entrance of the house and living room are ideal for Ponytail Palm placement
According to Feng Shui, succulents emanate good energy. When a visitor enters your house, and see a peaceful harmonic ponytail palm, it helps them to pacify their own thoughts. Maybe they wanted to say something bad to you, or didn’t have the best intentions when entering the house. This may immediately change when a healthy green ponytail palm meets them at the door.
Living room (together with a kitchen) is a place where most family talks happen. Sadly, conflict belongs to each family, and not all discussions are pleasant. Emotions may sometimes boil within us, and we may eventually burst out, saying something we will regret later. Having a ponytail palm or other similar succulent in a living room will often bring more peace and clarity to our thoughts. We may not realize it, but the stoicism with which these plants bear their fate and position impacts us, often without us realizing it consciously. That’s a reason why you should place the ponytail palm in a living room.
Bathroom and kitchen aren’t good for a ponytail palm
In general, Feng Shui experts do not recommend placing succulents in bathrooms, and ponytail palm is no exception to the rule. If nothing else, you should always remember that you can reap the benefits only from healthy succulents. Ponytail palm does not like humidity. And bathroom is often the most humid place in a house. What’s more, most people do not have windows in bathrooms. Palms enjoy sunshine, at least indirect. They won’t get any in bathroom. And though they may survive, they won’t thrive.
Kitchen is a similar story. Typically more humid than the rest of the house, it isn’t ideal for the ponytail palm placement. What’s more, this succulent can grow really big over the years, and in general it is better having small plants in the kitchen.
Colors do also matter in Feng Shui, so do plant combinations
Like many other ancient Chinese traditions, Feng Shui isn’t always simple to comprehend. Positioning a plant in a certain room is one thing, but what about the colors, furniture, and other plants inside? Feng Shui is all about harmony, and balance. If you have styled your living room in some shiny manner, with objects of gay colors, a ponytail palm may simply not fit in.
I do not want to dive into too much details here, since it would make the article excessively long. Just remember that colors of ponytail palm go well with white, brown, green, and even black colors. You can also go by feel. Place your ponytail plant in the room, sit down, and look around you. If you feel that it fits well in its surrounding, and adds more harmony to the color scheme of the place, you are likely good to go.
Size matters, at least in this case, and you should respect the needs of the plant
Most succulents stay relatively small for their entire life. That’s not the case of a ponytail palm. It can grow incredibly big over the years and decades (these palms live easily over 100 years). Considering this, it isn’t perhaps the best idea placing this palm in a small room, where it will eventually take too much place and may even suffer due to lack of room to grow. Of course, you can always move it to another room when it gets bigger. For people living in crowded places, ponytail may not be an ideal succulent. Empty space also plays a big role in Feng Shui. Crowded living spaces are not good for harmony, and a big palm that takes away half of the small room won’t help here.
With everything considered, you should never forget the needs of the plant. That’s because in order to benefit from having a plant at your home or office, the plant should be healthy. Ponytail palm likes sun, at least indirect sun, and lots of it. Hence you should place it close to a window, ideally in a southerly oriented room where it can enjoy a lot of sun. Other than that it isn’t a demanding plant, and will thrive almost in neglect.
Final thoughts
Deciding about the placement of your ponytail palm you have to consider several factors. First and foremost, the needs of the plant–if it struggles or even dies, you can hardly reap any benefits from having it. Secondly, the size and shape of plant–it grows quite big, and you should allow it some room for growth. It also isn’t good if a single plant “eats away” half of the space in the room. When it comes to Feng Shui, you should pay attention to both suggested placement (house entrance, corridor, living room), but also to color and design combinations. Harmony is always the key. I hope this articles helped you to decide about a perfect placement for your ponytail plant, and wish you good luck!
Where to place Jade Plant at home
If you believe in Feng Shui, or simply want to have your place neatly organized and your plants happy, you might also ask the same question. Let’s have a look at all factors that come into play when deciding about a perfect place for your Jade Plant.
The Jade plant is often considered as a money tree, a notion that comes from a Chinese tradition, where the plant was believed to bring luck and money. In order to meet this purpose more effectively, Jade Plant should be placed in the right spot in your home.
Welcoming good fortune and prosperity at the entrance of the house
The most common spot to place Jade plants is in the entrance of the restaurant,or house, or an office, to invite and welcome good fortune and prosperity.
According to Feng Shui, Jade plants should be placed in an eastern location to attract good health, family harmony, and success for all spheres of your life. If you want to have more wealth and luck, the plant should be placed in the southeast location. However, there are locations in the house wherein you should not place Jade plants. Examples of those places are in the bedroom and especially if the bathroom–at least that’s what the cultural tradition says :).
Honestly speaking, I don’t know exactly why Feng Shui experts consider such locations inappropriate. Speaking merely from scientific perspective, placing jade plant in the bathroom or bedroom is actually a good idea. This is because jade plants help purify the air, and the air is often most stuffed in the bedroom, where we spend a lot of time.
The Jade plants can thrive both indoor and outdoor. I love to place jade plants before the main door of the house–not only they look good and welcome the visitors, they may also bring luck, and other good things to our lives, as Feng Shui experts and pundits believe.
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Final Thoughts
Frankly, you can place a jade plant anywhere in the house and enjoy the benefits of it. However, if you believe in Feng Shui, placing the Jade Plant in specific locations is a great idea. At the end of the day, you can lose nothing placing it there, and who knows, maybe it will really bring you fortune and luck 🙂
The most common location of Jade plants to attract luck is the entrance of the house or office. As I already mentioned, jade plants do not only invite prosperity, but also good health and family harmony. And that’s in my opinion more important than money…
Are succulent plants in general good luck plants?
Succulents are popular in many parts of the world. These unique plants with green and shiny leaves fit well into both modern and traditional houses and gardens. Apart from their esthetic value, however, and apparent health benefits (as any other green plants, they purify the air), succulents are believed to have a positive energy that brings luck to the person who grows them–as long as they do it with love of course :).
Feng Shui and the succulents
According to Chinese Feng Shui, succulents are good luck. The teaching says that you will reap abundance in life when you grow them in your home. According to the lucky tellers and/or Feng Shui practitioners, a succulent plant is a great way to attract positive elements to your home, and such elements will impact your well-being, harmony, and other important aspects of your life.
However, not all succulents can bring luck according to the Feng Shui. Succulents with thorns should not be placed indoors because they bring misfortune instead of luck. For instance, when you put the succulent plant with thorns in the kitchen area, it brings a bad taste to the food resulting in the loss of appetite, in most extreme cases. Avoid putting thorny succulents in front of the door too because they symbolize separation between you and your loved ones.
If you are a businessman, avoid having a succulent plant with thorns on your desk to avoid loss of clients and business partners. Also, do not put this kind of succulent to any space in the bedroom because it might bring intimacy issues. The good news though, is that there are succulents that bring financial success. According to the Feng Shui, Jade Plant has the prime when it comes to bringing financial success to people who grow it.
Where to put Jade Plant to attract good luck?
Feng Shui tells that the southeast direction is the wealth sector. But the east could be a better one as well, when it comes to generating good luck. You should consider different placements while trying to attract good luck, because jade plant comes in many variations, and each variation has its needs and an environment it prefers.
Many Chinese entrepreneurs associate jade plant with business. Therefore, placing it next to a drawer for cash should help the business to thrive, and lead to abundance of funds. Or at least it should help a little :). I suggest you to set it inside of the office in a southeast corner, which should be more productive than putting it at the entrance of your office.
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Feng Shui teachers believe that the east corner encourages good health for the whole family. You can place jade plants in almost any corner of your home, except for some locations such as bedrooms and bathrooms, which is believed to have negative impact on both wealth and prosperity. Let me now list locations you should avoid placing your succulents into/on.
- Kitchen -As mentioned earlier, placing a succulent plant in the kitchen can have a negative impact on the taste of food. These may be stubble differences only, but why trying your luck, especially when you have many other excellent placements for your succulents?
- Front door – According to Feng Shui, you should not place succulents in the front door. If you do so, you are keeping away your neighbors and loved ones. At the end of the day, it makes no sense creating blocks and obstacles in your entrance.
- Office desk – Placing succulents on your office desk can have a negative impact on relationship with your visitors and business partners, at least when it comes to meetings that take place in the office.
- Bedroom – If you want to achieve great intimacy with your partner, you should rather avoid placing succulent in your bedroom. It is believed it can bring intimacy issues.
It isn’t a bad idea to place all your beautiful succulents in one location. It makes sense not only when it comes to superstitious beliefs (and you never know if there isn’t some truth to it), but also if we talk about decorative purposes. Such a corner of your house can be both magnet for the eyes of your visitors, and also a corner you can rest your eyes upon after a difficult day in the office…
Final thoughts
To wrap it up, I want to point out here that you can hardly find a scientific evidence on whether succulents really bring good luck, or it is all just a myth. A purely superstitious statement won’t likely stand the test of the time. At the end of the day, some believe that succulents are good luck plants while others don’t. And it is all right in my opinion.
I can tell from personal experience, however, that many people grow succulents in their homes simply because the plants make them happy The joy that these plants bring make succulent growers fall in love with these plants, and their hobby has nothing to do with the superstition.
On a personal level, I plant succulents because they make me happy too. In fact, I have succulents in all corners of my house. Since I had my heart attack in 2012, my plants help me a lot to feel good every day. I would say that succulents are some of those plants that make me smile. To conclude it, it is up to you how do you treat succulent plants, and where you place them. As long as you enjoy your hobby, you are good to go!
May also interest you: Most common questions and answers when it comes to growing succulents.