Plants decorate a room or patio and some even purify the air you breathe. Can plants also bring intangible benefits to a living space, like serenity, good fortune, and romantic success? While these claims are hard to prove scientifically, they are equally difficult to disprove, and people have relied on the special qualities of some plants for generations.

You’ll find quite a few attractive, affordable houseplants available that are reputed to have powerful effects in helping people prosper. Why not give one or two of them a try and see whether money, luck, or health come your way? Here are six good-fortune plants to get you started, plus tips on how to grow them.

Peace Lily

Looks: The peace lily’s white flowers shine above its lush, forest-green foliage like little white flags of peace. Each fluorescence consists of a large, bright-white spathe, like a large petal protecting a small spike of flowers.

Benefits: The peace lily is said to bring prosperity and serenity into the home. By purifying the air and neutralizing harmful indoor gases, it may help to prevent asthma, headaches, and even more serious illness.

Care: These are tropical evergreen plants that like humidity and dappled sunlight. Keep the soil moist with filtered water but avoid overwatering. They need warmth, so do not place near a cold, drafty window.

Lucky Bamboo

Looks: Although unrelated to real bamboo, the lucky bamboo plant looks like bamboo. Its slender vertical stalks and leafy branches are vibrant green and light up a corner. This plant can be trained to curl by controlling the light that it receives.

Benefits: An auspicious plant in feng shui and Vastu Shastra, lucky bamboo, has been a symbol of good fortune and prosperity in Asia for thousands of years. You’ll have even more luck, and success in romance, if you receive the plant as a gift.

Care: Virtually indestructible, lucky bamboo is a low-maintenance plant. Just keep it away from direct sunlight. It grows well in a container with an inch or so of distilled water or in moist, well-aerated potting soil with good drainage.

Aloe Vera

Looks: The aloe plant is an attractive succulent. It is stemless and has thick, fleshy leaves fanning out from the plant’s central stem. The leaves are green and can be beautifully marked. Leaf margins are serrated with soft, delicate teeth.

Benefits: Aloe Vera is reputed to bring good luck and optimism into a living space and chase off negative vibes. It is equally well known for its amazing healing qualities. The plump leaves are filled with a gel that can help heal skin conditions like burns.

Care: Easy on the irrigation! This plant is harder to kill than to keep alive, but kill it you will if you overwater or let it stand very long in wet soil. Keep your aloe in indirect sunlight in a container with excellent drainage.

Holy Basil

Looks: Holy basil or tulsi has the same, leafy appeal as culinary basil, with bright rounded leaves and tiny, colorful flowers on slender, upright stalks. It has a spicy, refreshing fragrance.

Benefits: This herb is revered in Indian mythology in Hinduism for its spiritual characteristics and it is thought to have a healing effect. As a houseplant, it is said to clear the home of negative energy and attract positive vibrations to the environment. It emits oxygen and absorbs harmful gases almost all day long. As a medicinal herb, it is said to have antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties.

Care: Place your holy basil houseplant in a bright spot that gets lots of sun. Like regular basil, it needs well-draining soil and regular irrigation.

Jasmine

Looks: Jasmine is often grown as a climbing vine, but you can also bring it indoors as a shrubby houseplant. It has bright, happy, green leaves and star-shaped white flowers with a star-power fragrance.

Benefits: Jasmine, the “sacred flower of Persia,” is said to stimulate energy, enhance self-esteem and strengthen relationships. When used as a houseplant in the bedroom, jasmine has the reputation of bringing on deep sleep and prophetic dreams.

Care: Indoors or out, jasmine thrives in well-drained soil in a sun-drenched site. Place the container in a south-facing window and water regularly. Prune your jasmine to keep it compact.

Lavender

Looks: Lavender is a fragrant herb with gray-green foliage, upright flower spikes and a compact growth form. It’s beloved for its gorgeous purple flowers with an unforgettable fragrance.

Benefits: This sacred flowering plant is reputed to have many magical properties that heal and protect. It is said to assist in bringing stability and mental clarity to your life. It also removes toxins from the home, and helps with headaches, insomnia, and depression.

Care: Your biggest problem with growing lavender indoors is light. This Mediterranean herb requires lots of hot, bright light to thrive, so only bring in potted lavender if you have a sunny window. Use quick-draining potting soil and water infrequently.

Issue

The aloe vera is one of those plants that has “magical” healing attributes which can be used for almost all types of personal care.

We find them in hand lotions, body lotions, shampoos, skin care, moisturizers, etc. And the list goes on and on.

We even consume them in drinks, desserts, salads, and more.

It is often a suggested remedy by TCM practitioners for removing heat and reducing inflammation.

Yet people who have used aloe vera plant extracts and have never seen one might be surprised at how this magic plant looks like.

It is shaped like a miniature snake plant, has a thorny surface like a cactus, with thick succulent leaves like a crassula.

It’s almost impossible that one can expect it’s flowing juice which flows after snapping off it’s leaves to have such an all-encompassing healing properties.

And surely such a gift from mother earth would have good feng shui, right?

Good or bad feng shui

The aloe vera plant has a spiky form that ignites the fire element. Yet it’s elemental nature is that of wood.

It’s sharp leaves is not something you want emitting disruptive sha chi inside the house.

On top of that, it’s leaves are pretty hard, sturdy, and packs quite a punch. Pointy thorns line up at the sides of each aloe rind.

If you lose your balance and sits onto one, it is going to hurt unlike other plants with with softer body and leaves. It’s strong and sharp enough to cause bleeding.

So it’s not exactly a plant that is child-friendly. Curious kids might even eat the aloe vera juice for the fun of it without considering cleanliness and hygiene.

All these indicates that if you want to keep aloe vera at home, whether for it’s beauty or medicinal uses, place them outdoors. They can line up nicely with your other potted plants and create visual diversity that can also be more pleasing to the eye.

If placement has to be indoors, then keep them in corners where you don’t spend a lot of time in.

Keep them away from living rooms, bedrooms, and especially the dining area.

Having said that, small plants are not going to emit serious sha chi significant enough to be alarming. It’s just that someone with feng shui OCD might find that a little sha chi is a little too much.

This is why this plant should not be placed in the wealth area even though it is a good-nature plant.

Big aloe veras (which are not uncommon) are going to cause more drastic negative effects.

If you must have them, place them in the east, southeast, north, or south to ensure that they are in harmony with the energy present in the space they reside.

Because of the medicinal nature of the plant, this can actually be ideal if any of the stated directional areas turn out to be one of the health areas in the house.

Finally, because the aloe vera plant is a healing plant, you’d want to avoid placing them in bathrooms… even if it’s meant to cleanse the air.

It’s just bad symbolism to mix the two together. You can leave that job to the golden pothos.