You should also avoid dead or dying plants.  This may seem obvious, but how many of us are holding onto sick plants that we really love?  If you can't save the plant, get rid of it, or if you can't bear to part with it, at least move it outside so it doesn't affect the energy inside your home. 

Which plants to use

The most popular plant in feng shui is the lucky bamboo.  It can be placed anywhere in your home and needs very little natural light.

Some other plants and flowers and their meanings:

• Jade plants: enhance prosperity
• African violets: enhance wealth
• Chinese evergreen: security
• Any dark green climbing plant: represent the desire for growth

The containers you use are also important.  Big terra cotta planters represent stability, so you might consider using them in areas where you feel insecure.  If your family life isn't exactly what you would wish, put a plant in a terra cotta container in your family section.

Colors can also influence your energy.  Use plants with white flowers in the helpful people section to draw friends to you.  Yellow and orange flowers in the wealth section can improve your finances.  To improve your love life, place peonies, red roses, or pink cyclamen in your marriage section.  To increase your fame, place red flowers in your fame section.  If you want to bring more money into your life, place a Sweetheart vine or jade plant in your wealth section.  Indoor trees placed in your career section can help boost a stalled career.

Where to put plants

One good place to put houseplants is near your front entrance.  You want everyone who enters your home to have a good feeling, and a nice plant, especially a flowering plant, will help engender positive feelings.  You can also put plants wherever you have sharp angles in your home.  Western architecture is enamored with angles, but the Eastern philosophy is that sharp corners send out what is called poison arrows, or bad energy.  If you've ever banged your shin on a square coffee table or continuously run into the same door frame, you'll understand what this means.  Put plants on the edge of square tables or near doorways so people become more aware of them and this will cut down on accidents.

Energy flows from room to room throughout your home, but it can collect in corners where it becomes stagnant.  By putting plants in the corners of rooms, especially in those places where something feels not quite right to you, you can disperse the negative energy.  Try it, and you'll see that you really do feel better.   

In feng shui, your home is divided into nine sections:

Stand at your front door, look into your house, superimpose this grid on your own floor plan, and you will see which areas of your own house fall into which sections.  It is helpful to put plants in any section that needs improvement.  For example, I wanted to improve my career, so I put bamboo plants in the career, wealth, and fame sections of my house (and yes, I have seen results).

Other good places to use plants:

• Near electrical equipment to counteract the energy they give off
• Inside an unused fireplace to keep positive energy from escaping
• Under sloping ceilings to keep negative energy from pressing down on you
• Long hallways to help positive energy to flow and to calm nervous energy
• There is one exception to the spiky plant rule:  use them near windows to discourage intruders.

The most important thing to remember about feng shui and indoor plants is your intention.  If you place certain plants in certain areas with the intention that they will work, that they will accomplish what you desire, then they will.  Give it a try and see if it works for you.  Four thousand years of feng shui can't be wrong.