“Sending flowers to your sick or sad friend might be a universal go-to gift, but the heartwarming gesture is actually more helpful than you think. I know it may be surprising, but there are more to flowers than just a sweet smell and a pretty face—they can have some seriously positive effects on our health, too.

The American Society for Horticulture Scienceperformed a study evaluating if plants have therapeutic influences on surgical patients, and the results are honestly kind of shocking. 90 patients were split into rooms either with plants or without plants, and those with some kind of foliage had wildly different results than those who had not.

According to the study, those exposed to flowers had lower blood pressure and heart rate, lower ratings of pain, anxiety, and fatigue, and more positive feelings and higher satisfaction about their rooms than the patients without foliage. The findings from this research actually suggests that flowers should be “complementary medicine” for recovering patients. Now that’s an idea I can get behind.”