You are not a terrible person for killing off every houseplant you have ever owned.
I will be honest – I love having plants and flowers in my home, but I have no idea about the best location for each type of plant! The whole thing goes above my head and gardening is not my strong suit.
I have been given real plants and flowers in the past, from well-meaning friends & family, only to have the new greenery not make it past a month or two at the most! I don’t know about you but seeing the leaves start to wilt and turn brown has the opposite effect on me that plants are supposed to have!!
Real plants are tattle-tails.
I understand how easy it is to get down on yourself for not doing the simple things - like watering a plant at the right time of the day or providing just the right amount of sunshine for that particular plant and no more!
But what makes it even more horrible is that your plants tell on you to your friends and family that visit your house! They cry out with their dry leaves & drooping stems, showing everyone what a ‘terrible’ plant parent you are.
The first step to taking care of others is to take care of yourself. So cut yourself some slack, breathe deeply, and repeat after me “I am not a terrible person for killing my house plants!”
Advantages of faux plants:
- One of the biggest advantages for me, is that artificial plants are not restricted to one place in your home. You can move them around to wherever takes your fancy and they won’t go brown on you.
I like to move things around in my home and I love that I can put that potted plant on the dining table, or in the bathroom or on my bedside table. I don’t have to think about how much sun it gets!!
- Anything that saves me time is a winner for me! Not having to water multiple pots every day is a huge time saver for me, especially as a full-time working mum with 2 young kids!
I love my potted grasses and flowers and I know I wouldn’t be able to devote the time needed to have real plants inside my home.
- Artificial greenery is very hardy! If you have kids, you know why this is important…
They can take neglect, rough & tumble, getting knocked around and the best part is that the floor remains clean – no dirt spilled all over!
The look & feel (and materials used):
Artificial flowers, trees & grasses have grown in popularity as the technology used to create them has improved. At Lume Outdoor Living we have products that are made from a number of materials.
Here are a couple of the more common materials and their pros.
Silk: This is the most common fabric used in artificial flowers. Silk flowers are durable and keep their colour better than any other material. The petals can have vein prints embedded into the colour to give an authentic look.
Real Touch: Real Touch fabric is all the rage. Run your finger along a real touch petal and shut your eyes, it’s just like touching a real flower with that slick-like greasiness that flower petals have. Real Touch flowers are very good at collecting dust, they also tend to fade and are best kept for indoors.
Foam: These are flowers, fillers and fruit and vegetables that are constructed with foam and have a hard plastic enclosure. These are very durable.
Plastic: Plastic is used in construction of many of our grasses and some greenery. They are highly durable & life like.
How do I style them?
Bring the outdoors in by planting your artificial plants into a gorgeous pot. Choose a pot that is big enough to slip your plant inside, they make adding greenery to your home easy.
Prettier than a lamp or a painting, this season is all about plants in the home.
Most of the artificial plants are glued into planters foam into a plastic pot. These are designed to then be put inside of a decorative pot. They are quite lightweight and are easy to move around, and for outdoors you would want to weight them down so they won’t blow over.
Pots are so varied these days in materials and style:
- Woven rattan, in natural & coloured options
- Ceramic pots in plain colours, terrazzo look & textured
- Metal pots, such as colourful mini garbage cans & laser cut designs
- Resin with detailed finishes
- Traditional terracotta pots
- Woven baskets
- Pots with timber legs – this is one of the hottest trends right now. You can find most of the above styles available with timber legs to add height and dimension to your plants.
You really don’t need to do anything else once you have placed them inside a decorative pot, although if you want to make them heavier, you could add some rocks to your pot.
Adding greenery in and around your home is also really important if your house is on the market to sell. Flowers & greenery always make people smile. It can turn an ordinary area into a homely, lived in and loved room.
Selling your home? Take a look at our blog article and learn why styling to sell is so important: https://lumeoutdoorliving.com.au/blogs/our-journal/styling-selling
How to care for them:
Remember how I said I kill houseplants? Well if I had to do any more than dusting my faux plants, they would probably die too. Luckily for me, wiping over with a wet cloth or a duster is all that is needed. Seriously - that is it!
Seeing my flowers and plants stay fresh, green & crisp every day is as much encouragement as I need to stick with faux greenery!! The plants in my bedroom, bathroom, lounge room & dining room thank me!
We stock a large range of trees, plants, grasses, flowers and more. Pop into the showroom today!
