Your thoughts on artificial flowers

[findingmyfeet12]

For as long as I can remember I've thought that artificial flowers are a bit "tacky".

I think this is because when I was younger the only ones available looked dreadful.

There seem to be very realistic looking ones available now which look lovely.

Would you have them in your home?

Love them. DH had bad allergies and we have naughty cats too so real ones are out. I have several types - three on the living room mantelpiece alone!

You can get fantastically real looking artificial flowers. For our wedding we had a mixture of real and fake flowers. Couldn't tell the difference until you went to smell the artificial ones.

Look for ones made out of silk. They are beautiful and don't die lol but can be pricy. Bonus though you only have to buy once

I was the same until I discovered the real looking ones. Ikea do a huge collection & very cheap too. However they ARE dust traps. So, I have a few but they are kept in a cupboard & only come out for guests/special dads etc. Keeps them fresh & clean & because we are not used to them all the time, we enjoy them like we would do real flowers.

Yes, I have quite a lot, but I need to be honest and say they were very expensive, as in 150 quid an arrangement (from the likes of bloom U.K.)

Do they look real. I don't think so but I've had people ask if they were. Do they look beautiful, oh yes.

notjust that display looks gorgeous.

They are a poor substitute for real flowers - no matter how expensive. I would prefer dried grasses from a meadow, tbh.

Thanks for all the replies. I don't think I'll buy any - I agree with a pp that once I know they're fake, no matter how realistic, they'll lose their charm.

I can't afford fresh flowers regularly so I'll go for some nice house plants.

@StrictlyNameChangin
On a side note about charity shops....do the staff that volunteer there always get first dabs on stuff that’s been donated and do they actually pay for it?

I like the look of the fake blossom branches you see in homesense etc in the spring, not bought one but would.

Obviously I can't speak for them all but this friend and another who is a manager in a different one definitely pay for goods, to not do so would be theft. I think I've just always assumed that if they see something they want when sorting through donations they can have first dibs but I'm not certain. I know my neighbour would always double check with another volunteer or manager if she was the one who priced it, to make sure the price was agreed and all was seen to be above board.

When I've volunteered at charity jumble sales we've always been able to put things aside for ourselves to buy before we open the doors to the public. In my case nobody checked, although I made a point of making a much bigger donation to somebody else than was needed, partly because I thought my stash was more than worth it and partly to further support the charity. You have to put it well away or in the car before the doors open though, a few times things ive stashed already bought have been sold to the public by accident 🤣

@Strictly they aren't plastic which is what I like about them

It depends how real they look, I have loads of real house plants (15 in my living room) but my bathroom has very very little natural light so I have some fake plants in there. They were quite cheap but as they are hanging above head height it's difficult to tell they are plastic/fabric unless you look closely. OKA do fantastic fakes, my DM has had one on a kitchen sideboard for 15 ish years and it still looks fantastic. Dried flowers and plants are another long lasting option that can look fab.

I like them, I would prefer a mass of real blooms delivered weekly but can't afford it. I have a combo of real flowers & plants, dried ones & fake flowers.

Abigail ahern are good as are Oka

If you choose wisely (botanically realistic flowers), buy a lot, arrange well, keep to season (no daffodils in November) and rotate, then they can look good. The ones I have regularly confuse people.

I have stayed in a lot of 4-5 star hotels and see them used beautifully in public areas. I agree they look sad on tables in the dining room, but wilting real flowers don't look good either.

I have one and 2 real palm trees

I’ve got some nice ones, I tend to put them in rooms such as bedrooms and bathroom where I’d not normally put real flowers. Unless you have cut flowers from your garden they’re not environmentally friendly either because of how far they travel and they are wrapped in plastic for their journey.

They remind me of crematoriums.

I was wondering about the same dilemma recently...faux flowers vs real from environment perspective...

And found the following arguments quite convincing...
However, from pure style perspective prefer real ones...

From www.debate.org/opinions/which-is-better-for-the-environment-fake-flowers-yes-or-real-blooms-no

“Faux flowers all the way I used to be a florist, Since becoming more environmentally aware I can honestly say that artificial flowers are better for the environment. The amount of cellophane that the flowers are wrapped in when they arrive fills up huge bins every week. This is in addition to the CO2 emissions created in flying these flowers across the world from South America, Africa etc. Other flowers are grown in Europe in massive green houses. The artificial flowers I use now have been shipped to the UK by sea, Are in cardboard and have a life of several years. Once they have finished their use, Each stem can be de constructed to part metal (recyclable) and part plastic which amounts to about the same as a couple of biros!

Cut flowers are bad for the environment There are plenty of scholarly articles for those interested in the facts around the environmental impact of the cut flower industry.
Given that a single rose uses between 6 to 13 litres of water in the production process, Your magnificent dozen wastes a minimum of 72 litres of our precious water for, At best, 10 days use. That doesn't include the water in the vase which is recommended to be changed daily.
After brief enjoyment, It is off to land fill to produce methane which compliments the carbon emissions from the refrigeration and transport, Often from the other side of the world. Also, Add herbicides and pesticides used in production, And in some destination countries including Australia, Methyl Bromide fumigation a known carcinogen.

Cut flowers are never 'pollinated' rather they are 'decapitated'. They are often grown in temperature controlled structures which are devoid of insects, Or in the field are sprayed with pesticides.

Yes, Artificial flowers are fabric and plastic, But the same argument could be raised for our cupboards full of plastic food storage containers and non-organic fiber clothing. . . All of which will, Ironically, Be outlasted by artificial flowers with a 'lifespan' of up to 15 years.
So by all means - enjoy growing your own flowers and leave plenty of them in the garden to feed the bees and other insects. But if it is cut flowers you are purchasing, Do the environment a favor and either buy some artificial or just don't buy any at all.

Arguments ignore land use & farming practices There's a lot of nuance to this but first you have to acknowledge that growing flowers is bad for the environment full stop. They have a net impact. Most of the arguments below say they are natural and therefore better. Growing flowers takes up huge amounts of land which could be otherwise used to grow food or provide any other land use. They are also farmed with heavy uses of pesticides & fertilizer, So are no better than a food growing farm from a biodiversity point of view. Furthermore you have to take into account the transportation of huge amounts of flowers in terms of carbon footprint. In the UK many of the flowers we can buy are flown in from Africa. There's nothing about farmed flowers which is cyclical - the nutrients end up in a landfill or a compost bin in another country and there's a net carbon cost.

In terms of what's better or worse, I think that depends on how often you buy flowers. If you have to have two bouquets of fresh flowers on display in your house at all times, Then replacing those with plastic would probably be much much better for the environment than constantly buying fresh flowers.

The points about plastic flowers being difficult to recycle and dispose of are valid, But it would be interesting to see the results of a study which tried to weigh up these two options.

What about those Chemicals? To reply to the post saying that plants give us oxygen and we give plants CO2, that doesn't really work when the plants have been chopped down, does it? We can still plant all of the flowers and not of to cut them down. That would be a lot better for the environment don't you think?

www.debate.org/opinions/which-is-better-for-the-environment-fake-flowers-yes-or-real-blooms-no

I don’t like dying cut flowers in my house so they seem a better alternative to that but the best alternative is either dried real flowers or a plant that I keep alive
(I’ve kept 7 plants alive for nearly 4 years!)

I've recently bought some silk flowers from a company called Fleur de le Cœur, they do letterbox ones a bit like Bloom n Wild and look beautiful.
I'm bad for forgetting to change the water when I have fresh flowers and they go manky

No they are dust traps though I do seen some nice fake plants to buy

Houseplants gather dust too... I shower mine occasionally! It just wouldn't occur to me to go for fake plants, but that's because - as a pp said upthread - to me the joy is in tending to them and nurturing them and watching them grow... Much like the plants in my garden! Would be weird if they were all fake, like in "the lorax"

@Onedropbeat you deserve a medal for keeping plants alive!
I have poinsettias cactus yucas that somehow magically survived my “care”

Never seen ones that were remotely nice.

A friend of mine has a beautiful white orchid, fake but totally realistic. It's always the same, perfect.
I've got 3 orchids that I've had for years. I get so excited when they throw up a flower spike and check each day as the buds grow and finally flower. They never look perfect!
I would say artificial are fine for home decor and dressing a room, but they can't compare with the interest of growing live plants.