As a florist I have made many, many artificial arrangements for people to display in their homes.  And one thing I learned is this: if a faux arrangement is going to rival fresh, it has to be super realistic.  No one wants to decorate around something that looks like plastic!  Here are my top tips for making faux flowers look real in your home:

Tip 1: Buy the Best

There are many grades of faux flowers, and the one to look for is Real Touch.  Flowers with this designation both look and feel real, making it much easier to imitate fresh blooms.  You can buy them online, at your friendly local florist, or (of course!) here at Magpie.  Real Touch flowers are so good, they’ll fool your friends!  Faux flowers have come a long way, and you can now find both flowers and foliages with this designation.  PRO TIP: An old florist’s trick is to mix in fresh flowers with faux.  You can add a few fresh stems in with water vials (good for events!) or tuck in slim bud vases.  This is especially handy around the holidays, as fresh evergreens will last weeks and you can just rotate out the fresh flowers as they fade.

Tip 2: Look for Realism

When you are buying your flowers, look for ones that imitate life in the colors and styles.  It’s much easier to “fool the eye” with a white lily as opposed to a teal blue one.  And a word on stems: rarely are they terribly realistic, so I always look for a way to cover them.  Also, many flowers don’t grow in the way they come on the faux stems; don’t be afraid to cut them apart.  If the stems are too short, tape on florist wire to lengthen the stems.  PRO TIP: The easiest way make stems longer is florist wire and tape.  Heat the end of the wire with a candle flame to get it to stick to the plastic stem, then wrap florist tape around it.  Florist tape is green and only sticks to itself when stretched; it’s easy but there is a bit of a knack to it.  I’m happy to demonstrate for you if you come into the store. 🙂

Tip 3: Choose Containers Carefully

Although faux flowers don’t need water, they will look more realistic if you opt for containers that look like they could house fresh flowers.  If you want to use a container that wouldn’t hold water (like a wicker basket) you can tuck a glass vase in to maintain the illusion.  PRO TIP: Faux flowers look much more real in a glass vase with water.  Although there are a number of pricey “fake water” products on the market, clear gel Elmer’s glue works just as well, and it’s inexpensive and easy to find.

Bonus tip: Visually, what really sets faux flowers apart from fresh is the perfection.  Unlike real flowers, every bloom is perfect and every stem is identical to its fellows.  To make your faux flowers look more realistic, you have to manually create imperfections. You can fold or clip petals away to change the look of some of the blooms, clip out a small section of clustered flowers so they aren’t perfectly round, or dab a little ink on some to give them different shades and variations.  Most faux flowers are on wires, so that helps manipulate them into different shapes, too.