Jumping into Spring: Tips on Faux Floral

Well I’m just about over winter. Yes, I’m aware it’s still February. But we had such glorious weather here this weekend that I was inspired to do some Spring projects.

Remember the tulip door hanging I made last year?

Unfortunately because it’s still early on in the year, there are no real flowers or branches blooming yet for cutting, so I turned to something I rarely use: faux floral.

Look, don’t judge me. I’m a self- professed flower snob. I love fresh flowers in my home, and I appreciate the art of arranging. But, faux floral has come a long way. These ain’t your momma’s silks, mmmmk?

There are some things you can do with the fake stuff to make it more realistic though, so here are my tips:

1) If you can afford it, buy the highest quality. Most craft stores will have “levels” of realness in their selection. If you are doing a small project, splurge for the best looking knock offs. If not (and I’ll talk more about this later this week), then buy a mix of quality. Depending on your project, that might mean buying the nicer version of a focal flower and cheaper fillers, or buying all of one type of flower but varying the quality of the stems.

2) I hate unnaturally colored live blooms (think teal blue dyed daisies), so I wouldn’t buy the fake version either. That’s just a personal preference, but in general I stick to natural varieties.

3) Try to maintain some sense of seasonal relevance. Many flowers are available in stores year round, but fake forsythia in the fall just doesn’t fly under the radar.

4) In general, I stay away from pre-made bundles. This goes for real flowers as well. There will be a lot of garbage mixed in with a few nice things, so it’s better to just pick individual stems of what you like.

5) Don’t be afraid to bend branches, remove leaves, cut the wire, or modify your stems. If you stuff all your wire stems in a vase, it will look like you stuffed all your wire stems in a vase. The real-factor happens when you vary the heights and shapes of the stems- just like in nature.

6) Choose your time and place wisely – I would choose real flowers for a dinner table, but faux floral for a door hanging or wreath. You could get away with faux floral arrangements in a guest room or office (think high quality potted silk orchid). But generally when I entertain I stay away from the falsies.

So, with those “rules” in mind, I went about livening up my front porch with a fresh birdcage arrangement. I cut up the lavender and yellow bud branches so I could get a more rustic, wild look. Anchored by the cabbage, I began adding in the stems one by one.

I love working with the birdcage because I can arrange flowers through the wire cage- it makes it much more interesting! Eventually I settled on my work (believe me, you can tweak this kind of thing to death!) and hung it up on the front door.