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Age is a funny thing. If you’re lucky it teaches you tolerance and acceptance. For example I used to think I would NEVER have faux houseplants. I figured if I couldn’t have real I didn’t want to bother.
The twisted juniper on the mantle below are preserved evergreen.
{Kelly Harmon Designs}
A few years ago I discovered that there are now some very real-looking houseplants available, and some are actually “preserved” plants that were once real.
I’ll be honest, I’m certain that working full time has tempered my sentences that used to start with the words, “I’ll never…”. Actually, I’m happy about this because I did find that faux plants, when mixed with live indoor plants, can look very real and make life a whole lot easier for those of us with minimal hours to tend to them. I still love English ivy and topiary of all kinds.
Tone on Tone shared the vast array of their houseplants, including these lovelies below…
Another option for indoor houseplants can be found in some “outdoor” plant sections, like this creeping fig (below)…
My favorite fake plant right now is the preserved boxwoods. I really like the topiary in various sizes, the wreath and the globe shapes they come in.
I also feel that if you need a “plant” for a certain space, using something like willow-like branches can be effective.
{Ralph Lauren}
My go-to fresh plant of choice is English ivy. I’ve had pretty good luck with the ivy plants I’ve purchased and as long as I water them by soaking them in a bath of 2″ of fresh water when they get thirsty, they will last for 6 months to a year, or longer. Ivy seems to like to absorb the water rather than be watered from the top.
Alison over at The Polohouse recently posted about her Kitchen Hutch…the array of houseplants made for a lovely vignette. I believe she has preserved boxwood, real English ivy and a moss ball in the display below…
Trader Joe’s has a beautiful selection of blooming house plants that are so inexpensive that I’ll often buy them and once they begin to look sad I’ll move them to a sheltered space outdoors and see if they come back and re-bloom. They also carry great orchids in a variety of sizes. Their blooms sometimes stay intact up to 3 months. I don’t have luck making them re-bloom but my daughter-in-law in Austin does!
There are other faux options such as dried hydrangea (which you can do yourself) and reindeer moss, which provides you with the green while not requiring any water
{Haus Design}
There’s another option that I’ve used for table settings…live annual plants. They won’t last forever indoors, but they are so pretty!
So I say, if you have a tough spot, maybe not enough light gets to the place you’d like to have a plant, search for something that mirrors a live plant, if you love it, no one will every know.
Do you have strong feelings one way or another where live vs. real houseplants are concerned? I love your comments.
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