Faux Plants, Real Style

You CAN
make faux plants
work for you!

Mixing it up


Want to enhance a space with plants, but lighting's not adequate? Or watering not possible? Try faux.

Gardening is a passion of mine and plants of all kinds can be found outside and inside my home. But sometimes there's an area that needs help. Maybe it's because the lighting doesn’t always cooperate, or watering abilities are limited, or obsolete. I have used faux plants many times to fill those spaces and they work very nicely. Here are some useful guidelines when intergrating faux plants into your space:

  • Purchase quality faux plants, with flexible leaves and color on both sides. Preferably UV resistant.
  • Approach their placement as if a real plant, meaning place near a window or around other live plants.
  • Anchor plants in a beatiful pot.
  • Take time to open, shape, bend & angle the plants to give a more realistic appearance.
  • After planting, fill the top of pot with some type of moss or stones.

I’m unable to have live plants in my Florida home as I'm not there on a steady basis. But I do have plants - faux ones in beautiful pots. Here is an example in my Florida home, I have a wonderful tall palm in a pot. I have it placed near a window, and it adds so much life to the room. I also have another one that is a Bamboo plant I placed in the living room.

Another example is a plant in my Illinois home. I love where it is located and how it cascades down, but it doesn’t get the strongest light mid-room and can become spindly sometimes. So, I purchased the same faux plant and used some to fill in on the live plant. To this day no one knows there are some artificial leaves in there.

My most recent project (see gallery below) was to add some greenery and life to our screened patio space in Florida. So much concrete and tile and nothing green fluttering in the breeze. For right now I can’t have real plants as I don’t have a watering source in there, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. So, I thought I’d share how I approached this dilemma.
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   Project Materials  

Blue Pots Cascading Plant Banana Leaf Plant Croton Plant Orange Spires Plant Fern Leaves Florist Foam Discs Plastic Shims Spanish Moss

BRINGING IT TOGETHER

   Click or tap image for larger view.

1Choose beautiful accent pots. Not just plastic, but something ceramic or resin. If you are planning on a big plant, you need a pot with substance. No one would believe a palm tree in a little bucket pot. My plants are in a large open space, so I wanted them in a tall display. These blue pots were perfect!

2If they are going to be outdoors you’ll want to be sure the pots are weighted so they don’t tip over and have a drainage hole so they don’t fill with rain water. I added stone to the bottom half of the pots.

3I put the stones in bags so they wouldn’t make a mess and were easy to remove if I was going to change things up.

4Next I cut some Styrofoam circles to fit snuggly for the base inside. You don’t want this up at the top of the pot but pushed down about 5 or 6 inches so the plants are "growing" from beneath the rim. To be sure it was a snug fit I added some plastic shims on the sides to tighten it up.

5After that I layered into the pot some thick florist’s foam. This is what your faux plants will be pushed into.

6I researched online for some quality plants and purchased several types, sizes and colors. Some cascade over, some stand tall in the center, and shorter plants to fill the center and add some color. Think different shapes, colors and textures. I started with the plants that would cascade down the sides.

7Then added my center plants with the greatest height.

8Now I can start working around the middle adding in other plants of color and shape to fill in.

9This can take a little playing with, especially if it will be seen from all sides. I intermingle the leaves, pulling some out further and down lower. Finally, adding some moss or stones around the plants at their base to hide any visible foam.

10I made two planters and placed them on opposite sides of my screened patio. They get dappled with sun and move with the breeze. Unless actually touched and closely inspected no one would ever know these are faux plants.

11So, no matter where you live, what your climate is, or whether inside or outside your home, you can make faux plants work for you.