Just Say "No" to Fake Flowers

"When you see the genuine, you don't deal with the fakes anymore."
                                                                                                   -Nima Davani

Can you tell that these are not artificial?

Cut flowers are dynamic; they bloom, they move, they drink water, they drop petals, and change day by day, and in the case of tulips, hour by hour. I just returned from a vacation, where we stayed at a vacation rental, which was decorated with a bunch of artificial flower arrangements. Coming from a flower farm, it was a little weird right off the bat, since I am used to having fresh flowers in my home all the time.  To my surprise, some of these arrangements were actually very well produced and put together. The flowers looked real and the arrangements were pleasing to the eye.

After being in this house a few days, I started to notice things about these bouquets that started to bother me. First, one was a bouquet with anemone, a classic spring flower, paired with red ilex berries that would be harvested in the fall. It was pretty, but I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it, until I realized, this bouquet was not only a silk fiction, but a seasonal fiction as well.

Another bouquet was placed squarely in a picture window, right in the blazing sun. It was strange to see “flowers” placed in a bright, harsh light. I literally grabbed the vase to rescue the flowers for certain doom, when the lightweight vase with no water caught me off guard.

Surprised, I said, “Oh, these are fake…”

Then I looked around making sure nobody saw me muttering to myself about the flowers. This would not be the first time I’ve been caught holding vase and talking out loud to the contents.

Fresh cut hydrangea fit nicely in wine glasses.

Over the course of a couple weeks something really odd happened with these fake flowers, which never happens with real flowers. I stopped seeing them, I stopped engaging with them, and I stopped enjoying them, because they lacked the basic life force of true cut flowers.

Real flowers need to get fresh water, they may need to be moved and re-arranged as a blossom falls off or a stem expires. They are constantly changing. One of the joys of fresh flowers is following how they change in the night, for me it is a pure joy to see how flower adjusted while we slept.

Artificial flowers just become clutter in a corner, on a shelf or as a center piece. Doesn’t this defeat the whole purpose of flowers? Real flowers need a little attention, but give back a huge amount of personality, color and cheer.

Stargazers compliment hydrangea, in a recycled cream bottle.

When I got back home from vacation, they first thing I did was run out to my garden and clip some vibrant blue stems of hydrangea and a couple lily stems to place around the house.

I quietly said, “Ahhh, that’s better.”

Only to hear my partner say,

“Honey, are you talking to those hydrangea?”