Every single plant you see in this photograph is fake. (Sorry, faux.)
Bonus: Spot the blogger in the mirror!
I’ve been singing the praises of fake plants practically since I started this site. There’s a good reason for this: While I’ve gotten better at plant-parenting over time, I still kill about 30% of the greenery that enters my house. Sometimes it’s nice to have a plant and not worry about killing it. But the past few months have seen my thing for artificial plants reach a whole new level, because apparently some focus group somewhere determined that there was a gap in the market for affordable plants that actually look real and are actually in cute pots that you’d actually buy yourself…and then Target went ahead and filled it.
(I know I talk about Target way too much lately. It’s because there’s one near my house, and there’s not much of anything else near my house…so Target ends up being where I go for everything. …Hashtag suburban life…?)
How To Pick Artificial Plants That Look Realistic
Most Certainly Ramshackle Faux Plant Rehab
Seriously, though: The plants I’ve recently purchased for my house – most of which are from Target’s Opalhouse and Hearth and Hand collections – are seriously good, though. Not all of them – there are a few misses, most notably their fiddle leaf fig tree (which isn’t terrible by any means, but definitely looks fake) – but most of them are surprisingly realistic, and there’s a lot of variety. FYI, another great place to shop for artificial plants is HomeGoods: the quality is all over the place, but if you find a beautiful piece the price is pretty unbeatable.
My personal favorites:
- This white orchid, which is so realistic that people literally don’t believe me when I tell them it’s fake and need to go feel it;
- These little guys, which are only $5.99 and look great as accents on shelves or in bathrooms;
- This cactus, which isn’t completely real-looking close up, but has such a great, graphic shape;
- And these, which I put everywhere.
Candle Pillar | Tiered Table | Vase | Similar Plant (that one is sold out) | Candle
A FEW DO’S AND DON’TS
Do:
- Put real plants in the areas where people congregate and are likely to see them close-up: I make sure the plants in the center of my dining room table and my coffee table are real, and keep the faux plants around the edges of the room.
- Mix some faux plans in with groupings of real ones; it’s a way to keep your greenery affordable and low-maintenance. (Just make sure not to forget which ones require watering.)
- Place a great plant with a so-so pot inside a prettier pot; it’ll instantly upgrade the look.
- Get them if you have cats. Cats destroy real plants.
Don’t:
- Put fake plants outdoors; it just looks silly (and is a waste of a good fake plant). Caveat: I totally do this with plants that I decide aren’t nice enough to stay indoors (older ones, ones that a pet has gotten into, etc), but I make sure they function more as filler, and aren’t near enough to areas where people walk or sit to allow for close inspection.
- Forget to dust the leaves. Dusty leaves have some serious ick factor. (FYI, Clorox dust wipes are great for this.)
- Put artificial plants next to candles. I mean, don’t put anything next to candles, really, but especially don’t put plastic plants next to them.
