FLORAL FRIDAY | HOW TO MIX FRESH AND FAUX FLOWERS

Have you ever had a floral emergency? You know……you suddenly need to have some kind of attractive flower arrangement, in a hurry, and you have a minimum of flowers?

Well, this is what happened to me for this Floral Friday!

 

 

In this post I’ll share how to combine good quality faux flowers with a few “real” ones to make a statement Harvest Floral Arrangement. No one will be able to tell parts of your floral gorgeousness aren’t real!

 

Shhhh….it will be our secret!

 

 

If this is your first time joining my floral loving friends Pam, Shirley and Mary and myself for Floral Friday, I want to WELCOME you!  We’re so glad you are here, fellow flower aficionado – and hope you will stay awhile.

 

Be sure to visit each friend, I will show you how to at the bottom of this post, you won’t want to miss their inspirational flowers!

 

 

I’m just going to confess to all of you right up front – just like Pooh Bear, this week I seem to be of very little brain!  We have a million things going on at once at FrenchGardenHouse, and we’re also hosting three “entertaining” type events at home and going out of town in the midst of all that, too.

 

Which I love, but obviously I have too much in my head…… or maybe nothing at all.

 

 

I wasn’t thinking straight when I prepared for Floral Friday.  I bought flowers. I styled a table setting. I took photos. I wrote a post for all of you!

 

But…eek…it was the wrong one. You can see that one in two weeks, when it was actually scheduled.

 

And this meant that I suddenly had a flower emergency, because time was running out to prepare this Harvest Arrangement post. Our garden is practically bare this time of year, so no bountiful flowers to cut from there. I had a skinny bunch of spider mums from the grocery store. really skinny.

 

 

So this is where my secret came in! FAUX FLOWERS!  Yes, I know…..

 

Nothing divides a room full of flower enthusiasts like the question of faking it. Is it a sin?  Will you, my dear readers and friends, stop reading me because I dared combine faux and real flowers for this Floral Friday post ?!

 

 

 

You know I love an abundance of fresh flowers, but I can see the benefits of using a blended mix of faux and real flowers at times.

When my eldest daughter got married, the girl had her heart set on huge arrangements at the altar with pristine white hydrangeas tucked in amidst roses, lilies and other white flowers. Huge hydrangeas. They were not only almost impossible to get at that time of year, they cost a whopping 18.00 a stem for the size we needed!  And we needed 40 or more just for those two arrangements alone.

 

It was my first love affair with inserting luxury fine quality faux flowers in with real flowers. { Honestly, those wedding altar arrangements were unbelievably stunning. And not a single person knew the hydrangeas weren’t real.}

 

 

I hope you open your mind to the more glamorous side of faux petals.
 

I made this arrangement that captures the feel of the harvest season to help inspire you to make your own versions for any autumn gathering.  The use of spice colored flowers spilling out from this antique French glass apothecary jar adds a harvest time touch to my living room.

 

 

HERE ARE A FEW TIPS FOR COMBING SILK AND REAL FLOWERS:

{and make them look incredible!}

 

1. CHOOSE REALISTIC LOOKING FLOWERS. Choose silk flowers in shapes and types that occur in nature. If you start with a true-to-nature palette, combining artificials with real flowers will make a seamless and lifelike-look much easier to achieve.

2. CONSIDER HOW THE FLOWERS FEEL. If the flowers feel soft, instead of like plastic, they are likely to fool even the most observant eye.

3. MIX IN ACCENT GREENERY. Here is where you can really fool Mother Nature!  Real floral arrangements usually use greenery to ground the arrangement. In my large Harvest arrangement for today, I not only used silk greens, it’s the berried eucalyptus from a tree in my street that really makes this arrangement look real.

4. USE FLOWERS IN SEASONAL COLORS. Nothing says “fake” than a bunch of brightly colored spring blooms in the middle of fall. Stick to the seasonal colors that are occurring in nature, and your arrangements will always look appropriate.

5. CUT FAUX STEMS TO THE RIGHT SIZE. If your container isn’t see through, you can bend them if you don’t want to clip them with wire cutters. But in this antique glass apothecary jar, I cut all the stems of the silk flowers to size.

6. LIMIT THE DISPLAY TIME.  Real flowers don’t last forever. So your “faux” floral mixes shouldn’t either. I will keep this one for about 1-2 weeks, then replace with real flowers again.

 

 

Silk flowers, when mixed with real flowers and greenery can work wonders in a pinch.  Arranged tastefully, it can be really hard to tell if they are real.

 

The moral of this story is – don’t be afraid to experiment with adding faux and fresh flowers in the same arrangement. I was very happy with how this “silly me disaster” turned out. So happy – that I left this arrangement out for one of our dinner parties this week.

 

 

Guests couldn’t believe the whole bouquet wasn’t real! {yes, I did tell them!} And the best part? When the star fresh flowers started to droop and the eucalyptus began to dry, I was able to remove them and save my perfect fall bouquet for another day!

 

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting me today…it’s always such a joy when you are here.   I hope we inspire you to create a beautiful flower arrangement at home to delight as you create lasting memories this autumn, surrounded by people you love the most.

Be sure to visit my three friends, who no doubt will dazzle you with their REAL fresh floral harvest arrangements!

 

Pam at Everyday Living

 

 

Mary at HomeIsWhereTheBoatIs

 

 

Shirley at Housepitatity Designs

 

 

et moi  Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse

I’d love to know, do you faux? or NO?