Letter of Recommendation: Fake Flowers

Real flowers outside and fake ones inside (especially well made silk orchids). Stops me from going crazy in the winter. We can love both people - flowers are good for mental and emotional health.

Not handmade, but the range of plastic 'succulents' now available make for very nice bits of green, grey-green, pinkish-green, and other colors. Plus they look as good as the real ones, that unfortunately die within days in my home. And after the horrible winter still going on in parts of the country, why try to make already-depressed people feel badly for wanting some bit of greenery in their homes?

Thanks for this! I love to garden, and I have a silly little gnome planter I keep for sentimental reasons. Its design is bad, and each summer the colorful annual I put in it die off quickly. This summer some cheerful silk buds are going in and I defy anyone to spot the fakes among my otherwise beautiful blooms.

Many faux flowers are not so great. The top of the tree are truly awesome. For the best of the best, go to www.dianejameshome.com or to any of the shops and stores that carry Diane's creations.

The best part of your essay is your mother's reaction to your fondness for fake flowers. "She told me she found my worldview joyless and bleak." Hilarious. Over flowers! My daughter and I shared an Easter giggle as I read it over the phone - it's going to be our new response to all disagreements in taste. Meantime, I adore locally grown fresh flowers, preferably from my own garden, but appreciate a well crafted imposter. Beauty is beauty. And I don't give a fig what people think of my choices! Bill's wife, Colleen

I love seeing geraniums spilling out of flower boxes everywhere we travel, but I'm no so successful at keeping window boxes alive. I'm going to put silk out the windows and real on the front porch to fool 'em all!

Hmm...so man-made imitation of nature is less natural than cutting off living things and letting it putrefy in a man-made vase spiked with "flower food"? I honestly find humans so weird at times. Haha.

I'm an equal-opportunity flower and plant-lover. If I find "fake" flowers/ branches that are attractive (i.e., beautiful color, no fraying edges, looks delicate etc) then I do indulge in them. After all, imitation = ultimate flattery :-) Also, it bothers me (in principle) to spend a lot of money, say $20, on something that lasts for 3 days.

I love fresh flowers but am allergic to their fragrances including 'natural" ones. Grateful there are alternatives.

People that " hate" fake flowers are just pretentious. I love both, for different reasons, and seasons. Unless you grow your own fresh flowers, the fakes are a better option for the environment. I have some purchased 20 years ago, still perfect. AND, still make me smile. Isn't that the point?

My mother has always loved gardening. One particular Spring/Summer, only her roses in the back of the house would bloom. The ones in the front were healthy, but no blooms. She read in some magazine that fake flowers would make the plant "jealous," and therefore bloom. With her tongue firmly planted in her cheek, and feeling out of options, she hot glued some silk roses on the trellis. People strolling in the neighborhood began to comment on her lovely climbing roses. She got so tickled that she started mixing the colors of her silk roses. That sent the other gardeners in the neighborhood in a tizzy, thinking she had found some "new hybrid." She thought this was hysterical, but she finally had to come clean. My mother. Ha!

I love fake flowers. I've recently started buying gifts and flowers from www.ecochicbouquets.com love the look and they offer different fragrances if you like them scented.

I do prefer fake flowers, mainly because you don't have to take care of them. An additional benefit is that they don't smell.

I love the look of flowers! However, the floral industry, shipping blooms covered in pesticides, grown by underpaid people in third world nations and flown across the world, is not sustainable. I know some will tout the "rain forest alliance" grown flowers sold by Whole Foods and other retailers, but really? If you are concerned about globalization and the environment, maybe fake flowers are the way to go. Or maybe, just maybe, we should try growing them ourselves, and enjoying them when they are actually in season where we live.

I love fake flowers! Thanks for the affirmation.

Fake and real are totally different things and one can adore and indulge in both!!!!!!! No need for warring camps.

Artificial flowers bring cheer, just like real ones. And they're always ready when you need them!

vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas - way to go Eco!

I often put silk flowers in my backyard to spruce up an area that needs a little color and I can't tell you how many times my friends will come out into my garden, and those will be the blossoms that are first complimented.
Maybe because it's a surprise that my peonies are blooming in April, or my foxgloves in August but if it adds to the feeling of a peaceful blooming environment where one is happily surrounded by flowers, why not!