Torn between fresh flowers or artificial? You needn’t be. Choosing fresh or faux isn’t an either/or decision – so you don’t have to choose sides.
We love faux flowers – our name The Faux Flower Company says it all. But that doesn’t mean we’re anti-fresh – far from it! We believe in flowers, full stop. Flowers can transform a room, lift your spirits, revive your day.
And if we didn’t have real flowers as the inspiration behind our own hand-crafted, luxury faux flowers, where would we be? Their beauty sets our bar high. At the Faux Flower Company, fresh flowers are the reason we’re here. Our luxury faux flowers are crafted with the beauty of real flowers in mind, offering an elegant and sustainable alternative to fresh blooms.
Embracing the subtle art of mixing Faux Flowers and Fresh
“Never be afraid to mix and match fresh with faux – it’s really fun, can heighten the realism by adding a subtle fragrance to an arrangement and make it truly personal,” says Janey Dillon, The Faux Flower Company’s CEO and founder.
“You can swap in meaningful or sentimental real flowers around an anniversary celebration or birthday – or accent a change of décor or paint in a room, without breaking the bank.” It’s just taking the finishing touches to your home décor one stage further.
Our Neutral Artificial Flower Bouquets are created to blend elegantly with any interior décor, but we’ve also noticed that people love to customise their Neutral Artificial Flower Arrangements by adding in a pop of seasonal colour with fresh flowers.
A little hint of fresh and a little touch of faux – and you’ll create a unique flower arrangement every time.
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When to buy faux flowers, when to go fresh
Demelza Leng is one of our amazingly talented in-house floral designers. She’s been working with us for nearly three years, as well as running her own fresh flower and floristry boutique business. She is also the genius behind our latest Spring Fling Artificial Flower Bouquet and the lavish Seasonal Splendour Artificial Bouquet range.
Demelza’s a fan of both fresh and faux flowers, she believes that they have quite different but complementary roles.
“You can achieve almost everything with fresh flowers, and a limitless budget.”
“If you've got a room in your house that you don't use very often, or a big empty space, filling it with fresh flowers week in, week out would be a huge expense – and require a lot of maintenance for about a week’s worth of pleasure.”
But an artificial flower arrangement solves the problem instantly, “without having to change the water every day or sweep up petals and pollen,” she smiles.
“There’s real versatility and longevity that you get from faux flowers. You can bring in rare or exotic blooms that might not be in season or available from your High Street florist.”
These days, Demelza says, we all need our money to stretch further. Choosing the best faux flowers is a practical investment – buy well, love forever is our mantra at The Faux Flower Company.
Or you can get truly creative and mix faux flowers and fresh, according to what’s going to look best and be the best solution for your space. That’s a win-win.
How should I mix my Fresh and Faux?
Before diving into the world of fresh and faux, it's essential to determine which category suits your preferences: fresh blooms and faux foliage, or fresh foliage and faux blooms. This choice sets the stage for crafting arrangements that resonate with your style and space.
Whether you lean towards the vibrancy of fresh or the longevity of faux, understanding your preference will help you dive into the fun of mixing and matching fresh and faux.
Fresh Blooms and Faux Foliage
Adding fresh flowers like White or Pink Hyacinths in Spring, or Yellow Roses, to your faux flower arrangements can create a stunning display. Our artificial flowers are designed to blend seamlessly with real flowers, giving your arrangements a realistic and fragrant touch.
Why swaps for scents makes perfect sense!
Flowers satisfy all our senses, which is why we can’t resist bending closer to a fresh flower just to breathe in their cool, subtle perfume. A rose’s scent is almost impossible to create artificially – it’s a blend of over 400 complex elements – which is why spritzing your faux flowers with a floral perfume spray never has quite the same effect.
Mixing real stems with faux means you can enjoy the fragrance of real flowers, in amongst the longer-lasting artificial blossoms. Don’t worry that putting a real flower next to its Faux Flower Company cousin will give the game away. We put care and love into creating the most realistic faux flowers you can find – no two stems are ever the same, and each one is hand-painted.
Don’t leave out the leaves!
Foliage is fabulous – but often it’s playing second fiddle to the flowers in both faux and fresh floral arrangements. Yet it’s one of the quickest ways to create a hyper-realistic artificial flower arrangement.
Demelza recommends creating a year-round base of faux foliage and favourite hero stems such as Artificial White Hydrangeas and Artificial Roses, which never look out of place, whatever the season.
Creating a ‘foliage-only’ base, she suggests, gives you ultimate artistic freedom. You can swap in seasonal stems or someone’s favourite flower for a special anniversary – and personalise your flower arrangement.
“Faux foliage definitely gets the green light here,” she says. “We pride ourselves on Faux Flower Company foliage that doesn’t have a plasticky shine and has an authentic natural colour. A poor quality stem is a dead giveaway of a cheap faux flower. “An accurate, well-crafted stem lifts the whole thing,” adds Demelza.
“Too many artificial stems are basic green sticks with a couple of thorns. Ours are intricately detailed and hand painted.”
Our customers often show us stunning arrangements exclusively with our foliage range, and our Artificial Fantastic Foliage Arrangement celebrates what you can achieve with foliage alone.
ARTIFICIAL FANTASTIC FOLIAGE ARRANGEMENT
Faux Blooms and Fresh Foliage
Faux flowers offer versatility that fresh flowers simply cannot match. They are perfect for every season, event, and occasion. Whether it’s a festive holiday arrangement or a simple everyday bouquet, faux flowers provide endless possibilities.
Changing your floral arrangements with the seasons is easy with faux flowers. Invest in a neutral base and swap in seasonal elements to keep your decor fresh and relevant throughout the year.
Faux flowers like our Artificial Peonies and Artificial Roses can be complemented with real eucalyptus or fir sprigs for a seasonal touch.
The Faux Flower Company Top Seasonal Swaps
Want to know which flowers to swap when? We’d recommend investing in one of our cool and creamy neutral arrangements such as our Artificial Blossoming Bouquet – so your seasonal swaps will have maximum impact:
The Spring Swap
Ring in Spring with Artificial Cherry Blossom stems. Drifts of White and Pink Flowers, offset by Artificial Classic White Peonies or Faux Roses.
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The Early Summer Swap
Artificial Peonies are a top swap in May and June, and we have darkly dramatic Burgundy shades as well as White, and petals with a hint of Pink. We all know that these Artificial Peonies won’t droop, drop or turn brown – but to keep the ‘is it faux or is it fresh?’ illusion, you’ll need to swap them by mid-June at the latest!
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The High Summer Swap
In July and August, it’s high summer and high time to swap out those Faux Peonies for Artificial Roses or Full-Headed Hydrangeas. Summer is Nature’s season of abundance, so don’t hold back – swap til you drop (because these faux blooms won’t!)
The Autumn Swap
When there’s a nip in the air, swap out the paler Summer Roses for some stronger, more Autumnal shades such as burgundy, or deep pink. You can heighten the seasonal feeling with Artificial Burgundy Eucalyptus and a pop of Artificial Orange Hypericum Berries to warm up your colour scheme
The Midwinter Swap
Artificial Silver Berries and seasonal Snowberries with luxurious White Artificial Roses brings a cool elegance to the coldest season.
SHOP ARTIFICIAL WINTER FLOWERS
Which artificial flowers should I buy? Our top five faux flower picks
Artificial Peonies – “most scrumptious of all flowers” Henry Mitchell
We call it ‘peony power.’ Lush and lovely, Artificial Peonies are irresistible. Our Faux Peonies come in a rainbow range of Burgundies, Pinks, and Whites and they couldn’t feel more real. Unlike real peonies, which will droop, and scatter petals like confetti after a week, Faux Peonies will keep their ‘freshly picked’ bloom for years. And if you want peonies on your top table at a December wedding – you’ve got to go faux.
Artificial Roses – “the universal symbol of love”
You can’t go wrong with a Rose. Timeless and classic, they are incredibly versatile. Roses elevate a room, adding beauty and elegance to any décor or any occasion. Our Faux Roses look – and feel – incredibly realistic; from the delicate Artificial Blush Pink Rose Buds to the gorgeous Artificial White English Tea Rose. There’s an artificial rose to match every stage of the natural lifecycle – from the promise of a tight bud to full blown blossoms. Mix faux with real, and you’ll capture the fresh fragrance too.
Artificial Hydrangeas – “happy, rich and full of life”
Hydrangeas are a true flower for all seasons. They’re loved for their impossibly large, fluffy blooms and have earned a place in almost any flower arrangement. They’ve certainly earned their place in our hearts. Faux Hydrangeas will fill even the most difficult spaces in your room without wilting or needing water, making them a ‘go-to’ artificial flower for any home.
Artificial Orchids: “love, sophistication and elegance”
Orchids are those elegantly exotic blooms that add a touch of sophistication to any space. Our Faux Flower Company Faux Orchids are hand painted to mimic the delicate petals and intricate details of nature without the high maintenance and consistent care needed by the real flower.
Artificial Lilies: “like stars on earth”
Graceful Artificial Lilies lend an air of peace and tranquillity to any room. “I love a bare vase of lilies, I think they’re out of this world,” says Rachel, our head of social media. “But with real lilies, pollen drop is such a pain. So I go faux every time. “ Choose Faux Calla Lilies or Artificial White Casablancas, and perhaps add in an occasional real bloom for the fragrance – but be sure to take it out before it begins to wilt or drop pollen on your cream carpet.
Why should I buy faux flowers?
Fresh, faux and forever – why flowers really do make us happy
Flowers definitely brighten our day at The Faux Flower Company. But we came across this fascinating scientific research recently that backs up what we instinctively know. Flowers make you happy.
Back in 2005, Professor Jeanette Haviland Jones of the State University, New Jersey, set out to prove that flowers directly influence our emotional wellbeing. She sent 147 women three different types of ‘thank you’ gifts – a fruit basket, a candle or a floral bouquet.
However, the ‘couriers’ she used to deliver the gifts were actually researchers, trained to measure and record the facial expressions of each recipient when they opened the door.
On analysis, Haviland-Jones was, she says, “shocked to discover” that every person who received flowers beamed what is known to scientists of human emotions as a ‘Duchenne smile’. Psychologists consider a Duchenne to be ‘the sole indicator of true enjoyment.
The study concludes that flowers have a long lasting positive effect on our emotional wellbeing – another reason to choose faux flowers for your interiors and experience a mini ‘hit of happiness’ every time you see them.
Going faux is good for the planet
One powerful argument for buying faux flowers is that it’s a more sustainable choice for the environment. We believe that going fully faux, or mixing fresh and faux blooms really does have a positive impact on the planet. You’re helping to preserve precious natural resources such as water, reducing waste, and minimising environmental harm associated with traditional flower production through pesticides and fertilisers.
By the time fresh flowers reach the UK, they may have clocked up thousands of miles travelling air freight in their refrigerated containers. That’s a vast carbon footprint. In fact every Valentine’s Day, over 570 tonnes of roses are shipped into the UK, according to Heathrow import figures.
Our faux flowers take a leisurely, and more sustainable route by sea.
Then there’s the possibilities of recycling faux flower arrangements. Artificial flowers allow you to ring the changes endlessly by rearranging or upcycling arrangements – or refreshing them by mixing in a few fresh stems rather than buying an entire bunch of flowers.
Artificial flowers open up creative possibilities, rather than closing them down.
Why we love faux
We find all flowers irresistible – both fresh and faux. Fresh for their sheer beauty and colour – they are our continued inspiration to create the most realistic faux flowers you can find. But fresh flowers, however perfect, cannot last.
At The Faux Flower Company, each flower, leaf, bud, spray or stem is as close to perfection as we can make it. Every stem is made from the finest quality materials and painted by hand.
Faux flowers capture that moment when a fresh flower is at its most glorious – and ‘freeze-frame’ it. Choosing our faux flowers brings a touch of lasting luxury to your home.
How to pick the best quality faux flowers
The secret of creating a realistic artificial flower display is simple. Buy once, buy well – and you’ll love them forever. The better the quality, the greater the realism, durability and ultimately value for money.
“We put a lot of love into creating the best artificial flowers,” says Demelza.
“Obviously I’m biased! But if I compare our Faux Flower Company range with what you can find on the High Street, or online, the quality is honestly streets ahead of anything else.”
“The fabric is a giveaway – cheap faux flowers use coarser fabrics which makes them look and feel cheap. There’s no nuance in the colour – a red rose will be a uniform shade of red.”
“Whereas if you look at our red roses, they mimic natural hues so closely you have to look twice. The colour’s deeper in some places or shaded lighter at the tips.”
Just like a real flower.
Why choose a Faux Flower Company bloom?
“The devil is in the detail,” says Janey. “We pay forensic attention to the smallest element of each flower.”
“We use over ten different fabrics with different coatings and plastics to get our blooms as close to the real thing as we can. We tend to steer clear of silk as this frays easily and gives the game away that your flowers are faux!"
"Hundreds of thousands of individual artificial blooms pass through our warehouse each year, but each one is handmade, hand painted and incredibly realistic. We celebrate the fact that no two natural flowers are the same. It’s the subtle art of perfect imperfections.”
Go faux, go fresh, go with your flow
Mixing up faux and fresh doesn’t break any rules, it just increases your choice, and your creative expression.
There’s room for both faux and fresh in our world – and in yours too, we hope.
From The Faux Flower Company. Faux flowers, real people.
We love to see your pictures! If you’re a mixer and matcher of fresh and faux, why not share your arrangement with the Faux Flower Company community?
