Fresh flowers are a wonderful way to add color and life to any room. I like to have them as often as possible. When I don't have fresh flowers I use an excellent fake I've found to fill the space well until I have a chance to replace. I use a remarkably real looking green tropical leaf I found in the floral district. I think the leaves look more realistic than the actual fake flowers.

If your budget's tight, how about flowering plants? I have one in my windowsill (I don't know the name) that makes bright pink flowers constantly, all year long.

It's usually cheaper to buy a big flowering plant than get cut flowers every week.

Never! It's bad fung shway!

No. I've never seen silk flowers or plants that look good up close. A flowering plant or even one with interesting leaves is a better choice for home, usually. Although I do like really artificial-looking crepe paper flowers--really big, dramatic ones like these in the right setting.

Never. I can always tell the difference.

My apartment gets very little sun light as there are large trees blocking all (3) windows. I have some shade tolerant plants throughout but I can't get anything but bamboo to grow in my long bedroom with one small window. Therefore, I have one silk orchid in there on my wardrobe. It was originally priced over $100 (I got it on clearance) and has fooled everyone. Otherwise, I can't stand fake flowers.

I too love the look and smell of fresh flowers in my home but have not had luck of keeping them alive and away from my cat. It seems that no matter where I put the flowers she will get to them and thus they will be chewed to death in just a few short days. So while I would prefer real flowers over fake, I have learned to love and accept fake flowers instead. I certainly don’t go overboard and I do my best to look for the best fake flowers I can find.

Why bother? Regardless of cost they look fake.

I keep a vase of silk ranunculus in the bedroom--they are super cheery and I think I got them at P.O.S.H. (or Anthropologie). When possible, I put fresh flowers in but the silks are a suitable placeholder. I would never have fake flowers on display anywhere else in the home.

I have as many real plants (some flowering, most not) that I can fit into my small apartment, but there are some spaces that just don't get enough light for a potted plant, and I definitely can't afford to buy cut flowers every week or so. I have a few faux flowers in strategic places. I have a bright and cheery pot of faux tulips in my bathroom, which always makes me smile in the morning, even though I know they're fake. Also, my cat is an equal-opportunity muncher. She'll eat the fakes (including xmas trees) as well as the real.

I have a fake orchid in my bedroom that my boyfriend thought was real for the past year. Silk strands of orchid are the most real-looking, in my opinion, and still look pretty classy.

IMO - There's no excuse for faux flowers.

If you can't afford bushels of fresh flowers on a weekly basis, there are other alternatives:

Orchid plants are very reasonably priced and the flowers can last for months. Just keep a nice cachepot for them to sit in and swap out the plants in their little plastic pots

Branches (flowering or otherwise) also last for quite a long time.

A good alternative is dried flowers- still "Real", but last as long as fake and don't need to be maintained. I have some dried lavender in my bathroom in a vase.

I've considered both a very real looking fake orchid or large tropical leaf in a vase. The reason I haven't done it is not that I think someone would know it was fake, but rather I'd just get tired of it. That is one of the great things about fresh flowers or flowering plants; you don't get tired of them.

I have two fake orchid stems that look and feel like real ones. The petals are smooth and slightly "rubbery" to the touch, just like their living counterparts.

I have tried the orchid route, but my house has either direct sunlight or none (and a cold house in the winter) - and the orchids just can't survive that long. (Bright indirect light is best.) Not to mention the curious kitty who will eat just about anything (real or fake!)

I only have a few in a windowsill - little red flowers that have been mistaken for real more than once! If you only have a few - I think they can work. The fakes have certainly come a long way from the icky, shiny stuff of the past.

Oh friends, get off your high horses. Good fake flowers are great for people on a budget. I have two beautiful fake orchids that my boyfriend was shocked to learn weren't real. They add color to the room and make me smile each time I see them.

I think in Europe flowers are much cheaper than in North America, to have a nice original bouquet you have to spent at least 30-40$ minimum. I wish I could afford a weekly one, it does add a lot to a decor.

No wonder magazines always add them to the almost each room they photograph.

So I use a few well chosen fake ones, it tricked a few friends, even my phony orchid fools people who come as close as possible to be sure.

In my dark and dreary basement apartment I have spent the last year without plants of any kind. My new place has 2 large windows for plants, I am not much into flowers but I like greenery. A fake bush is a bit too obvious.

Fake flowers are never okay. Come on, even a dried arrangement would be a better alternative!

In our back office we get no air circulation, let alone light. My fakes have fooled everyone. Some arrangements I had professionally done, some (like the orchids) were as-is off the shelves. I even have a fake woven bamboo that a friend thought was real for months and wanted to know if she should water it when I was going to be out for a month.

For a while I had a fake caterpillar on a fern leaf near our cube entrance that used to freak people out. Of course, I also have a giant 3 foot rubber cockroach, so I think my coworkers are no longer startled by me ;).

My favorite response to people asking "Is that real!?" is "The only thing real in this cube are the computers."

I love Chinese lanterns. They retain their looks when they dry out and will last in that state for a couple of years.

These comments are pretty harsh folks. I'm with LizzardtheBlizzard here. I admit that there are many poorly done fake flowers, but there are also some very artistic and accurate options available.

Fresh flowers are an expensive splurge and live flowering plants aren't for everyone. In my opinion, get fake flowers if they make YOU happy who cares if your guests can tell?

I "plant" a stem of fake orchid blossoms into my real orchid during its *years* between blooming. It makes me happy even though I know it's fake.

Ideas: If branches are too blah for your space, peacock feathers add a nice pop of color and texture. And, drumstick flowers dry beautifully.

Nope, never. Don't bother calling me a snob because I already claim that attribute proudly!

And it's true that fresh flowers are expensive - so we have pussy willows adorning the dining room. And sometimes I'll pick up tropical plant leaves and make a sculptural arrangement without a big price tag.

I see gold and silver-sprayed branches around here at Christmas. Not my particular style, but it makes me think there's no limit to what one can do with branches and a can of spray paint - pink, lemon yellow, aqua - to make a low budget and funky centerpiece.

Fresh flowers are one way the apartment dweller (especially the northern apartment dweller) can acknowledge the passing of seasons--a potted mum in autumn, a bunch of supermarket tulips in the spring. Rather like periodically switching some objects --like the things on the mantle-- to refresh the eye. Perhaps it's our equivalent of the changing display in the alcove near the entry of a traditional Japanese home.

No excuses are NEEDED for faux flowers... live flower purists are entitled to their opinions, but that doesn't make those opinions gospel. Sorry.

There are fakes and there are fakes -- and then there are FAKES! ;^) I also hate royal blue carnations (even dyed "real" ones) but quality fake flowers are often hard to tell from live ones, and they survive in conditions live flowers won't, for a one-time purchase. If the owners are happy with them (and I am with mine) it's nobody else's business.

Cheap fakes (dollar store, for instance) are not convincing and are usually worthless, but if you are just going for audacious color and not authenticity, even those can have a place... maybe for a "summer fiesta". (Sadly not, I think, lining the sidewalk to the front door as I saw recently in an urban neighborhood...)

We have some pretty fake Irises (I think--my roommate brought them) that sit up on top of a bookcase. They're high enough that it's not obvious they're fake unless you deliberately stand on your tippy-toes to look closely. They give some color to that corner and liven up the room by adding height.

But I'm not sure I'd ever want to put them out on the dining table like I would cut flowers. I don't trust myself to choose ones that would look elegant and not tacky.

Sorry, but fake plants are only displayed in my home around the Christmas season. I have never liked the look of fake flowers, and it seems to me that the only ones that stand a chance of looking real are more expensive than real plants.

I don't generally splurge on cut flowers either, because my budget doesn't allow for that. I do have a couple of potted plants strategically placed where my cat cannot reach them. I would have more, but that cat can jump very high.

Feng Shui, by the way, not fung shway. (If you believe in such things...)

I am staunchly anti-fake flower, but recently I went out and bought an entire LED cherry blossom tree. AND it makes me happy even though it off-gasses like an SOB. Go figure.

My housemates both get bad hayfever, so even flowers that I don't think will set them off get a lot of complaints. I have a couple of sets of very realistic stems of fakes - purchased from a very good quality florist in my hometown here in Australia at around $18 per stem. Obviously I would prefer to have new, fresh flowers on a regular basis. We have lots of real indoor plants as well, but the flowers have the delicacy and height that I'm looking for in some areas of the house without the complaints from the housemates.

I have some good fakes that I blend in with the real to fill out an arrangement on the cheap. Fakes definitely have their place but you have to be committed to pulling off the illusion. You can't just throw some cheap plastic in a vase and hope your guests are too dimwitted or too nearsighted to notice.

Good fakes are expensive up front, but over time they are way cheaper than real flowers purchased weekly.

My office has no windows, so since I could only have fake foliage, I went completely fake. I have a cardboard "Atomic Bonsai," paper orchids from a Paper Source kit, and a solar (or incandescent lamp) powered "flip-flap" plastic dancing leaf plant. At home I didn't have the heart to cut flowering branches, so I took fallen twigs and pasted origami blossoms onto it.

I hate things that pretend to be something they are not (i.e. laminate hardwood, vinyl flooring looking like stone), so if it has to be fake...go all the way.

probably never, but I have to say I went into a florists recently while visiting Pasadena (don't remember the name, but downtown & near the Playhouse) where my non-flower loving friend said they have the most amazing flowers he has ever seen. And they did--real and fake. I thought I couldn't be fooled, but they had some fully convincing fakes (and the real flowers were spectacular).

For a website that is always pushing "sustainable" solutions to home decor, I'm surprised to see this much antipathy for fake flowers. Consider the difference in carbon footprints over the course of a couple of years between a nice fake orchid and a vase full of fresh flowers (grown in South America and flown to the US, with all the attendant fertilizers, insecticides, herbacides, and fuel requirements; plus all the waste in the process lost to unusable fresh flowers which must be thrown out if not sold).

So glad to see this post! I have been looking for a good source for high-quality faux plants and flowers, but I've been having trouble. Does anyone know of specific companies they can recommend, or are florists the best way to go? (I'm in Boston, in case there are locals recommendations.)

Also, the best use of faux plants and flowers I've seen is to mix them in a space with real ones. If you have a few real potted plants and/or cut flowers around, it somehow enlivens their faux brethren.

While I prefer "real" flowers when I can get them, I use high-quality fakes or dried flowers to fill in or to ensure I have my favorites around all the time.
My favorite flowers are peonies, so its a treat to have a pair of vases with perfect pink peonies in them year round, without worrying about breaking the bank or where they had to originate from (because peonies cannot be grown locally).

It also means when I do spend money on flowers, I can use them all in the areas that I see the most.

I understand people having wildly emotional responses to flowers, "I would never..." but at the same time I find the "You should nevers...", "there's no excuse for..." to be amazingly rude. I may not like celery, but that doesn't mean I am going to say everyone who eats celery is an idiot, or more gauche than me. We have choices, and the freedom to use them.

I love having real flowers in my house, but I'm not opposed to fakes either. Right now I have a whole vase full of fake long stemmed roses that have little singing faces in the middle of the flower. They're very obviously fake and yet make me happy to look at anyway.

faux orchids are really nice when seen in the home decor. But people now are also using fake orchids instead of real faux orchids, as it require less effort to maintain their beauty.