Artificial stems / flowers / plants - tacky or okay?

It's tacky you cunt.

I'm not good with orchids, but I'm always able to keep them alive and with blooms for 4-6 weeks. I don't mind a simple fake orchid, but fake plants are tacky.

It's NOT tacky. But buy something high quality, keep it simple, know how to arrange it, and keep it clean. Fairy lights, no.

If you go can only afford 1 dollar garbage Chinese plastic at Dollar Store, it will be tacky. But, it might still be cheerful, and that's not bad.

OP: Tacky if they look artificial. Maybe, the orchid in your picture and some living pothos plants (if you don't have cats). They are insect free (poison to them), very easy to maintain and propagate! Keep out of direct sunlight and water 1x/wk - done. You would have a living foliage in no time.

It’s tacky.

Though I do have a faux ficus in my basement where there is not enough light.

traditional silk flowers are a status symbol, you proles.

Pffft!

If you are going to use a silk orchid plant OP, please find someone who actually understands how a phalaenopsis grows so the flowers look like they are supposed to.

Are you of Irish Traveller stock?

T.A.C.K.Y.

I don't know but I have some.

They are Off The Fuckin' Chart TACKY. HATE HATE HATE plastic flowers. Dusty, toxic to the environment and depressing - the EXACT opposite what flowers actually are. Leave that shit in the dollar store.

Trousselier is a traditional French silk flower shop. Not tacky. You can't afford how not tacky it is.

I also have a couple of fake ficus where nothing else can grow. I have so far restrained myself from fairy lights but I'm tempted as I did try it once and it felt cozy. Nearly Natural is the brand I have and they are are quite well done. Inexpensive too:

Not tacky at all.

[quote] Trousselier is a traditional French silk flower shop. Not tacky. You can't afford how not tacky it is.

There is NOTHING tacky at all about a fake bonsai tree with a fake indoor birdhouse. NOTHING tacky at all, I say!

No artificial flowers ever.

[quote]traditional silk flowers are a status symbol

To middle class trash.

Tacky.

The tacky factor went so high when you mentioned fairy lights on plastic or silk plants that there is no doubt you’re trolling the design queens on here.

I think the major mistake that people make besides not buying something that looks natural is that they think they can leave it without cleaning it. Fake plants in corporate offices are usually under contract with someone comes in and cleans it with Eyre. If you do this make sure you clean your plans because there’s nothing worse than a dusty plant that’s fake.

r19 not to mention the "F" word, but Frontgate sells a lot of fairy light stuff and they're pretty expensive.

Fake flowers are so vulgar.

Have you help cut fresh flowers from your garden.

It really isn't that difficult.

I actually think houseplants are vulgar, period.

And cut flowers doubly so.

R23 lives in a meth lab.

No, I live with severe allergies and don't know why pots of dirt jammed full of petal-shedding horrors are considered decor.

r25 then you should love fake plants! Unless you are allergic to silk, too.

I live with severe allergies to tackiness.

Therefore, not fake plants. Ever.

I am [R25] and not [R27], but I heartily concur.

The place for plants is outdoors. See fish; birds; animals; all of God's beautiful living things; Jehovah's witnesses; etc.

Alone in the world

Was poor little Anne

As sweet a young child as you'd find.

Her parents had gone

To their final reward

Leavin' their baby behind.

I pity you trashy people who don't have fresh flowers in your homes.

Silk flowers are acceptable for costuming or events where huge set pieces are involved.

For the home? No. Just no.

A silk bonsai tree? Talk about missing the point. Why not serve rubber chicken and wax fruit for dinner.

If you love pollen, dust, insects and frilly things, have at it. I prefer decorating with things that don't rot, myself.

I aim for mostly real, but sometimes do use artificial greens to build things out a bit. Sometimes I can keep a plant alive, but not as robust looking as I would wish, so a few artificials helps things not look so skimpy. Dried flowers or stems can work too. The key to fairy lights is location and warmth of color. I suffer from SAD and a few strings of warm lights discreetly placed around the trunk of a large indoor plant can make things feel very cozy on a gloomy January afternoon.

R12 is correct. Nothing really expensive can be tacky.

Artificial plants or flowers can work if they are stylistically over the top and the artifice creates the impression, without trying to look real. If not, the real thing is the way to go.

Fake plants are about as classy as a picture of Elvis on velvet in a trailer. However, if you have indoor cats, you should not have real plants or flowers inside, because most are toxic or lethal, eg, lilies.

Having said that, this year I am going to get an expensive artificial Christmas tree, because I have had it with buying and removing real ones for decades, at high cost. The new fake ones are very realistic.

I think a high-quality artificial plant can look nice and add warmth to a room. I mostly think of artificial plants as solutions for dark offices. But it can work in a home. I live in a lush area, but I really don't like taking care of plants sometimes.

You would have to keep it clean, though.

You can also get a ZZ plant. It doesn't need sunlight and it's easy to take care of.

NO! WIRE! FLOWERS!

Fake flowers belong in a Sicilian cemetery, not in your house.

[R14] Everything, everything about this screams no, but I can't help myself. I fucking love it.

But you fucking love it ironically. Right?

Fake. Plastic. Silk. Faux Jade. Jade. Precious stones from the Romanov vaults. Swarovski crystal. Stained glass. Crocheted by your granny. All tacky as fuck. Don't.

You may as well just make an "arrangement" of a plastic toilet brush inverted in a vase.

If you like orchids you can find a beautiful one at a grocery store, etc for $20 or less. Buy it before it has reached peak bloom and it will last two months sometimes almost three. Save the orchid or don't then buy another. $100 a year spent on flowers.

Do you people who like fake flowers also have several cornucopia on your walls from which you dangle plastic grapes?

And is your settee covered in plastic?

Glass fruit that is old enough and by the right workshop is also a status symbol, and not tacky. But you wouldn't know that, plebes, because you've only seen tacky fruit in guido homes, and plastic flowers in the Dollar Tree.

r44 is right. Expensive things are CLASSY, not tacky.

Donald Trump does not buy old things. It's all faux. He has bought a few old homes and kept some old things but generally his wives are so tacky they strip everything old and good away. Ivanna stripped a lot of character out of the Plaza Hotel for example, and replaced it with tacky gold painted ersatz.

I have a cat so I have no choice.

Here is a Murano glass fruit lamp. I realize you plebes will find it the height of tacky but it would be charming in the evening, on a fluted Liberty side table, on a gold-flecked terrazzo-tiled patio, on the Amalfi Coast.

The pompous ersatz devotee’s home must be a wonder to behold. Silk flowers from Paris. Glass fruit from Murano. Please tell us about your Lladros.

I don't have silk flowers nor Murano glass fruit, just pointing out to your middle-class provincial taste that such things come around in the right context. Y'all dumped on simple OP for wanting a faux orchid and it really needn't be so dramatic.

[quote] I don't have silk flowers nor Murano glass fruit, just pointing out to your middle-class provincial taste that such things come around in the right context.

In addition to good taste, it appears that you lack an understanding of when to use OR and when to use NOR.

yada yada yada

tole flowers, anyone?

Re: Murano glass, fruit etc.

The art of "faux" has it's place in the right context. In the hands of a knowledgable person.

But silk flower arrangements are tacky no matter how well done.

[quote]I realize you plebes

Oh, Miss Thing, get over yourself.

I'll get shit on for confessing to this, but I own fake flowers. I love tulips, but they only last about three days and replacing them 2x a week infinitely is not in my budget. So I found some reasonable fakes from Michaels (THE HORROR!) and called it a day. They were about $10/stem when not on sale and the petals feel pretty real - the line is called "real touch" or something similar. They have that realistic tulip droop to them as well. Having real flowers all the time would be lovely, but too expensive for me.

You see? R55 puts some brightness into his day. But you Neiman Marcus shopbottoms are so worried that your genetic tackiness will be revealed, you project your shame onto others. All you have is your grafted on petty bourgeois aesthetic register, yet take yourselves for Syrie Maugham.

Nadine de Rothschild had gorgeous faux Worsleya procera (the blue hippeastrum) at the Château de Pregny, for her dînatoire in support of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. I was told they are crafted by catholic virgins in the Kandersteg. Of course you will tell me Nadine is nothing but a tacky if successful gold-digging show girl and you would be half right.

I like fake flowers that deliberately look fake, conceptual flowers if you will.

Plastic flowers, absolutely not. Silk flowers are okay if done in moderation and you purchase only high quality ones.

No. No. No. Evanescence is in the nature of flowers.

Should Princess Margaret have had real moors? Not blackamoors?

r61 given the times, she probably had both!

OP dried flowers is the way to go, not artificial.

r63 dried flowers seem like they would get even dustier than silk ones.

Dried flowers and silk flowers are impossible to clean. They may last longer but you eventually have to throw them out too. Dust collectors. Ew.

Hairspray disolves dust.

Doesn't it leave behind hairspray, though?

Why not just get some bargain blooms at the market, OP? Cheerier and less tacky.