Silk or fabric flowers have come a long way since the days when they were only known for gathering dust in people’s living rooms! Believe it or not they are no longer regarded as “artificial” and “tacky” but instead they are making a bit of a comeback.
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A New Demand
These days they can be dyed every colour of the rainbow and used for every occasion from table displays through to weddings. And the real plus point is that you can keep them forever and never have to remember to water them!
Certainly in the past five years silk flowers have moved on dramatically and thanks to more effort from manufacturers, the colouring and detail are now so realistic that they can sometimes be mistaken for real ones.
Floral wholesalers are also now meeting the demand for the artificial market by stocking dry foam in all shapes and colours including dry wedding bouquet holders and sympathy wreaths.
Benfits of Silk Flowers
Of course they are not to everyone’s taste. The majority of the population still do prefer the beauty, fragrance and naturalness of “real” flowers but silk ones do have their own place in the flower world. They are highly practical and can be used in situations where fresh flowers just aren’t suitable.
This could be if someone has hay fever or the environment to which they are going is too hot and humid to sustain fresh flowers for any length of time – a typical example of this would be a wedding abroad.
Certainly a lot of hospitals are banning fresh flowers being brought it in because of health and safety reasons, so an artificial display on this occasion is ideal, and more and more offices are using good quality displays because they are more cost effective than fresh.
They are also perfect for people who for one reason or another can’t keep topping up water on fresh flowers, or for those who simply haven’t got the time but still like flowers around the home.
Uses for Silk Flowers
Because they are now more realistic, fabric flowers are becoming popular at weddings – they are used for everything from corsages and buttonholes to bouquets and pedestal arrangements. The flowers you want are always in season and there’s also the added advantage that the bride/bridesmaids can keep their bouquets forever!
And from a florist’s point of view they can be made well in advance so there is no rushing round on the day or panic that the flowers have wilted, or the flowers you want aren’t in stock! You use the same principle designs as if you were using fresh flowers but obviously with some artificial flowers or foliage you don’t get the same natural movement. This is particularly true of artificial foliage which may, unless you go for the expensive silk type, be very stiff.
Silk flowers are easily available now and it really is worth paying the extra to get good quality realistic looking ones – there really is nothing worse than using obviously fake looking flowers! Good floral wholesalers will usually stock a huge variety of types and colours plus the correct equipment to go with them such as dry floral foam, tapes and wires. You can even buy top quality silk flowers in many large department stores – although you won’t have such a wide choice.
