Silk Plants, Artificial Foliage
and Greenery: Making Your Silk
Flower Arrangements Complete

Silk plants, artificial foliage and additional greenery can make any flower arrangement more lively. Here are foliage tips and usage ideas to dramatically enhance your next silk flower centerpiece.

Lush greenery enhances the color and beauty of neighboring blossoms, providing a very pleasing and natural contrast. Although most silk flower stems have some leaves on them, additional leafy foliage completes and fills out a floral arrangement. Mixing foliage, as well as floral elements, can make a silk flower centerpiece much more interesting.

Silk foliage is available in every variety — from eye-catching silk orchid or other tropical plants, right through house plants, floor plants and even full-sized artificial trees (another subject entirely). Small leaves, big leaves, giant leaves — it's a jungle out there!

Fern leaves

Different materials and methods are used to make modern artificial plants as realistic as possible. Those that have leaves with fine detail, such as fern plants, may be made of carefully modeled and finely molded plastics, rather than fabric. It's hard to be sure if they are real or artificial unless you touch them.

As with silk flowers, the leaves and stems of faux plants may be individually wired so you can shape them to any position and direction you wish, depending on quality of construction and materials used. Whether there are eight huge leaves or twenty small ones, everything eventually joins to a single main stem (in most cases).

Note that silk plants and bushes can be cut into separate pieces to be placed as desired.


Artificial Foliage and Greenery Stems
Single stems of artificial greenery and foliage are important as well. Elements such as Rose Leaf, Grape Leaf, Ivy vine shoots and Fern fronds (there's a mouthful — salad, anyone?) can be placed to camouflage the base and fill gaps in an arrangement.

Even one Palm Leaf can add dramatic impact when positioned at the back or side of a floral design.

Pictures below: Palm frond, Grape Leaf, Ivy vine.

Palm leaf frond
Grape leaf foliage
Ivy vine



Silk Plant Flower Arrangements
You can create some very interesting effects by combining leafy plants or vine bushes with silk flowers, rather than just adding sprigs of foliage here and there.

When using artificial plants or bushes in a floral design, I find that it is best to insert the plant first. Roughly position the leaves where you want them, then work the flowers in around the plant stem and leaves.

When using single vine shoots or foliage stems, it's easier to make the silk flower arrangement first. Then position the greenery to camouflage as you like.

Tropical plants arrangement

For a lush tropical effect, try combining several silk tropical plant varieties with leaves of different shapes, sizes and colors.

Flowers are optional, but some tropical plants do have blossoms. Artificial plant arrangements like these can really dress up an entryway or corner spot.

Experiment, and have fun creating your own tropical paradise with silk plants, artificial foliage and greenery!



(NOTE: photos on this page may depict real plants.)




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