09.12.2019 • Products

How To Clean Artificial Flowers

Buying Artificial Flowers

A display of fresh cut flowers is always a great attraction, freshening up any space. But flowers never seem to last long enough, so there’s an increasing trend towards choosing artificial flowers for your arrangement. Faux flowers are very popular, both for their long-lasting qualities and because you can have whatever blooms you like, no matter the season. You can also pick a floral display for particular holidays like Easter or Christmas, that you can keep in storage and use year after year. Replica flowers are ideal for professional and commercial displays, and these days they’re a triumph of design and manufacturing skill that could fool even the keenest gardener. At TreeLocate we have a whole host of designs that also includes UV Resistant and Fire Retardant options.

Cleaning Artificial Flowers

Once you’ve chosen or commissioned your artificial flower display, you should give some thought to how you’ll keep it clean without compromising the display or damaging your flowers. Unfortunately, even the best fake flowers will gather dust on display, but there are some easy ways to keep them looking better for longer. The first line of attack is usually a feather duster, but this tends only to graze the surface and spread the dust around into the atmosphere, where it will just settle back on the flower as soon as your back is turned. The same applies to blowing dust off of plants and flowers with a cool hair dryer or compressed air supply such as you might use to clean your computer.

What you really need is to get right into the intricate grooves and creases that make up the best fake flowers and for this you need to be a bit more creative. Some people slip a stocking or nylon sock over the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner set on low, which is one better than the blowing methods because you’ll collect the dust instead of redistributing it. This is a tricky operation, though, and you have to be careful not to damage the flowers while you’re cleaning them. Alternatively, you can wipe each individual leaf or flower with a dampened cloth, which is a great way to collect all the dust, but takes far more time. These methods work well for plastic flowers, and you can also use furniture polish and a microfibre cloth for hand cleaning, with a toothbrush dipped in surgical spirit to reach those awkward spots. Some people have even been known to use hair spray, but you’d need to be careful not to gather chemical residue.

Cleaning silk flowers is a somewhat more delicate business, and you can opt for a faster, though more expensive solution in a commercial cleaning spray. These sprays are more cost-effective if you have a large display that needs to be done quickly, but might still miss the dust and debris collected in the fine grooves. You can use compressed air for larger areas of foliage and trees, as it packs a bigger punch, but you need to be careful when targeting specific areas that the strong bursts of air don’t damage any delicate petals or leaves.

Best Of Both Worlds

If you’re looking for a cost-effective yet efficient method of cleaning artificial flowers, there are a few options you can try. Instead of commercial sprays, you can use a normal plant spray bottle filled with equal parts of white vinegar or surgical spirit and plain water. Your fake flowers should be stood on newspaper to prevent the spray going everywhere, and the plants or flowers sprayed all over to rinse off the dust. Before you embark on an entire arrangement, though, make sure to test a small area of each type of flower with the cleaning mixture. Colours will sometimes run, and if this happens you may need to revert to the damp cloth method.

If you’re happy with wet cleaning your replica flowers, you can also hold them under a spray nozzle attachment on a tap or hose, or rinse them gently in a mixture of water and washing-up liquid. This method yields the best results, but it does take a bit more time. Do it one stem at a time and slosh them around to make sure the water gets into all the smaller spaces, and if there are any particularly grimy areas, rub them gently. Once you’ve cleaned them, stand them upside down to drain or blot them dry with a soft cloth or paper towel. For larger displays or arrangements that can’t be easily dismantled, you could fill a large bucket or tank and put your flowers into soak for a while to get rid of accumulated dust and dirt. Cleaning your artificial flowers takes commitment, but you’ll get much more out of them in the long run. This makes buying such lasting arrangements an even more cost-effective decision.

Buying Artificial Flowers From TreeLocate

Fake flowers used to be a domestic joke, but here at TreeLocate we take our faux flowers seriously. Techniques have developed a long way since the hilarious plastic designs of the 20th century, and we can now produce such lifelike and true-to-form replica flowers that you’ll have to touch them to know they’re not real (and even then it’s hard to tell!). You’ll be amazed by the attention to the minutest detail, with every plant, flower and tree an exact replica of colour, shape and texture. We also specialise in fire retardant products that are ideal for commercial premises, promising the utmost safety standards while not compromising one jot on their realistic appearance and style.

From artificial flowers to houseplants, trees, foliage and hedges, our web store has a wealth of choice, where you can browse to your heart’s content until you find precisely what you’re looking for. And if we don’t have what you want in store, then it’s a simple matter to contact our sales team and arrange a bespoke design. We’ve been in the business for 25 years, and it’s our pride and our pleasure to supply your exact needs, so check out our web store today to buy your artificial flowers and plants.

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