Cleaning Tips For Artificial Plants & Silk Flower Arrangements

Written by Lynnette on October 9, 2007 | Comments (3)

I'll be the first to admit... I have far too many artificial trees and silk flower arrangements inside our current home.

I'm planning to cherry-pick the best ones and only place a few of them in more strategic locations when we move into our new log home. But unfortunately, it seems the only "real" plants I can keep alive (inside the home) are this Oriental Totem Pole and an old aloe plant (great for nicks, cuts & burns!) that now dominates an oversized side table in our living room. Some greenery is better than no greenery, right?

That said, I still love fake arrangements... as long as they truly look real and were created by professionals. (Most of mine were $100-plus, that I got half price or less on sale.)

For example, this one I have in our dining room has the most vibrant colors and the flowers are arranged in such a way that it truly looks natural.

In the 8 or so years that I've had it, people always remark how much they love that flower arrangement. And they appear shocked when I tell them it's not real.

Anyhoo... one of the downsides of this type of decor being so well-made and long-lasting is the fact that they tend to collect dust in all of the nooks and crannies.

But I have a solution...

Cleaning Silk Flowers Is A Breeze

Use forced air -- the kind of compressed air you buy in the computer department to clean dust & debris from the cracks & crevices of your computer equipment.

If your floral arrangement is of the high-quality variety, then it should should be able to withstand powerful blasts of air like this.

And it is those bursts of air which magically bring new life to every leaf, stem, or flower within the arrangement.

Other Ways To Bring New Life To Fake Plants

A few times, I've actually taken the time to clean each and every leaf, one by one, using a soft cloth and some water. While it feels very satisfying every time you wipe the build-up from each leaf, it is incredibly time-consuming. Sometimes, the anal-retentive part of me enjoys the challenge. Usually however, I seek easier methods of cleaning my plants.

Before I learned about the compressed air method, I used to spray down the entire plant outside with a garden hose -- including the wicker basket found at the bottom of tree plants. (But try not to saturate the wicker & the straw filling, if possible.)

And, if the mood strikes you to clean your silk plants in the wintertime, then just put them in the shower and use the hand-sprayer to wet each leaf and wash away the dust. (Again, I usually keep the plant tilted in such a way as to not get the bottom basket or vase too saturated.)

Usually, that's all that's needed to whisk the dust, dirt, and grime from fake plants and silk flower arrangements. You don't even need to wipe down the leaves one-by-one.

When you're done washing the plants, just let them air dry -- either in the shower or outdoors, if it's a warm sunny day.

What's Up?...

Just another silly home-related tip to amuse you until we progress further in our log home building process.

In case you're wondering, we're currently wrapping up some loose ends before we break ground on our log home. (Looks like October 31st will be our closing date -- if not sooner. And they'll be delivering the logs by November 30th.)

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3 Comments

ewfitton said:

The "Dust In Time" unit has patented features that solve the above problems, No dust is suck up from direct contact with the article being cleaned, the special shaped brushes only disturb the dust, the secret of the "Dust In Time" is that slots which are spaced around and under the brush head suck up all the disturbed dust by creating 3 area of plume around the brush head.

This product was invented to solve the usual dusting problem that allows the dust to settle back on the article being cleaned.

After struggling to clean the silk flowers and other" difficult to clean" items in our house, I found that the only suitable brush material was badger type pure bristles because of its extreme softness.

August 23, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply to this Comment

Lynnette said:

I trust that you are referring to a "coming soon" product that is not currently available, right?

This was the only reference I could find about your "Dust in Time" gizmo:
http://www.fit-onfixseal.com/futureproducts.html

August 23, 2008 1:32 PM | Reply to this Comment

ken chaffin said:

we have an ultrasonic blind cleaning company and ultrasonics is the best method we have found for artifical plants. it gets to all parts of the plants top, bottom, inside and out.

February 11, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply to this Comment