No Fake Flowers - Ever?

There’s an unspoken rule among gardeners that says NO ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS EVER. 

And as a gardener, I have extreme disdain for fake flowers, vines or greenery of any kind. You will never find a single artificial arrangement in my home. I use fresh and dried flowers only, and when there’s a lack of either of these, I wait. 

The whole botanical experience for me is so much more than visual. I’m as addicted to the smells and feel of all I grow as I am to the look of them. For me, anything that’s not real just drastically cheapens the effect. 

That being said, I’ve broken my own rule with THIS. 

I have a pair of these that I put out each summer in front of the cottage. They are so OBVIOUSLY artificial that they make my head spin. And yet, here they are. 

First, let me explain. I intended to hang lush baskets here, filled with petunias, trailing lobelia, and geraniums. In fact, that is what I did. But I soon learned that those baskets, when wet, get so heavy that they threatened to pull the brackets AND the cladding off the wall. So somewhere in the search for a quick replacement, I found these totally fake purple orbs. 

Maybe I’m being too hard on myself, but I feel like such a hypocrite, yet not enough to take them down. And I hate myself for liking them!

I keep waiting for someone to drive by and shout, “Those aren’t REAL!!!”