How To Find the Best Faux Florals Online

When it comes to shopping online, high-quality, affordable artificial or faux florals are one of the hardest home decor items to find. Don’t get me wrong, you can find a huge variety of faux florals on just about any website carrying home and garden goods. But the cheap stuff tends to be just that, cheap.

This blog is all about decorating on a budget while also getting high-quality items that will last for a long time. And after many failed online shopping attempts, I’ve found the key to identifying high-quality faux florals online.

If you follow this guide you’re sure to unbox something that looks great in your home and holds up well from season to season.

Here are my expert tips for finding the best artificial flowers online.

Table of Contents

5 Expert Tips for Shopping Faux Florals Online

1. Check the material

The very first thing you’ll want to check when evaluating the quality of a faux floral is the material. Most cheap-looking artificial flowers are made primarily from polyethylene and polyester.

Polyethylene is used to create different plastic forms. This plastic usually starts in little pellets, gets heated, and then poured into a mold. It’s then cooled, extracted, and voila, you have your shape.

Unfortunately, this is often done fast and cheaply and without a lot of quality control. When this happens you often see jagged, sharp, or misshapen edges to your forms.

While polyethylene is usually reserved for the branches or stems of a faux florals, you may find some that are made completely from this material. These are the ones to should avoid if possible. They look incredibly fake.

Latex is preferable and derived from a natural source. It’s smoother, more opaque, and can be cut and formed without a lot of jagged edges.

Clean cut latex tulip — Clean-cut latex tulip

Polyester is another material to avoid. The edges of polyester petals are fragile and fray easily. Cheaply-made polyester florals will likely shed threads even before you get them home.

Instead, look for something made from silk. This is another naturally derived material. It’s smoother, denser, and stands up better over time.

2. Check the quantity

Be sure to double-check the number of stems you’ll be receiving before ordering online. Also, check the heads per stem.

Product photos can be deceiving as they often depict multiple bunches in a vase or bouquet.

Standard faux florals will give you 4 – 6 heads per stem. With this, a purchase of 3 stems should adequately fill a standard-sized vase opening.

Remember, the amount of stems you need is less about the overall height or width of your vessel and more about the size of the neck or opening of that vessel.

3. Check for filler flowers

If you are planning on using your flowers for something other than a vase, such as a DIY wreath or swag, make sure you check for filler flowers.

Oftentimes, bouquets include smaller filler flowers to make the bouquet appear fuller. If you are purchasing a bouquet for 1 specific flower make sure you’re getting the number of flowers you need.

For instance, this bouquet advertised on Amazon says it is a peony and hydrangea bouquet.

And, while this is a very well-rated and reviewed listing, if you were purchasing this primarily for the peony heads, you may end up being disappointed.

If you look closely at the description, you’ll see a photo of 1 of the stems. It contains only 2 peony heads. The rest are hydrangeas, carnations, and what looks like a pom pom mum.

This means that with the 3 stems you receive, you’re only getting 6 peony heads. This isn’t a great deal. You’d be better off spending a few dollars more and getting a couple of peony bouquets with no fillers like this listing that will give you 14 heads for only $4 more.

4. Check the stem length and dimensions

While there are hacks to fix the look of a too-short or too-long stem in a vase, it’s best to know what you’re getting upfront.

Double-check the length of the stem as well as the spread of the stems. Ideally, the total height of your stem should not exceed 2 times the height of your vessel.

Similarly, the spread of your faux floral stem once fanned out should not exceed twice the width of your vessel.

5. Check the reviews

This goes without saying, but always check the reviews and customer photos. They will give you the most accurate look at what you’re about to receive.

Just make sure to take a critical look at negative reviews, as they more often than not are complaining about the 4 areas we just discussed.

Most complaints are people expecting the item to be larger because they based their purchase purely on the product photos and ignored the dimensions or number of stems indicated in the description before purchase.

Or, the flowers are cheap-looking because they didn’t check the materials.

My favorite faux florals

Here are a few of my favorite faux florals. They’re all affordable and of great quality.

Amazon – Tulips (latex)
Birch Lane – Tea Rose Spray (high-quality polyester)
Amazon – Cherry Blossoms (silk)
Amazon – Mini Potted Eucalyptus
Birch Lane – Faux Eucalyptus in ceramic pot
Hobby Lobby – True Touch Orchid Stem

Conclusion

That’s all for this post. I hope you found it helpful.

Here are a few more posts you may enjoy:

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