The Artificial Flowers Company
artificial hanging baskets, topiary balls, hedges and topiary trees
Artificial plants bring greenery to places where real plants can be difficult to grow or maintain. Our collection of realistic faux plants works indoors and outdoors, with no watering, feeding or worrying about whether you’ve put them in the right spot.
Choosing artificial plants? Read our buying guide ↓ Outdoor artificial plants ↓
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Last updated: October 2026
Artificial plants have come a long way from the dusty plastic palm in the dentist's waiting room. The best are now hard to tell from the real thing at arm's length, and they bring greenery to the places real plants fail: the dark hallway, the north-facing patio, the balcony nobody waters, the office with no windows. But the gap between good and bad is wide, and the single biggest mistake buyers make is putting an indoor plant outside. This guide is in two halves. The first covers indoor artificial plants: which species convince, how to judge quality and how to style and clean them. The second covers outdoor artificial plants: what "UV-resistant" actually means, how to plant, anchor and overwinter them, and what to do on a balcony. A few shared basics first.
Hanging baskets, topiary, hedging, window boxes and vase flowers each have their own guide on this site; this one covers everything else.
You can't touch it, so look hard at the close-ups and the specification:
Nearly every disappointed review of an artificial plant, ours included, is about size. Product photos are shot to make plants look generous, and a 30cm bush can look like a 60cm one against a plain background. The dimensions are always in the description: get a tape measure out and mark the height and spread against the spot or the pot before you order. If you're buying a plant to fill a particular planter, buy or measure the planter first. And for trees, check whether the stated height includes the starter pot (usually) and the pot you'll put it in (never).
Artificial plants are photographed in handsome planters, and in almost every case the planter isn't included. You'll get a plain plastic starter pot, or for plug plants and bushes, just the plastic root. That's not a swindle; it lets you match the pot to your room or garden. But budget for it, and choose the pot with the job in mind: wide and heavy for anything outdoors or tall, with drainage holes for anything that will see rain, and an opening a few centimetres wider than the starter pot so it drops inside and sits below the rim.
To finish: sit the starter pot on a layer of gravel or sand in the planter, pack more sand, gravel or dry soil around it until it's rigid, and dress the surface with bark, slate, pebbles or moss so no plastic shows. That ten minutes is the difference between "placed" and "planted".
The average Briton spends around £300 a year on houseplants, and roughly half of us admit to killing them: an average of five each, mostly from overwatering (54%) or too little light (30%). That second reason is the point. Real plants need a window; most of the places we actually want greenery, like hallways, landings, bathrooms, the corner by the TV and the office with no natural light, don't have one. Artificial plants go exactly where real ones die.
They also suit people who travel, rent, or have cats, dogs and toddlers; they don't drop leaves, attract fungus gnats or leave water rings on the furniture; and a good one looks the same on the day you buy it and five years later. If you love tending real plants, keep the ones on the windowsill and go artificial everywhere else. Most people end up with a mix.
Choosing the right species does more for realism than spending more money. The rule: small, matt, irregular leaves are easy to fake; large, glossy, uniform leaves are hard.
Two more tricks. Put the plant where the real one would live: a fern in a bathroom, a succulent on a sunny sill, an olive by the French doors. And if you want a large statement plant, a tall olive or eucalyptus in a good planter will fool more people than a monstera at twice the price.
Indoor plants fade too, slowly. Window glass lets UVA through, so a standard (non-UV) plant on a south-facing sill will pale noticeably within a year or two, greens first turning yellowish then grey. Heat speeds it up: a sill above a radiator or a shelf under a halogen spotlight ages plastic faster than light alone, and can make cheaper leaves tacky or brittle. Conservatories are effectively outdoors for this purpose and need UV-stabilised plants.
The darker the spot, the longer the plant lasts, and the darker spots are exactly where you need artificial. Save your sunniest positions for UV-stabilised pieces or for real plants, give sill plants a quarter turn every week or two, and keep everything away from radiators, hobs and spotlights.
Many of Britain's favourite houseplants are poisonous to cats and dogs: peace lily, pothos (devil's ivy), monstera, philodendron, snake plant, ZZ plant, aloe, dieffenbachia, cyclamen and, most seriously, sago palm (liver failure) and true lilies (fatal kidney failure in cats from pollen or vase water alone). Artificial versions of exactly these plants let you have the look with no toxin. Two sensible caveats: artificial leaves and small decorative berries aren't edible either and can be a chewing or choking hazard for puppies, kittens and toddlers, so keep them out of reach; and stick to mid-range or better products, because the cheapest plastics are the ones most likely to contain things you'd rather weren't chewed. If a pet does nibble a leaf, it'll usually discover it's no fun and leave it alone.
Every two or three weeks: a feather duster, a soft brush or a hairdryer on cool, working from the top down. Twice a year: wipe leaves with a cloth barely dampened in cool water, or for sturdy plastic plants, a quick lukewarm shower in the bath followed by a shake and an air-dry on a towel. Don't use detergent, furniture polish, window cleaner or hairspray (sticky, attracts more dust), don't soak anything with a fabric or flocked finish, and let plants dry fully before they go back on wood or fabric. Real-touch and latex-coated leaves should only ever be wiped dry or barely damp.
Outdoor artificial plants earn their keep in the places real planting struggles: the north-facing side return, the paved courtyard with no soil, the dry strip under a tree, the balcony with no tap, the front door of a holiday let or second home that nobody visits for weeks. They give you a finished look on the day you plant them, they look identical in January and July, and there's no watering, feeding, deadheading, slug patrol or replanting twice a year. Compared with real bedding, which needs replacing each spring and autumn at £20–£40 a trough and watering daily in a dry spell, a set of good artificial plug plants is a one-off purchase that lasts several seasons.
Be honest about the trade-offs too: they don't feed bees, they don't smell, and they don't grow. Most people use them alongside real planting rather than instead of it, filling the gaps where nothing else will go.
This is the most important paragraph in the outdoor half. Sunlight breaks down the pigments and the plastic itself in artificial foliage. Untreated indoor plants left outside go bluish or chalky and then brittle within three to six months; there's no reliable way to weatherproof them after the fact. Outdoor-rated plants resist that, but there are two very different ways they do it:
How to tell: a listing that names the material (PE, polyethylene) and says UV-stabilised, or gives a fade guarantee (a year is standard among UK sellers), has been made for the outdoors. A listing that just says "UV-resistant" with nothing else may be sprayed; treat it as a sheltered-spot plant. A listing that says nothing is indoor only, however green it looks. Fabric ("silk") leaves are indoor only full stop: outside they rot, mould and tear.
Rule of thumb: if direct sun reaches the plant at any time of day, treat the spot as exposed.
Flower colours fade before greens, and reds and purples before whites and yellows. For your sunniest positions lean on foliage, and put your flowering plugs where they get part shade.
Artificial plants come with a plastic root spike, a starter pot or a bare stem, and none of those hold themselves in the ground. How you fix them decides whether they're still there after the first windy night.
Plug plants in soil (beds, borders, graves, troughs of compost). Push the root spike into the soil as you would a real plant, then pack the soil hard around it. For anything exposed, first cable-tie the spike to a fist-sized ball of chicken wire or to a short tent peg and bury that, so the plant is anchored below the surface. Mulch over the top with bark or gravel. One honest note from experience: plugs in open beds can't be lifted when bad weather comes the way a basket can, so if you want to move them in winter, plant them in troughs and pots instead.
Plugs and bushes in pots and troughs. Weight the base with gravel or a sealed bag of sand, add a block of dry floral foam or polystyrene cut to fit (never the green wet foam, which drinks rain and crumbles), push the stems through, and dress the top with soil, bark or pebbles. For windy spots lay a piece of chicken wire over the foam and feed each stem through it. For a permanent display, expanding foam or a light pour of concrete around the stems does the job for good.
Potted plants and trees. Keep the starter pot. Drop it into a heavier outdoor planter with drainage, fill the bottom third with gravel or bricks, pack sand or soil around the starter pot until nothing moves, and top-dress. Make sure wooden trunks never stand in water; they rot.
Spacing. Plant artificial plugs closer than you would real ones, because they won't fill out. A 60cm trough needs six to ten plugs or three to four bushes to look full.
Wind causes more trouble outdoors than anything else. Artificial plants weigh a fraction of real ones and the taller they are, the more they catch. The rules are simple: weight low (gravel, sand, bricks in the base of the pot), base wide (a wide heavy planter beats a tall narrow one), position sheltered (against a wall, in a corner, on the lee side of the house), and fix where you can (a cable tie through a drainage hole to a hook or railing, or a chain to a ground bolt under the gravel, which also deters theft). When a storm is forecast, lay tall plants on their side or move them under cover. Our guide to weighing down a hanging basket and ideas for windy coastal gardens apply to any outdoor plant.
Balconies are where many outdoor artificial plants end up, and they combine every challenge: full sun, funnelled wind, no soil, height above a pavement and a lease. Specific points:
Rain is fine for UV-stabilised plastic. What isn't fine is water sitting in a pot: it turns foam mushy, breeds algae, rusts wire and rots wooden trunks. Every outdoor pot needs drainage holes; drill them if yours doesn't, and sit the plant on a layer of gravel so it stays above any water that collects.
Frost rarely harms good-quality UV plastic, but repeated freeze-thaw makes cheaper materials brittle, so don't bend, fluff or move plants in freezing weather, and check that planters are frost-proof (terracotta often isn't).
Storms: no plant is storm-proof. Move what you can under cover, lay tall plants down, and check anchors and fixings afterwards.
Winter generally: UV-stabilised plants can stay out all year, and most people leave them because year-round green is the point. They'll last longer with a winter rest in a dry shed or garage out of direct sun: clean them, dry them fully, store upright and not crushed, and bring them out in spring with a fluff. Plugs in open beds have to stay put, which is why we suggest troughs for anything you'll want to lift.
Once or twice a year, and after pollen season: brush off loose debris, rinse with a gentle hose from the top down (never into foam bases), wipe stubborn grime with a damp cloth and a drop of washing-up liquid, and let everything dry. No pressure washers, hot water or solvents, which strip UV coatings and loosen glued leaves. A clear UV-protection spray each spring extends colour life on sprayed-coating plants especially. Full method in how to clean outdoor artificial flowers.
| Plant type | Typical outdoor life in UK conditions |
|---|---|
| Indoor plant left outside | 3–6 months before colour shifts and plastic goes brittle |
| Spray-coated "UV-resistant" | 1–2 years in full sun; longer in shade; re-spray annually |
| Inherently UV-stabilised PE | 3–5 years in full sun; often considerably longer on a shaded or north-facing wall |
Greens outlast flowers, shade beats sun, and a plant that's been anchored properly outlasts one that's spent every windy day rolling around the patio. When a plant does tire, rotate it to a less prominent spot or swap the faded plugs rather than replacing the lot.
Offices, receptions, restaurants, salons, show homes, care homes and holiday lets are where artificial plants make the most obvious sense: no plant-care contract, no dying ficus in the corner, and the same look for every visitor. For indoors, buy the best quality you can for anything at eye level and ask the supplier for a flame-retardant certificate if your fire risk assessment requires one. For outdoors, use UV-stabilised plants only, anchor and weight everything in public areas (chain to a ground bolt under gravel where theft is a risk), and put a twice-yearly check and clean in the diary. Two sets rotated seasonally halve the sun exposure on each and look like a business that bothers.
Before you click "buy":
We hope this helps you choose plants you'll still be pleased with in five years. If you have a question we haven't covered, get in touch and we'll be glad to help.
Only if they're made for it. Standard indoor artificial plants fade to a bluish or chalky colour and turn brittle within three to six months outdoors. Outdoor artificial plants are made from UV-stabilised plastic (usually polyethylene) with inhibitors blended into the material, and last three to five years or more in UK sun. If a listing doesn't say UV-stabilised or UV-resistant, treat it as indoor only.
UV-resistant often means a surface spray that wears off in one to two years and needs reapplying. UV-stabilised means the protection is mixed into the plastic itself before moulding, so it can't wash or scratch off and lasts three to five years or more. Look for a named material (PE/polyethylene), the word "stabilised" or a fade guarantee.
In soil, push the root spike in and pack hard, and for exposed spots first cable-tie the spike to a ball of chicken wire or a tent peg and bury it. In pots, weight the base with gravel or sand, set stems in dry floral foam or polystyrene with chicken wire over the top, and dress with soil or pebbles. For permanent displays, expanding foam or a little concrete holds stems for good.
UV-stabilised plants last about three to five years in full UK sun and longer on shaded or north-facing walls. Spray-coated UV plants last about one to two years before fading. Indoor plants left outside fail within months. Greens outlast flower colours, and plants anchored and cleaned properly last longest.
UV-stabilised outdoor plants can stay out all year and cope with frost and rain. Make sure pots drain so water doesn't sit in the base, avoid handling foliage in freezing weather when plastic is brittle, and move or lay down tall plants in storms. A winter rest in a dry shed extends their life but isn't essential.
Species with small, matt, irregular leaves: succulents, olive, eucalyptus, ferns, lavender, boxwood, grasses and ivy. Large glossy leaves such as monstera and rubber plant need a top-quality finish to convince. Look for varied leaf colour, visible veins, an uneven canopy and, on trees, a bark-textured trunk.
Slowly, yes. Window glass lets UVA through, so a non-UV plant on a sunny sill can pale within a year or two, and heat from radiators and spotlights speeds this up. Conservatories need UV-stabilised plants. Place standard plants away from direct sun and give sill plants a quarter turn every week or two.
They remove the poisoning risk of real houseplants such as peace lily, pothos, monstera, snake plant, philodendron, sago palm and lilies, all of which are toxic to pets. Artificial leaves aren't toxic but can be a chewing hazard, so keep plants out of reach of puppies and kittens and avoid small decorative berries.
Usually not. Most are supplied in a plain plastic starter pot, or with just a plastic root spike, and are photographed in decorative planters that aren't included. Choose a planter a few centimetres wider than the starter pot, heavy and with drainage for outdoors, and pack sand or gravel around the pot before dressing the surface.
Indoors, dust every two or three weeks with a soft brush or hairdryer on cool and wipe with a barely damp cloth twice a year. Outdoors, brush off debris and rinse gently with a hose from the top down
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