Quick Trick: Re-Potting Silk Orchids to Look Real

 

 

Hi guys!  I hope you all had a great weekend and I hope you all stayed warm!

This winter is really getting to me for some reason.  It’s not been terribly cold for us but it’s been dark and dreary. I am so in need of Vitamin D and pretty plant life.  More than anything, I love orchids and I like to have them throughout my home. I’ve spent a fortune on them and unfortunately, I have a black thumb and just kill them.  I think I’m an over-nurturer.. 🙁

So, I have sworn off real orchids (for now) and have figured out a little trick to make silk orchids look real.  The silk orchid stems at craft stores are pretty bad and look as fake as you can get. Finding good high-end silk orchid stems is next to impossible unless you buy in bulk/wholesale. I have also stumbled on an easy way to find the best silk orchids that is right under our noses.

Often times, stores like Tuesday Morning, TJ Maxx and HomeGoods receive gorgeous silk orchids that don’t sell from the higher-end stores.  It’s usually because the containers they are in are odd colors or the pots are just not pretty.  However, the silk stems themselves are high quality and for my little trick, the container doesn’t matter because all we need is the plant and the styrofoam.

I picked up these two beautiful orchids from Tuesday Morning in a small black container.  The orchid stems themselves are very high quality beautiful silks:

 

 

 

So my little trick is to break the containers and remove the ceramic and keep the styrofoam (floral base) and stems intact.  Most of the time, the styrofoam is sprayed into the containers when they’re made and formed, so it’s not as simple as pulling them out.  The containers need to broken. I also add sheet moss to the tops to give the silk plant a more organic feel.

Here is how I do it:

1) I break the containers by wrapping an old t-shirt around the containers and using a hammer (outside) and hammer all the way around the piece.  I also wear garden gloves to pull the ceramic off the styrofoam, so I don’t cut myself:

 

 

2) After getting all of the ceramic off of the styrofoam, I have the plant and the good styrofoam base:

 

3) Next, I place the styrofoam base and plant into my desired container.  I had two different containers I wanted to use for these two plants;

a blue and white large vase:

and an inexpensive ice bucket from Ross Stores:

 

 4) I place the styrofoam base in each container and I fill the top with sheet moss that I picked up at Hobby Lobby (it’s in the floral aisle and comes in a bag).  I layer and tuck the sheet moss

When you buy a real orchid, the moss is usually built up and rounded like a mound, so I layer up the moss to a more rounded mound:

For clear glass containers, I pushed the moss down around the sides of the styrofoam with the green moss facing out:

 

I was fortunate in that the styrofoam base fit snuggly in both of my containers but if you want to repot an orchid into a larger container, you can use crumbled up paper bag around the sides to secure.

You can do this little trick with any silk stems or plants, not just orchids. Also, you can do multiple plants in larger containers as well.

I hope you can use my little trick and if you can, don’t forget to check the clearance aisles as well! Even better if you can get a really great deal!

Thanks for stopping by friends!

Cheers!

Cyndy