I’ve blogged quite a bit about not having the greenest of thumbs, even though I live in Florida where the vegetation is lush and plentiful, I’ve managed to kill almost every plant I have had here, so I finally broke down and populated my balcony with artificial plants. I really wanted a green area out there, we have a nice big balcony with a great view of our pool which, fortunately, has palm trees lol, but the direct sunlight was killing every plant I owned. So I started with silk plants and trees, and I’ve been so happy! We also keep the litterboxes on the balcony and I don’t want to be the person with the cat boxes so I use silk plants to shield the boxes from view: boom, problem solved!
So when the nice folks at ThermaLeaf® offered to send me a silk plant of my choice to check out, I was more than happy to accept, you can never have too many plants! In going with the tropical theme, I picked a dwarf areca palm in a pot, I wanted something that was not overwhelming but that would be tall enough to block the cat boxes. It’s almost 3 feet tall in its pot which is perfect. I put up this picture and ya’ll know I’m not the best photographer in the world so forgive me but at least you can see the pot and the relative size. It is super lightweight (I can’t stand anything heavy that I have to lug around) and ya’ll, it’s so realistic looking! I’m super-picky when it comes to artificial plants, I can’t stand fake, and artificial can look super-fake, so I was a little worried, but when it arrived and I opened the box, I breathed a sigh of relief, this is a plant that I can definitely not be embarrassed about.
The plant itself looks great, the leaves look real and they’re not too bright green and it came in a nice wooden-looking pot, it’s not a cheap-looking pot either, it’s kind of elegant but I think it is plenty sturdy enough to sit outside and withstand the elements. One tip: I use museum gel to anchor things like plant pots and things that sit on the shelf or floor in my house so they don’t get knocked over or blow over.
They have a lot of products, including my personal fave, topiaries, which I did not order because I wanted something that was larger and leafier, but they look really nice, and they also have full-size palm trees and real trees – I love that!
Here’s the other thing about ThermaLeaf®, their plants are fire-retardant artificial foliage. I have the hugest (kind of weirdly obsessive and I don’t know why) fear of fire, so anything that might be highly flammable (including Christmas trees), I don’t want it in my house. So it’s reassuring (and really good for commercial spaces I’m sure) that their plants are fire-retardant and they spend a good bit of time on their website going through all the various certifications that the plants have – great!
Anyway, I’ve spent a lot of time searching out realistic silk plants and ThermaLeaf® fits the bill, I’m pretty happy with my new plant and I guarantee my neighbors are too!
*I received my plant in exchange for offering a product review but my review is 100% my own opinion
