No Green Thumb? Use Silk Flowers to Brighten Your Home and Your Day

My Mother was a lady that lived simply, seldom buying anything for herself, but showing unfeigned appreciation when anyone else did. Over the years, I searched high and low to find just the right gift for my Mom for her birthday, Mother's Day, and other gift giving occasions.

Two of the gifts I bought for her were inexpensive milk glass items; a vase and a pitcher, each sporting lovely raised designs that added to the beauty of the delicate looking white glass. I loved them the minute I saw them, and thought about how much enjoyment my mother would get filling the two gorgeous containers with flowers from her own garden. And she did.

Year after year I watched the ever-changing display in her kitchen window. One time it might be the pitcher, filled with dainty yellow roses from the bushes by her kitchen window. The next time I visited, the vase, filled with huge orange poppies, or a gigantic bouquet of daffodils had taken its place. By the time August rolled around, she had so many flowers that both the vase and the pitcher were needed to contain all the flowers my mother wanted to show off. Gladiolas were her favorites.

About 6 months before my mother passed away, she asked if I would like to take the vase and pitcher home with me. I was caught by surprise, as she had always seemed to enjoy them so much. It also alarmed me, as I had heard that people often begin to give things away shortly before they die.

I told her I would be glad to have them if she was sure she wouldn't need them that year. She assured me that she had enjoyed them, but that she didn't think she wanted to do much gardening that year, and would like me to have them since I had been the one to give them to her in the first place.

I took them home but, since I'm not much of a gardener myself, and since fresh flowers are a bit expensive to buy on a regular basis, the milk glass containers they sat, empty, on a top shelf in my kitchen for quite a while.

My Mother had been gone about a year when I looked at the vase and pitcher one day and wondered why I had agreed to take them if I didn't intend to use them. They were beautiful, and they were begging to be out where people could see them.

I put one on each of two dividers I have going into my living room, and they looked quite at home there, albeit a tad lonely without Mom's flowers to touch them off.

Not long after that, I noticed our local craft store was having a 30% off sale on all of their silk flowers. Silk flowers? What were silk flowers? I wondered and dropped by to find out.

I was amazed when I saw the selection that store offered. Every flower I ever heard of was displayed there, along with a lot of others I had never heard of. I couldn't believe they weren't real. I remembered the artificial flowers I had seen years before that had looked so fakey anyone would have known they weren't real, but these were beautiful. Every little detail was reproduced to perfection. The pussy willows felt soft and furry; the roses were so real looking, I just had to smell them to make sure.

I intended to buy enough silk flowers for two small bouquets to see how they went over with my family, but before I got out of that store, I had enough to make four generous bunches of flowers.

And, after displaying my first two bouquets for several weeks and my second two for another two weeks, I made my way back to the store for another set.

Since that time, the number of my flower displays has increased until I now have 6 bouquets for the vase, and 6 duplicate bouquets for the pitcher. I display one set for a few weeks and then store it in our attic in a plastic bag to protect it from dust, replacing it with the next bouquet. When each arrangement is put into its plastic bag for storage, I am careful not to disturb it so that when it is brought out again, it takes very little time to make sure all the flowers are in place and looking just right. After I go through all the sets, I start over so that each set makes an appearance twice or three times a year.

Company raves over the gorgeous flowers, and, each time I bring out a replacement set, I feel like I have redecorated the house. Since every one of my silk flowers were purchased at sale prices, I feel pretty proud of myself, and I can't help thinking that my mother is looking down and smiling at her vase and pitcher still filled with gorgeous flowers, even if I didn't grow them myself.