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Gone are the days when worrying about flowers drying or plants withering, due to excessive sunlight or lack of water used to make you prematurely grey. This is the age of the jetsetters. Everlasting flowers and plants are ‘in vogue’ and very much the ‘rage’ in Chennai as in other cities. Are you fond of gardening? Do you possess the green thumb but live in an apartment so that your dreams of possessing a beautiful garden are just that. Dreams! Then now is the time to turn your dreams into reality. Take a stroll down the first floor of Spencer Plaza on Mount Road – Behold! What’s this? Blooms, blooms everywhere! A riot of colours! An enchanting garden? Wordsworth would have gone into poetic raptures. A closer look reveals that some of them are artificial. But what knockouts! They look almost real. 

Talk of variety and you’ve got it at both Twigs and Silk Forest (Alas! We’re not in some primeval forest or something, but still very much in the shopping maze at Spencer Plaza). Flowers in a myriad of vivid colours, shapes and sizes, plants and creepers so luscious, so green, so natural, that you’d almost believe they’re real. But are they? Yes, some of them are, albeit in their dried up versions. Some of these are the twigs like badam, figs, and bulrushes though Twigs specialises in naturally dried flowers too - pedar rose, the delicate limolia and lotus amongst others. Wonder of wonders! All parts of the palm and coconut (after chemical treatment) are utilized fully in floral decorations, for instance the comb cococurly – originating from the coconut broomstick and bent into the shape of a comb (even the broomstick has its day). They look exotic in flower arrangements and can be molded to take on different shapes by a simple twirl or a twist of the stem (so much so for flexibility). 

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Stems are wired and can be embedded in thermocol to bestow the designer effect. So, what makes these artificial blooms so fascinating and causes Chennaiites to go gaga over them? Simple! Made of silk, they have a unique sheen, are washable and lifelong. But are they tipped to cut into the market for natural flowers? If the staff at Flower Showers and Nirmal, other florist shops around town are to be believed, each variety has its own market. "We stock both natural and artificial flowers but natural flowers move faster." Natural flowers are less expensive and look fresh, but as Bernie at Flower Showers opines, "Decorations for artificial blooms is a one time affair. Though they are costly, they last longer, while natural flowers have to be changed every two to three days." In addition, there are certain varieties that are easily available only in artificial blooms.

Well! Definitely it is the higher income South Indians that form the maximum clientele for both varieties of flowers in Chennai, though occasionally even the middle class and North Indians indulge in it. "If at any time our market for natural flowers gets threatened, we’ll switch over to artificial blooms," laughs Bernie. Agreed! So now that both fresh and fakes are here to stay, let us transform our homes into Gardens of Eden. A rich and comely combination of eternal blooms and foliage should do the trick.

Courtesy: Shobha

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