Fake plants somehow went from being the height of tackiness to a must-have piece of urban chic decor over the last few years. I mean, I like anything that is zero-upkeep, but I was still having a hard time coming around to the idea. The little faux succulents were kind of cute and innocuous enough, but if anyone would have told me I’d have a 4-foot fake bush in my living room….
Then my daughter-in-law convinced me that a faux plant would do wonders to liven up my fireplace and “bring the room together.” Since she’s about the smartest person I know, I poked around on Amazon, checking reviews, and hit upon a likely suspect: the Vickerman 4-foot Artificial Ficus.
(It should be noted that I don’t use my fireplace, ever. I definitely am not suggesting to put a plant, fake or not, right next to a working fireplace.)
Artificial indoor plants of any size, I found out, need some “assembly.” Not assembly per se, but shaping and unpacking. To keep them small enough to economically ship, they arrive condensed, or all smushed together to put it bluntly. My ficus came with instructions that were, for the most part, easy to follow. It wasn’t just a matter of pulling the branches apart any old way. To make it look as lifelike as possible, a suggested process was provided. It took maybe 15 minutes.
One side of the box is helpfully marked “Open this side first.” I did not open that side first because I didn’t look at the box all that closely before I dove in. You definitely want to heed that, pulling your ficus out by its basket.
You start with the stems at the base of the trunk and work up, separating the branches (the little things on each “stem”). The leaves are silk, making for a nice appearance.
Only two parts of the directions had me a bit confused. The first was: “Starting at the base of the branch, run your hand along the underside. Doing so should create a smooth arc without any harsh bends.” I could not grasp the running-my-hand part, but I just tried to make sure there were no harsh bends, and it was fine. The other was the advice to adjust the branches “stair-step style so that they are at varying heights.” I wasn’t exactly sure what stair-step style meant. Maybe it’s another one to say like a staircase? I don’t know, but again, I just gently arranged the branches so that they were at different heights.
The top two branches need to point up higher, I thought, than what the illustration showed. You need to really play around with those to hide the top of the “trunk,” which is the most obviously fake-looking part of the whole thing.
The photos of the finished product online looks … fluffier than mine, but as you can see, mine doesn’t look half bad.
It is much more natural looking than I expected. Yes, sure, if you are touching the leaves, it’s clearly fake. But who’s doing that? From a distance of five feet or so, it passes as real. And my daughter-in-law was right: It really does add something to my living room.
The wicker basket it comes in is nothing to look at. The top of where the dirt would be in a real plant is covered with fake moss, which again if you are peering down at it, does not look real, but from a normal perspective works. But the basket looks cheap and seems too small for the size of the bush. I plopped it in a felt box from Ikea, which was an improvement, but I’ll switch that out for something I like better eventually.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Vickerman Ficus. It was simple enough to get it looking realistic and attractive, and it livened up my room really nicely. Oh, and I meant to mention, it’s made in the U.S., which personally is always a plus. It’s on sale now, so I can say 1000 percent it’s worth the price. You really can’t lose here for $45.