On Saturday, we went to a furniture showroom to buy a new couch. I believe this was only the second time in the current millennium that we'd set foot in a furniture store. If the industry depended on our household for business, it would be out of business.
I'm a reluctant and impatient retail shopper, and my interest in furniture is ephemeral. My eyes soon began to wander, but fortunately, they found something to latch on to: Even though I hadn't noticed it right away, the showroom was chock full of——succulents!
Yes, there were the requisite potted palms and stick things in tall vaahhses, But above all, there were echeverias, aeoniums, sedums, even cacti. All of them were perfect, even beyond perfect. And none of them ever need a drop of water to retain that level of perfection.
Based on the sheer quantity on display in this one furniture showroom, faux succulents must be a hot commodity right now. Predictably, most of them were soft-leaved varieties, although I spotted a few prickly characters, too.
As much I enjoyed taking the photos in this post, I had even more fun trying to figure out what each succulent was supposed to be. Below are my best wild guesses.
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| Looks like: Echeveria 'Autumn Flame' |
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| Looks like: echeverias or echeveria hybrids |
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| Looks like: Echeveria lilacina |
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| Looks like: Crassula 'Ivory Pagoda' |
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| Looks like: assorted succulents, real and imagined |
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| Looks like: variegated Aeonium arboreum |
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| Looks like: Aeonium sp. |
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| Looks like: assorted echeverias and/or hybrids |
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| Looks like: etiolated Adromischus cristatus 'Key Lime Pie' |
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| Looks like: some sort of sedum |
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| Looks like: assorted cacti |
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| Looks like: Peruvian apple cactus (Cereus peruvianus) |
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| Looks like: Peruvian apple cactus (Cereus peruvianus) |
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| Does not look like: Peruvian apple cactus (Cereus peruvianus), although that's what the label said |
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| Looks like: Senecio scaposus |
As part of my “research” for this post, I pulled out Jeff Moore's lavishly illustrated book
Soft Succulents (
more info here). Even though I'm more into agaves and aloes, leafing through the book was a vivid reminder of how alluring these plants are. No wonder artificial plant manufacturers have embraced them.
© Gerhard Bock, 2022. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.
The quality of artificial plants has shot up, probably due to their popularity. Although I prefer live plants, those in the furniture store are tastefully placed proving that faux can be fun (and maybe a stepping stone for the real thing?).
ReplyDeleteDid you find your new couch? (and did you get in trouble for not focusing on the furniture display?)
Found a new couch but won't get it until April (!). Insane delays because of supply chain issues.
DeleteI didn't get into trouble to drifting. My wife is used to that, ha ha.
So it looks like the plants were for sale as well, not just props? What were the prices like? Also, I must correct your ID. It's not "assorted succulents" it's "asst succulents"... at least at on the tags I read ;)
ReplyDelete"Asst" is the genus and "succulents" is the species. Here the tags say Succulents asst, implying "Succulents" is the genus and "asst" the species, but that has been superseded by new DNA analysis. ;^)
Delete@dangergarden, I wasn't wearing my reading glasses so I couldn't read the tags to see how much the plants were. I assume they were for sale :-)
Delete@hooverboo, "Succulents asst" would be more correct, but nobody cares about what's proper anymore!!
Well, that store certainly has an extensive collection. I've come across faux succulents on Pinterest too, especially among "container succulents." It looks like the eighth photo contained a small Mangave and maybe a Pachyphytum? If the faux plants give people ideas about what they can do with real succulents inside their own homes, that's a win!
ReplyDeleteI was very surprised to see so many succulents and far fewer leafy plants than in the past. Not that I've been following furniture store display trends, ha ha.
DeleteLike you, I hope that seeing faux succulents will inspire people to get real ones.
So, did you get a couch? Gardeners shopping for something other than plants are lost.
ReplyDeleteYes, we did. But delivery won't be until April (!).
DeleteYou're definitely right. I don't enjoy retail shopping. And the thought of going to a mall is mental torture.
You know you are a true plant nerd when you succeed in turning a mundane day of furniture shopping into a post about plants š Plastic knock offs usually make me cringe but at least these ones are pretty realistic and I like that you went to the effort of IDing them.
ReplyDelete