Sia Artificial Flowers

I am so desparate for spring to arrive that I snapped these cheerful displays in my local branch of Monceau Fleurs.  All fake I'm afraid, but some of them quite pretty I thought and a nice colourful addition to your home.  The vases are pretty and the white display elegant.  Fake orchids in particular can be very convincing and attractive.  The real thing is hard to grow as you need the right conditions, restraint when watering, pruning them in the right way and lots of patience.  My Mum has some quite large orchids (real!) We purchased the bulbs on a visit to the 'Garden Island' of Madeira well over 10 years ago when we had a guided tour of an incredible orchid grower's plants and garden.  Have a look at the fabulous gardens of this special island:-
  http://www.madeira-web.com/PagesUK/gardenindex.html 

I'm ashamed to say my orchids did not thrive, however.

So, here's a couple of jolly pictures to cheer the winter gloom!  Stems seemed to cost around 9 Euros a piece for the smaller ones by the way.