Artificial palm tree: choosing the size, and setting it up in a living room

An artificial palm tree gives a living room a tropical look without needing light. Choose 120 cm for a floor-standing corner, or 90 cm for a low piece of furniture or a small room. If you want large leaves rather than fine fronds, take a strelitzia, with or without flowers. These four plants are made for indoors.

Why an artificial palm tree

Real indoor palms need light, but not just any light. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) notes that direct sun through glass scorches the leaves of most palms. For palms of the genus Phoenix, it asks for good light and an airy room.

A living strelitzia is even more demanding. The RHS places it near a large sunny window, or in a conservatory. It asks that it never drop below 10 to 12 °C. It adds that you usually have to wait until the plant is five to ten years old for it to flower.

An artificial palm tree has none of these needs. It goes where a real palm would decline: a corner far from the window, an entrance hall, a study.

Palm or strelitzia: two silhouettes

The four plants are 90 or 120 cm tall. They do not have the same shape.

• The Phoenix palm has fine, divided fronds. It looks light, and you can see through it.
• The strelitzia, also called bird of paradise, has large, whole leaves on long stems. It fills a corner more.

Choose according to the room. A room full of furniture and objects calls for a light plant: the palm. A plain room with bare walls can take a fuller plant: the strelitzia.

Phoenix palms: 90 or 120 cm

The same artificial Phoenix palm comes in two heights. Its fronds look natural.

• 120 cm: on the floor, in the corner of a living room, next to a sofa or at an office reception.
• 90 cm: on the floor in a small room, on a low piece of furniture, or as a medium plant in a group.

The manufacturer does not describe the pot of the Phoenix palms. Look at it when you receive it, then choose the cachepot.

Strelitzias: with or without flowers

We sell two 120 cm artificial strelitzias.

• The flowering strelitzia carries its bird-of-paradise flowers. It arrives in a black pot. It is in flower all year round, which a living strelitzia rarely does in a flat.
• The green-leaved strelitzia has only leaves. The manufacturer mentions neither flowers nor a pot.

The flowering model catches the eye: place it alone, in a corner where it is visible as soon as you walk in. The green model blends in more easily with other plants.

Where to put it

A large tropical plant takes up room in width. The RHS says a living strelitzia can reach at least 1.5 m tall and 1 m wide over time. The manufacturer does not give the width of our models. Measure it after opening out the leaves, then choose the spot.

• In a corner, the plant rests against two walls and looks fuller.
• Next to a sofa, it should rise above the backrest. At 120 cm, it does for most sofas.
• Out of walkways. Fronds that are brushed every day lose their shape.
• Away from a radiator. The manufacturer does not say how the material reacts to strong heat.

To work out the height for your ceiling and furniture, read our guide to the large artificial plant. It also explains how to build a plant corner on three heights.

The pot: weight it and hide it

A 120 cm artificial plant is light. Its pot holds no damp soil. A vacuum cleaner or a passing dog can knock it over.

1. Measure the pot when you receive it. If the plant arrives without a pot, set its base directly in the cachepot filled with gravel.
2. Take a wider, heavy cachepot, in ceramic or terracotta.
3. Wedge the pot with gravel or sand.
4. Cover the surface with bark or dried moss.

A matte ceramic or terracotta cachepot goes well with a tropical plant. To choose, see our guide to the decorative cachepot.

Opening out the fronds

This is the step that makes the difference. For all four models, the manufacturer advises shaping the fronds or leaves by hand after delivery.

1. Start at the bottom. The lower fronds open outwards, almost horizontal.
2. Work upwards. The fronds in the centre stay more upright than the lower ones.
3. Vary the directions. No frond should hide the one next to it.
4. Give a slight curve to the tips of the fronds, without bending them at an angle.
5. Step back three metres and correct anything that looks stiff.

For the strelitzia, open the stems out like a fan. Turn a few leaves slightly sideways. Leaves that all face forward look flat.

More details are in our 7 signs of a realistic artificial plant.

Care

• Dust: wipe each frond with a dry cloth from time to time.
• Water: never. The plant does not need it.
• Sun: keep the plant away from a window in full sun. The product pages make no promise that the colours will last.

Still torn between this and a real palm? Our guide artificial or real plant helps you decide room by room. All our plants are on the artificial plants page.

In short

1. Take 120 cm for a floor-standing corner, 90 cm for a low piece of furniture or a small room.
2. The Phoenix palm is light, the strelitzia fills a corner more.
3. For flowers all year round, choose the flowering strelitzia, delivered in a black pot.
4. Weight the pot in a heavy cachepot, and hide it.
5. Open out the fronds by hand, from bottom to top, then remove dust with a dry cloth.

Sources

• How to grow strelitzia, Royal Horticultural Society
• Palms indoors, Royal Horticultural Society
• Manufacturer data sheets for the artificial plants (heights, pots, foliage, shaping)