Artificial plants are a topic of hot debate in the world of interiors, with some designers swearing by them and others preferring genuine foliage. But new research from Blooming Artificial has found that when it comes to this part of interior design, the Great British public can’t tell the real deal from a fake.
In addition to a recent live event in which they gave a grey city centre space a temporary makeover, fooling the public with hundreds of faux plants, Blooming Artificial created a simple photo quiz to gauge responses from people further afield.
Their findings show that on average, online;
- 49% of the time, people thought that real plants were fake
- 40% of the time, people thought that fake plants were real
- The 55-64 age group were the best at knowing the difference, getting 56% of the answers right on average
The average score for the online quiz was 55% correct: suggesting that many people don’t know which is which, and are simply guessing. People were almost equally as likely to guess that real plants were fakes as they were to guess that fake plants were real. Despite many people thinking that artificial plants are easy to spot, it turns out that both online and in the real world it’s more difficult to identify them than we think.
At their pop-up garden in Norwich this summer, Blooming Artificial spoke to hundreds of passers-by about their surprise in finding out the greenery wasn’t real.
“I didn’t believe my eyes when I walked around the corner, it’s like a mirage!” One woman said. “I just can’t believe they aren’t real plants.”
“When you think about artificial plants, people often think of low-quality products that are obviously made from plastic.” Blooming Artificial’s Alick Burnett said. “But with products made from real bamboo and wood as well as the highest-quality synthetic materials, of course I’m not surprised that many people can’t spot the difference between our plants and the real thing.”
Image: Blooming Artificial