The same handful of questions come up again and again. How big a plant do I actually need? Why does it look flat out of the box? How do I stop a topiary blowing over, or being carried off, beside my front door? This guide gathers what we have learned into one place, from choosing a size through to long-term care outdoors.
Choosing the right size
Every plant and tree on our site is measured at its highest point, from the base of the pot to the tip of the tallest leaf or branch. On plants with wired stems the finished height can vary by a few centimetres depending on how you arrange the foliage: fold the leaves upwards and the plant reads taller and narrower; open them outwards and it becomes shorter and bushier. Treat the measurement as a guide, not a fixed figure.
As a rule of thumb, a plant should fill roughly two thirds of the gap you are trying to close. A 60–90cm plant suits a console table, sideboard or hearth. Between 90cm and 150cm holds an empty corner or stands beside a sofa. Anything above 150cm becomes architectural and needs floor space and a substantial planter to look deliberate.
Gaining extra height
If a plant is 15 or 20cm shorter than the space wants, you do not need a bigger tree. Stand the supplied pot on bricks, timber offcuts or flat stones inside a larger decorative planter, then top the surface with gravel to hide everything. It lifts the foliage to the right level, hides the plain nursery pot and makes the plant look genuinely planted. The 62cm x 40cm Large Lunar White Planter at £59.99 gives both the height and the visual weight to carry a tall tree; there are more options across our artificial planters range.
Unpacking and shaping
Almost every artificial plant arrives compressed, because it has to be boxed. Ten minutes of shaping is the difference between something that looks bought and something that looks grown.
- Remove all outer packaging and plastic sleeving, and stand the plant on a flat surface at the height it will eventually sit.
- Start at the bottom and work upwards, gently folding out each branch and separating the leaves so they sit apart rather than in a tight bundle.
- To put a natural curve into a wired leaf, hold the stem in one hand and the tip in the other, then run your hand along the length of the leaf to bend it gently into shape.
- Walk around the plant and check every angle, including the side facing the wall. Fill gaps by rotating branches rather than bending them further.
- Work from a photograph of the living species — real foliage rarely radiates evenly, and copying that slight irregularity is what sells the illusion.
Shaping by plant type
Different forms want different treatment. Ball and spiral topiary needs least work: the shape is built in, so simply tease the outer foliage to soften the clipped edge and correct any flat spot left by the box. Cedar and cypress topiary is more adjustable than it looks — the wired stems draw upright for a formal tapered column or open outwards for a bushier tree, so decide which you want before potting it up.
Bay and ficus topiary, such as the Artificial Bay Trees Natural Straight Trunk Topiary Bay Laurel Ball Tree at 90cm and £34.99, wants the ball opened from the centre outwards so light passes through it rather than hitting a solid dome. Broad-leaved plants such as the 120cm Artificial Rubber Tree at £61.99 want each leaf angled individually, with a few tilted downwards. Spiky plants including yuccas and the 70cm Artificial Tropical Cycas Palm Plant at £38.99 arrive close to their finished shape and need little more than the fronds fanned into an even radial pattern — and unlike the real thing, they carry no spines. Twisted-stem designs like the 75cm Artificial Arboricola Gold Capella Plant at £29.99 should be turned until the plaited stem work faces the room.
Planters, weighting and finishing the base
Most of our floor-standing plants arrive in a plain weighted plastic pot, designed to be hidden rather than displayed. Drop it inside a decorative planter, raise it if needed, and finish the top with ornamental gravel, bark chippings or small stones so no plastic is visible. Some customers lay real moss over the surface, which is very convincing indoors.
Weight matters as much as looks: a tall tree in a light planter is top-heavy and will be knocked over. Fill the space around the base pot with gravel, sand or pea shingle before you dress the surface — the heavier the fill, the more stable the tree. Our plants with planters pairings are already matched for scale.
Indoor care and cleaning
Indoors, care amounts to dusting. A feather duster or soft dry brush every few weeks is plenty; a hairdryer on a cool setting works well for dense topiary and fine foliage a cloth cannot reach. For leaves that have become sticky in a kitchen, wipe with a barely damp cloth and dry immediately. Avoid household sprays, polishes and solvents, which can dull the finish permanently.
Re-dress the foliage occasionally: plants get pushed out of shape by cleaning and passing traffic, and five minutes of re-opening the leaves once or twice a year keeps them looking new. Rotate anything beside a bright window so the same side is not always facing the light.
Outdoor use and securing
Plenty of our topiary and trees live happily outside, and the questions we get are always about wind and theft.
The method we have settled on after a good deal of experimenting is to stand the plant inside a larger planter and bolt the planter to the ground through its drainage hole, then fill around the base with gravel. For most sites that is enough. Where theft is a concern — front gardens, driveways, pub and shop entrances — pass a chain around the base of the plant, fix it to a bolt set in the ground inside the larger planter, and cover the whole arrangement with gravel. A simpler, less secure variation is to twist garden wire around the plant base and the same bolt before covering.
One point that catches people out: many of our trees are built on genuine wood trunks, and wood left standing in water will rot over time. If you are dropping the pot into a decorative planter outdoors, make sure the base pot sits below the level of the gravel and that the outer planter has no rim or lip that can trap rainwater around the trunk. The 90cm Artificial Cypress Topiary Tree With Natural Wood Trunk at £53.99 is a good example of a tree worth taking that care over.
In severe weather, move outdoor plants and trees to a sheltered position or indoors. Sustained gale-force wind will damage foliage on any artificial plant, however well anchored.
UV, sunlight and fading
Be clear about what you are buying here. A plant is UV stabilised only where its product page says so — look for the UV field in the specification table. Foliage without that treatment is intended for indoor or shaded use, and left in strong direct sun it will fade over time. That is true of all artificial foliage, ours included.
Our UV stabilised range is the right starting point for a sunny patio or an exposed doorway. It includes the Artificial Cedar Cypress Topiary Tree Outdoor UV Resistant at 60cm and £29.99, the 120cm Artificial Bay Tree Laurel UV Resistant Outdoor Topiary at £79.99, the 120cm Spiral Cypress Artificial Tree UV Resistant Outdoor at £89.99 and the 90cm UV Resistant Artificial Yucca Plant at £53.99. You can browse the full selection in our UV outdoor artificial plants and UV outdoor artificial trees collections.
Two habits slow fading considerably. Give outdoor plants a quarter turn every couple of weeks, so any fading happens evenly across the plant and stays far less noticeable. And accept that factory-applied UV coatings degrade with exposure: topping them up every few months with a marine UV protection spray, of the kind sold in car accessory shops and chandlers, extends the life of the colour. Test it on a hidden leaf first.
How long they last
Indoors and out of direct sun, a good artificial plant should look right for many years with nothing more than dusting. Outdoors, judge it by position: a north-facing porch is a far gentler home than a south-facing patio. Choose UV stabilised stock for exposed sites, weight and anchor everything properly, turn it regularly and keep wooden trunks out of standing water — and enjoy plants that need no watering, feeding or pruning at all.
Much of this guide came from customers telling us what worked, so do get in touch if there is something you would like added. To start browsing, see our artificial topiary trees, front door topiary and artificial palm trees collections.
