It would be wonderful to have real flowers in every room all the year round but it is quite an undertaking on both the effort and financial front. Fortunately faux flowers are now amazingly realistic and lovely, so mixing real with unreal is a happy alternative. An initial investment in some really good faux, will stand you in good stead for years to come, leaving you to appreciate the odd purchase (or collection) of seasonal flowers when the mood takes you.
I think faux hyacinths work particularly well either in one colour or as mix. Try to keep the flowers low in the bowl rather than having leggy stems showing. Cuthberson and Woods via Occa Home
Obviously seasonal flowers can be a bit of a giveaway, although I would argue the case for faux and proud and leave these glorious tulips out all year round. www.bloom.uk.com
I recently bought these white hyacinths for myself recently and I knew I was on to a winner when I caught a friend of mine smelling them! www.anangelatmytable.com
Abigail Ahern has some fantastic faux foliage in her lovely shop on Upper Street in Islington but if you can’t get there, you can buy then online. She also has some great faux inspirations on her blog. http://www.abigailahern.org/news/flower-power-4/
I bought these flowers many years ago when you had to travel far and wide to avoid ending up with dusty silk flowers horrors. They have lasted amazingly well and still look good now. Image taken from ‘Secrets of a Stylish Home’ photography by Simon Whitmore. www.simonwhitmore.com
Oka has a good range of faux flowers and this arrangement shows that it is quite possible to pull off a large formal arrangement just as well as a smaller bouquet. They have cleverly mixed white roses, foxgloves, peonies and lilies to create an eye catching focal point. www.okadirect.com
And while we are on a roll with faking it, why not have a bowl full of these incredibly realistic faux pears from the Nordic House but be careful where you put them as friends are sure to attempt to eat them!
angelandblume.wordpress.com 
As a child in the ’60s and ’70s, our next door neighbour had some amazing displays of plastic roses which both fascinated and repulsed me: rigid plastic blooms, some of which were blue! The most bizarre thing about all this was sometimes they’d throw one or two out, and chuck them on the compost heap!
I was very snobbish about fake (now ‘faux’) flowers until I stayed in a lovely villa in Corsica. The owner put a large bowl full of white silk tulips on the coffee table. They looked fabulous.
I’m feeling a need for some faux white hydrangeas…
I love the idea of the faux being on the compost heap! Do you remember the fake flowers with the weird plastic drops of water on them? Thank goodness things have improved. Cate X