What are the petal forests? They are some of the easiest, cheapest forests we’ve made, and and it all started with….. flowers. Yes, we stripped flowers of their petals, leaves, stems, and any other parts that look interesting just so we can fill our table tops with forests full of vegetation. Now, before you go raid your neighbor’s garden, you might like to know we aren’t using real flowers. The kind we use are made of plastic and silk.
So where do these fake flowers grow? You can get them from just about any arts and crafts store, whose selections tend to change with the seasons. You could also, as with most things, get them online, but we find it easier to judge the potential of a plant when it is right in front of you. Plastic plants are about as varied as anything, and what you make of them depends on your imagination. Because of that, it can be hard to say what exactly you should be looking for. There are a few general things to keep in mind though:
- Try and picture how many terrain pieces you can make out of a plant.
- You can make more variety of pieces out of multipart/complex plants.
- Avoid the more realistic plants. Those are harder to take apart and expensive.
- Look for the stand-alone plants, not the ones in pots and vases.
- If something is in the wrong color, you can always paint it, or flock it.
- Though we have talked mostly about flowers, we really use a lot of different fake plants.
If you need inspiration, browse through these galleries and look forward for our future posts on specific plants.
Related Posts
What are you using for bases? How do you attach the cheap plastic of the plant to the base?
We have used many different materials over the years so it depends on what plant you are talking about. We originally started with miniature bases but stopped using them because they were just too expensive in the quantities that we use. Roofing washers are a good cheap source of round bases that you can use. They can usually be found in hardware stores in the nail section. For most of the plants we currently use bases that we have made from hardboard. They are very cheap and easy to make if you happen to have a drill press and a belt sander.
The best glue that I have found for attaching plants down to bases is hot glue. The little heat guns that you need for the glue are not too expensive, and once you have one you will find it very useful for lots of things.
What are you using for bases? How do you attach the cheap plastic of the plant to the base?
We have used many different materials over the years so it depends on what plant you are talking about. We originally started with miniature bases but stopped using them because they were just too expensive in the quantities that we use. Roofing washers are a good cheap source of round bases that you can use. They can usually be found in hardware stores in the nail section. For most of the plants we currently use bases that we have made from hardboard. They are very cheap and easy to make if you happen to have a drill press and a belt sander.
The best glue that I have found for attaching plants down to bases is hot glue. The little heat guns that you need for the glue are not too expensive, and once you have one you will find it very useful for lots of things.
What are you using for bases? How do you attach the cheap plastic of the plant to the base?
We have used many different materials over the years so it depends on what plant you are talking about. We originally started with miniature bases but stopped using them because they were just too expensive in the quantities that we use. Roofing washers are a good cheap source of round bases that you can use. They can usually be found in hardware stores in the nail section. For most of the plants we currently use bases that we have made from hardboard. They are very cheap and easy to make if you happen to have a drill press and a belt sander.
The best glue that I have found for attaching plants down to bases is hot glue. The little heat guns that you need for the glue are not too expensive, and once you have one you will find it very useful for lots of things.