I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been fastidious with the cleaning of my faux flowers and in particular, my orchids were looking terrible! I occasionally dust over them with a feather duster and wipe the leaves with a cleaning wipe, but the bright white flower heads were looking decidedly dusty. I tried wiping these with a wet wipe, but it didn’t work particularly well and in fact, I think I hindered my next steps as a result.
Here’s how I did it:
- Find an empty pillow case and fill with 1 cup of dried rice.
- Working with one flower head at a time, place the flower head into the pillow case and twist the fabric around the stem to prevent the rice grains from flying everywhere!
- Shake the pillow case around the flower head in all directions, to ensure that the rice gets around all the petals.
- Carefully lift the flower head out, shaking whilst it’s upside down in the pillow case, to ensure there are no rice grains stuck to it.
On all my other faux flowers, this step has been enough to freshen them up and remove any dust, however as I used a cleaning wipe on my orchids, the dust was well and truly stuck on. For stubborn dust, dirt or marks, follow the next step.
- Fill a bowl or sink with warm soapy water (washing up liquid is fine). Gently place the flower head into the water and carefully rub any stubborn marks as needed.
- Lift out and leave to air dry flat on a towel.
Once dried, your flowers will be like new and can be placed back into their arrangement or vase.
Lydia x
