Faux flowers have long suffered from a less-than-glamorous reputation. Often too shiny, too plastic, or unnaturally coloured, they’ve been considered the reserve of dusty dining rooms or hotel lobbies, to be admired from a distance, but rarely embraced at home.
However, lately, there has been a quiet shift in how designers and stylists approach them. Done well, faux stems offer an enduring way to bring color, structure, and mood into a room, especially in the colder months, when fresh options are scarce.
This return is in part thanks to the revival of vintage trends, where time-worn charm, layered textures, and heritage details are influencing everything from fabrics to florals. And nowhere is that better reflected than at OKA. Their faux flower collection avoids the usual clichés and instead leans into a rich, seasonal palette and realistic textures. These are stems that work just as well in a classic townhouse as they do in a more contemporary setting.
If you’re curious about trying faux flowers or just want to refresh your home for autumn and winter, then these are the nine stems we’d start with. Tasteful, textural, and surprisingly timeless, they’re our top picks from OKA’s collection, and the ones worth buying now.
Shop our favourite stems from OKA
Perfect for adding architectural presence with the round sedum heads, although these are a summer-flowering plant, the seed head shape works in autumn and winter. Forget soft-petalled roses and ballet slipper pink peonies; faux iterations always look naff and gather dust very quickly. Instead, pick a flower head that looks genuinely plucked from the garden, not quite in full flower, like a living thing.
Selecting flowers that work well in seasonal arrangements during the cooler months can be challenging. The deep burgundy tones on this mophead hydrangea make it perfect for seasonal autumn and winter arrangements. They are really quite beautiful, and you don't need many to make a real statement.
The key to making faux arrangements look natural and not so staged is to have as much shrubbery and foliage as you possibly can. Adding real foliage from the garden to faux arrangements helps to make the overall thing look genuine, but two or three of these are necessary to build the shape of the arrangement before heading to the garden.
The reason you want to include a couple (or throuple) of these is mainly for the dill-like foliage on the stem, which adds a whimsical, soft daintiness to the overall arrangement. It stops the stems from looking too clunky in the vase, which can make it look a little sterile and unnatural.
If you are thinking of ordering some stems and want them to look really beautiful in the winter months, then you simply must order a handful of these. They are very modestly priced, as they're 80% off, so it's worth ordering quite a few to fill a vase. The autumnal fat berries look beautiful in a glass vase or pewter jug, and are a great foil for the floral element.
There's very little a green berry stem won't complement; it looks beautiful arranged with hydrangeas, roses, lilies, greenery, and other berries. A must-have basic for all seasonal faux arrangements. Don't skimp on the berry stems, they add much-needed texture and visual interest.
Now that structure and balance have been achieved, we need a filler foliage stem. There is a need for something with leaf power, and grape leaf faux stems are the perfect solution. You won't need more than three or four of these, and the green leaves and claret coloured tips make it seasonally appropriate all year round.
The deep purple colour of this stem adds drama and depth, which is required to keep an autumn and winter arrangement from looking too floral, pastel, and summery. A few of these look beautiful at Christmas time too, sitting in a large vase with rosehips from the garden.
Perfect for a spring bouquet but equally beautiful in autumnal arrangements, when they look divine next to earthy, muddy tones. Reminiscent of winter flowering witch hazel, it looks fantastic in the depths of winter, too.
A lot of these stems drift into the OKA sale and out again, so it's worth grabbing them now if they're discounted.
