How to Clean Silk Flowers and Silk Plants

I love artificial silk flowers and have many in my home, but it took a while before I realized the correct way to clean them that would keep the dust off the longest. The best method for cleaning small to medium silk plants is to give them a bath in regular dish washing liquid and warm water. I use my kitchen sink, just prepare some water as if you are going to wash the dishes: just a tiny bit of dish detergent to a sinkful of warm water, and then insert your silk flowers or plants, swish them around in the sudsy water. Take them and rinse them with warm water and shake the excess water off. If the petals or leaves come off, they are usually easy to put back on, just find the little stub where they came off and push them back on. If you are gentle with them they will most likely not lose very many leaves or flowers. Lay them on a towel to dry. They will look brand new. Cleaning them like this will also keep the dust off for a longer period of time. Do this every time you need to clean them. What surprised me the most about this method is how versatile it can be. I like to make floral arrangements and I had made a floral topiary that was covered in dust. The topiary consisted of a Styrofoam ball that had flowers hot glued all around it and the stems were made from cinnamon sticks. So I took the topiary out of it’s pot and cleaned it just like the other flowers and plants. It came out fine. I was afraid it would get water all over the place but it didn’t. I hope this tip was helpful to you, let me know if you have any other suggestions about cleaning silk flowers and plants.