Trees
Quick answer: Artificial trees are the large-format end of permanent botanicals — 4-to-8-foot statements for rooms and lobbies, plus the outdoor grades for porches and patios. The quality hierarchy is the trunk (real wood on the upper tier, molded plastic below), and the buying math is height-to-ceiling: a 7-footer needs a 9-foot-plus room. The line covers olive, palm, and the Christmas programs.
A tree changes a room the way no arrangement can — it fills vertical space, anchors a corner, and reads as architecture that happens to be alive-looking. Faux trees made that move available to every room without a south-facing window: the fiddle leaf that always died, the olive that never thrived, replaced by silhouettes that never negotiate.
The Tree Program
| Collection | Runs as | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Olive trees | 4-7 ft, gnarled trunks, gray-green foliage | Mediterranean — the decade's signature tree |
| Palm trees | 3-8 ft areca, Kentia, parlor forms | Resort — pool houses, sunrooms, lanais |
| Ficus, fiddle, and floor plants | The classic interior forms | Traditional rooms — the shapes that never survive indoors for real |
| Christmas trees | Full and small holiday forms | December — the tree format's biggest season |
Buying a Tree: The Three Checks
- Height to ceiling: leave a foot of headroom — standard 8-foot ceilings carry 5-to-6-foot trees, 9-foot-plus rooms carry 7-footers. Planter height adds 8 to 14 inches on top of the listed tree height.
- Trunk material: real wood trunks with genuine twist carry the room; molded plastic stems read ornament from across it. On species guides — the olive page covers this in depth — the trunk is the first spec to check.
- Canopy density and shaping: foliage ships compressed; the arrival ritual — fanning branches out and down, bending at natural crooks — doubles apparent density. Budget the twenty minutes; a tree left as-shipped reads half its price.
The Tree Market's Three Tiers
The faux-tree market serves three different buyers, and the specs each tier advertises tell you what to check at every price point:
| Tier | Who it serves | Signature specs |
|---|---|---|
| Home retail | Living rooms, bedrooms, porches | 4-8 ft forms, natural-wood-trunk options, arrival-shape fluffing — the tier this shop sells |
| Commercial / contract | Lobbies, atriums, hospitality, offices | Sizes to 16 ft, code-compliant and fire-rated foliage, UV grades for atrium sun |
| Designer / custom | Interior designers, trade projects | Custom fabrication, real wood trunks, botanically tuned canopies — priced accordingly |
The tier boundaries blur usefully for a home buyer. The commercial tier's big-format catalog (specimens run from 5 to 16 feet at the contract suppliers) proves what the format survives — lobbies, airports, decade-long installs — which is the strongest durability evidence a living-room olive will ever need. And the designer tier's fixation on real wood trunks confirms the buying check above: trunk material, not leaf count, is what separates the tiers visually.
Species on the Market, Species Here
Across retail and contract catalogs, the faux-tree species list runs long — acacia, banana, birch and black olive at the large-format houses; olive, fiddle leaf fig, heart ficus, laurel, magnolia and willow in the decor lines — and every one of them exists because the live version fails indoors. The line here concentrates on the silhouettes with the best faux-to-real ratio: olive (small matte foliage that hides construction), palm (areca and Kentia forms that never fit through a winter), and the ficus and floor-plant program for traditional rooms. If a species you want is missing from the catalog, the principle to shop by is leaf size: small, matte, irregular leaves read most convincingly in faux; large glossy leaves (the fiddle leaf's weakness) amplify every seam.
Where Trees Work
- Corners and flanks: the empty-living-room-corner cure — one 6-foot tree, a basket dressing, a lamp; see the vessel program for planters.
- Entries and foyers: paired trees flanking the door — the hotel move, indoor or out; the outdoor collections carry the weather-facing grades.
- Offices and commercial: lobbies and waiting rooms — the original faux-tree market; UV-rated pieces for atrium sun.
- Under the window that kills everything: the north window, the radiator corner, the dark hallway — every spot that has murdered three real trees takes a permanent one without complaint.
Frequently Asked Questions
What size artificial tree should I buy?
Height-to-ceiling with a foot of headroom: 8-foot rooms take 5-to-6-foot trees, 9-foot-plus rooms carry 7-footers — and remember the planter adds 8 to 14 inches. Scale to the spot as well as the room: beside furniture, the crown should clear the sofa back; in a bare corner, one size up from instinct.
Which fake tree looks most real?
Olive and ficus forms lead — small matte foliage and irregular canopies hide construction the way big glossy leaves (fiddle leaf's weakness) amplify it. The trunk is the other half: real wood with natural twist reads from across the room where molded plastic never does.
Do I need to pot an artificial tree?
No repotting — trees ship in nursery pots that dress into baskets or planters two inches wider, with the pot set inside and a moss top-dress for the finished look. The one step worth doing on trees over five feet: weight the pot base with sand or stones so the tall form stays planted against bumps and door drafts.
How do I clean a large artificial tree?
A cool hair-dryer on low, worked canopy by canopy — the same ritual as arrangements, scaled up to twenty minutes for a six-footer. Indoors that is a monthly-or-two cadence; outdoor trees get a gentle hose rinse in shade-dry weather. Dust is the only maintenance a permanent tree has ever needed.