Few things surpass the beauty of a bunch of vibrant flowers when you want to add a dash of colour to your home. Bringing in nuggets of nature livens up the inner space instantly, ensuring a fresh and bright feel throughout the day.

And with city florists filling up their racks with imported beauties, the options are wide when it comes to decorating your home with floral fare.

But with the summer sun burning bright, doing up the home with fresh flowers can be quite a tough task. Maintenance is the key here.

Says flower enthusiast and arranger Parul Swarup: ?It?s impossible to keep a flower arrangement looking fresh for more than a day during these hot months.?

While the solution to this problem can be sought in replacing the flower arrangements with potted greens, the routine of keeping the plants indoors and then putting them out in the sun can get quite tedious.

?You can?t keep the plants out in the sun for too long because they?ll shrivel and you can?t keep them indoors all the time because they will wither without light. You have to know the right time span and this comes with experience,? explains Swarup.

So, a good option for amateurs during these months is to shift to artificial or dry flowers, combined with various accessories to brighten up the home.

Silky smooth

Silk flowers are the order of the day during summer months. Available in various shapes and colours, these look almost real ? even up close ? and are perfect for large showpieces. ?Silk flowers are mostly imported from Australia. These are washable and that?s what makes them very convenient to use for flower arrangements at home,? says Indira Agarwal of Ferns & Petals, a national flower boutique chain with an outlet on Loudon Street.

Meant to jazz up the dry summer months, these flowers are majorly in demand this season, reveals Agarwal.

Ferns & Petals has recently done up the Camac Street residence of entrepreneur Mukesh Bhansali with these artificial flowers in hues of red, violet and yellow.

?We wanted to add a dash of colour to offset the dryness of summer. We have also tried to give a lively feel to the rooms, which are otherwise stark,? says Agarwal.

Natural dyed

A bunch of artificial blossoms will add colour and zing to your house, but to make the most of their aesthetic value, you should ideally team them with ?dries? ? palms and other foliage.

These usually-white palms and leaves are coloured with natural dyes to lend them myriad tones ? from purple to green and everything in between. A coat of varnish lends a sheen to the more gorgeous varieties.

?These long and lean leaves can be paired with flowers to create the main arrangement for a room. Alternatively, they can be put together in a planter and placed in a corner to fill up a gap or kill unused space,? explains Agarwal.

The Bhansalis display dries in tall containers in several corners of the house. While one arrangement in the lobby uses palms in white and red, the more elaborately done up drawing room flaunts these along with dry flowers in shiny metallic purple.

Jazz up

Accessorising an arrangement well lend it the professional touch, but an eye for aesthetics is all you need to flaunt those flowers. Professional flower arrangers mostly use coloured stones, jute sticks, ceramic, glass and plaster of Paris containers. But you can always find a way of using leftover knick-knacks to jazz up the plants. From unused glass containers to trinkets left over from other arrangements, use your creativity to make the most of what is easily available.

Nature?s best

Even as fakes take over naturals during the dry months and fresh flowers bid goodbye, there are a few hardy varieties one can opt for. ?Some flowers like birds of paradise, lily and antherium can survive up to a few days in this heat,? says Agarwal. Swarup recommends cactii during the summer months.

Fortune fig

To add a dash of natural green to the room without having to spend hours looking after it, one can opt for the fortune bamboo. These look like real plants, but are much easier to maintain. This also promises good fortune if placed in the house according to Feng Shui rules, say those swearing by the ancient Chinese wisdom of home-making.

Pictures by Pabitra Das
Courtesy: Ferns & Petals, Loudon Street