If you’re like me, you have been fascinated by sola wood flowers, artificial lightweight flowers made from sola plants. And you may be asking yourself: How long do sola wood flowers last?
Sola wood flowers, if stored correctly, will last forever and only need to be dusted occasionally. They will need to be kept in a dry container that is not airtight, as moisture will cause the flowers to mold. As long as the flowers are stored someplace dry with fresh air, they will last forever.
Don’t let your beautiful sola wood flowers (which are organic even if they aren’t real flowers) rot and mold away. Let me tell you in this post how to keep your lovely faux flowers perfect and lasting forever!
For friends of this blog: Use the coupon code Wayfaring20 to get 20% off your next Oh You’re Lovely sola wood flower order 🙂 (one code per customer)
You might also want to read my post: What are Sola Flowers Made of?
I bought my wedding flowers from Oh You’re Lovely! and I’m obsessed (there’s a coupon code for you to use just above!). Oh You’re Lovely is a small company with great customer service and my experience with them has been really… well, lovely!
The sola flowers themselves are surprisingly light as air, delicate, gorgeous, and I can’t stop staring at them and touching them — But I don’t want to ruin them by letting them mold or get dirty. One of the big advantages of sola wood flowers is that we can keep them forever! We just need to make sure and take good care of them, which isn’t too difficult…
So, the first thing you should do when you receive your flowers is to get them out of the box and plastic packaging. The flowers are made of a plant — organic material — and any moisture trapped in the plastic bag will cause your lovely petals to get moldy. Yuck!
Once you remove them from their package (and admire them for a while!), find a dry cardboard box or plastic container to store them in. The container cannot have an airtight lid, because this will trap moisture. But you’ll want to make sure it has a loose cover of some kind so your flowers don’t get super dusty (not a big deal but they can be a pain to dust, especially once they’ve been dyed and arranged). A cardboard box is ideal.
Finally, the box needs to be roomy enough so that your flowers, as delicate as they are, won’t get squished. Personally, I’m simply using the cardboard box that my flowers were mailed in, minus the plastic packaging.
To keep your flowers lasting forever and looking beautiful, you may want to clean them at some point.
So how do you clean sola wood flowers? The two issues you may encounter with cleaning your sola wood flowers are: dust and mold. If you store your flowers correctly, you shouldn’t encounter mold, and dust actually isn’t a huge problem with sola flowers, according to most people who have had their flowers for years — But here’s what to do if either happens.
If they haven’t yet been arranged or dyed, and are sitting in a box, there’s probably not much need to clean them but you can still use the techniques below.
If your sola flowers get moldy
This hasn’t happened to my flowers, but I’ve heard of others dealing with moldy sola flowers. Especially if you live somewhere with a lot of humidity or you’ve stored your flowers somewhere that doesn’t allow them to “breathe” — Mold is blue-ish, green-ish, sometimes black, fuzzy and spreads. It’s not pretty.
If this happens, don’t panic. Dip your flowers, or spritz them, with white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide. This will kill the mold. You could also use a toothbrush to do this — brush any big pieces of mold off with the toothbrush and then give the flowers a vinegar or hydrogen peroxide bath.
Don’t use bleach. Contrary to popular belief, bleach does not kill mold. It will remove it but it won’t stop it from growing back.
After cleaning the flowers, put them in the oven to dry them completely, or place them in direct sunlight. Eliminate all moisture and get them bone dry as soon as possible. You could also use a hair dryer, but keep it at a 12 inch distance so there isn’t direct heat on your flowers.
If you had previously dyed your flowers, the color may be damaged after de-molding them, and you may have to go through the dying process again. Just make sure to again DRY them COMPLETELY after re-dying.
If your sola flowers get dusty
It’s interesting that most sola flower “owners” seem to say that dust isn’t an issue with their flowers. It’s one of the big advantages of sola flowers over silk flowers! Dust just doesn’t seem to settle on them, or at least doesn’t seem to be visible. However, if you do notice your flowers getting a bit dusty, there are easy ways to clean them without damaging them.
You can use “canned air” also called “dust-off” or air spray, which you can find linked here on Amazon. It’s used to clean computer keyboards, and works great at blasting the dust out of the nooks and crannies of your sola flower petals. Try to keep it at least a 12 inch distance away from your flowers, and to do it outside so the dust isn’t sprayed around your home. Air spray can also be bought in bulk at places like Cosco.
Another option is to use a hairdryer, set to COOL, and a good 12 inches away from your flowers. Your arrangements will be dust-free in no time!
Scents such as essential oils are meant to last about 3-6 months on sola wood flowers but some people report their flowers still smelling fragrant years after applying a scent to them.
Some people choose to purchase sola flowers in place of real flowers because of allergies or an aversion to fragrance. If that’s you, then don’t worry — you can leave your sola flowers as they are, scentless! They don’t come with a scent other than their natural “woody” smell. It’s earthy, natural, and very mild.
However, if you’re hoping to make your sola flowers smell as fragrant as the real thing, that’s possible too! You can use essential oils, such as these natural aromatherapy scents (a full collection that includes lavender, tea tree, and sweet orange!) which you can get on Amazon. Use an eyedropper to place the oil on the back of the flower, or deep inside the petals. Applying the oil to the petals directly can damage the dye and discolor your beauties!
As we talked about, it’s important to store and clean your sola flowers correctly in order to make them last. There are also a couple of other things to keep in mind.
I’ve created this little checklist for you to make sure you’re doing everything you can to care for your sola flowers and make them last forever:
- Take your flowers out of their plastic packaging immediately when they arrive.
- Find a container to store them in that allows them to “breathe” (no air-tight boxes).
- Keep your flowers dry. If they get wet, dry them out as soon as possible.
- If dyeing them different colors, dry them immediately afterward — preferably in the oven or with a hairdryer. Air-drying takes longer and allows time for the flowers to mold.
- Dust them with canned air or a hair dryer at a safe distance (never putting direct heat on the flowers, as this can damage their shape).
- If applying scented oil to your flowers, put small drops on the back of the flowers or deep inside their petals as not to damage their coloring.
- Be very careful when stemming your flowers or dyeing them as they are delicate. I recommend watching the instructional videos from Oh You’re Lovely to learn how to do this correctly and keep your flowers looking beautiful! 🙂
Here’s Stefanie from Oh You’re Lovely explaining how to carefully dye your sola wood flowers:
