Are plastic flowers in the front yard a new..

[snowball22]

fashion statement??? I live in a neighborhood with quarter to a half million dollar houses and within the last year, two home owners have decided to decorate their front yards with plastic flowers. Not just a few, but LOTS of plastic flowers lining the flower beds and one has even wrapped a pink plastic flower vine around her lamp post out front. It looks so obnoxious and cheesy. Is this a new trend that I am not aware of. Can anyone tell I am having "YARD ISSUES" today!!!!

 

[Noah122898]

I live in the land of one million and over homes and my next door neighbor decided to "fix up" the front yard with plastic flowers. I was surprised and embarrassed for them. My mother in law said, "Oh look at the beautiful flowers next door", I was like, HUH?? To each his own I guess.

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

I've seen this around here and I don't get it.

It looks really weird in the winter.

 

[twinklebug]

Does your neighborhood or town have a lawn ornament/decoration clause? I'd think plastic flowers would fall under that category & you may be able to get them to remove at least some of them.

My old town had a governing clause preventing such a thing from happening. Our current town does not and theres one house smack in the center of town that has an overabundance of the worst lawn decorations I've ever seen... they even have last halloween's stuff out.

 

[Tony-NJ]

wouldn't they melt in the summer?

Can't imagine what plastic flowers look like outside....

 

[Jennasis]

Actually we have plastic flowers in decorative pots decorating the entrance to our barn. I can kkill anything that grows (except weeds..those THRIVE on my property no matter what I do). We change them out when they begin to fade or look old and we also take them down during the winter. Everyone who has seen them thought they were real.

Plastic flowers are easy to maintain and, generally, look better than the real thing since they don't wilt or die. As long as the property owners replaces them when the eventually fade.

The people who live next door to my parents have done extensive "landscaping" with real flowers. It's atrociously disgusting. It honestly looks like Home Depot vomited on their front yard.

 

[tchrrx]

I think you should add some fake palm trees and a few pink plastic flamingos to your yard. I mean, if the neighborhood is moving into the plastic look, you want to be ahead of the game, right?

 

[FutureMrsC]

There are some houses in my neighborhood that have had the same flowers out for YEARS (they all look really dingy and gross now... ) however, their house isn't part of the official neighborhood, so the HOA can't touch them...

However, there's an elderly lady down the street from me who's fairly feebile (and has emphesema sp? )... bottom line- she can't do all that much physically, so lawn-care is out... she wouldn't be able to water them even if she did get them landscaped... She does have all her shrubs trimmed... her lot is REALLY wooded w/ lots of oak trees and ivy...

Anyway, she found some BEAUTIFUL artificial flowers and places them in her flower beds seasonally: pansies in the winter/early spring, then tulips, then hyacinths (I think that's what they are, I haven't looked closely)... she changes them out as the flowers would have come up naturally. Her yard is fantastic. It's easy enough for her to poke some plastic stems in the ground and pull them up when needed.

As someone who has VERY black thumbs (I can just look at plants and kill them, I think ) I really want to know where she buys her artificials... they look SO real... so much better than ones from Walmart or craft stores. Plus, with all the drought that we've had in GA lately, most yards with real flowers look really bad, as water restricitions are in effect and you can only water 3 days a week... w/ hot temperatures, most things are wilting or dead... not exactly aesthetically appealing, either.

Just my .02!

 

[drag n' fly]

There is a lady down the street that has filled her front yard with plastic sesame street characters approx 18-24 inches high plus she left all her Christmas lawn decorations up so along with sesame is rudolph and a gaggle of other stuff. Our neighborhood is architecturally controlled. You cannot do certain things to your house but you can fill up your front yard with cheap plastic figurines. I will happily take plastic flowers anyday

 

[KimD]

My neighborhood is full of high value homes as well (what homes in California aren't ) but there is one house in particular that not only has plastic flowers but pieces of plastic shiny astro turf for their "grass" (only not astro turf 'cause that might look half way decent). This is the stuff you buy in pieces and put in front of your RV when you're camping so the dirt doesn't doesn't come in. I mean these are just pieces put together to make "grass". If it's windy out they have lumps and folded "grass" all over. It's really quite a site. The house itself looks alright just that yard!

They've been trying to sell for about three years now (For Sale by Owner of course). I just can not understand why they haven't sold it yet!

 

[Nancyg56]

Plastics and silks do not bother me. I like the real deal but if someone else wants to add color and does not have the ability to maintain real summer blooms, I say why not?

Now I put some silks on my Mom and Dad's gravesite this year. They are over two hours away and I cannot maintain them so this seemed to be the best solution.

 

[Database]

Silks don't bother me. Mine look realistic! (looking for my redneck smiley)We have deer. They eat everything. Infact I noticed this morning that they stole one of the silks. Guess the deer can't tell the difference either.

Oh and the house behind me is listed for 2 million.

 

[SplshMtn99]

My mom is a wonderful gardener. She even belongs to the Garden Club in her town. They sell tickets for "tours" of some of the nicer gardens to raise money.

One of my mom's tricks for when a certain part of her garden is a little bare at the moment is to position a potted plant there for the time being. Except, sometimes, a few of her potted plants contain some VERY REAL looking artificial flowers or greenery. You really wouldn't know unless you went up & touched it.

But I do know what you mean about tacky fake flowers. I noticed one of our condo neighbors has some in front of her house.

 

[Vivianne]

I like the real thing. However, I'd rather see plastic flowers than my neighbor's poison ivy. Of course, in good condition.

 

[Luv'sTink]

$250,000 to $500,000 homes where I live isn't always the greatest area! So maybe that was all they could afford...

Besides even if they are in the $1,000,000. range it just cost more to live in the box and they may be over extended, I know a few of those people.

 

[monkeyboy]

they are allowed at my $80K neighborhood

 

[Snow_White]

My HOA wouldn't allow that. If you live in a nice neighborhood, complain to the HOA--I'm sure they don't allow plastic lawn ornaments!!!!!!!!!

 

[KimD]

My HOA wouldn't allow that. If you live in a nice neighborhood, complain to the HOA--I'm sure they don't allow plastic lawn ornaments!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately not all neighborhoods have a HOA no matter how nice they are. I live in a very nice neighborhood that's just a regular old fashioned neighborhood that doesn't have any type of HOA to tell people how to have their yards. Around here mostly just brand new housing developments and condo's have a HOA. I wish it were that easy! We do have code enforcement from the city though. Unfortunely they can't tell you not to have fake shiny lumpy pieces of astro-grass strewn about your front yard....

 

[mickeyfan2]

Stop insulting my yard!

 

[JadenLayne]

I would love to see pictures as I have no idea what it would look like. We have real plants and flowers and although I have a hard time keeping them alive at times they do look nice.

The only ornament type thing we have is a fountain.

Now our back yard, LOL. Lets see, there is another fountain, several fake turtles, a frog I think, a golf green, a golf net, a swimming pool, a BBQ grill, a porch swing and a yard swing and a pile of bricks which I have no idea why we are keeping, ROTFLOL!!!!! Oh and two bird feeders and 2 squirrel feeders. It actually doesn't look bad and it's enjoyable.