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How often should I clean the arrangement?
CLEANING FREQUENCY
Most artificial plants (indoor), need to be cleaned every three to six months. Of course, you do this because you want to re-use them, and not throw them away. After all, you did pay a price for them.
DUST
In Singapore, dust is the biggest enemy that keeps your silk flowers from looking great. So some knowledge of maintaining your silk flowers dust-free is a must.
DUST (LIGHT)
This is usually found in offices or homes where air-conditioning is almost always switched on most of the working time, and thus the windows are always closed. If its a light coating of dust, a mini feather duster will suffice. Very lightly go over the flowers, stems and leaves with it. Buy a duster that does not lose its feathers or other materials easily. You may cut a piece of sponge. You may even use a compressed air canister to gently blow the dust off. This is provided you can control the outflow!
DUST (DEEP)
For a deeper cleaning you may want to use a soft damp cloth to clean the leaves and flower petals. A spray bottle may come in handy here. Avoid getting the silk flowers or arrangements extremely wet. Since most floral arrangements involving silk flowers do have other materials (coloured papers, special ribbons, etc.,) using spray bottle might be a little too much to handle.
For extreme cleaning, or for silk flowers that have collected lots of dust, wash individual flowers in warm water and then hang them upside down to dry. Do not let the stems of your silk flowers get wet as they may start to unravel. At times, you may need to improvise on the cleaning methods.
Here's a scenario example. A customer gives us a 1-year old bouquet for a re-work. This bouquet has been sitting at a corner of a 12th floor 4-room HDB flat. The main windows had always been opened. This is what we would do:
Remove the whole bunch of flowers from the bouquet. Separate silk flowers from other materials, e.g. papers, stickers, and parts that should not be washed!
Turn on the bathroom tap. Hold the bunch of flowers under the running water for a while. This is to flush out the initial layer of dust.
Fill a pail of water (also using tap water). Squirt some dish washing detergents into it and give it a good stir.
Gently, place the bunch of flowers into the pail, head down.
Sit on a low stool (for comfort), and very gently use your fingers to run against the leaves, petals and whatever else to rub the dust off.
Once you are sure that the dust are gone, rinse the flowers and let dry.
CHEMICAL
Liquids and chemical sprays are not recommended for silk flowers as they may cause staining or fading. If you really want to try, we would suggest that you ask the supplier for references of customers who bought it from them. Get some feedback from them.
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