A long timber table looks best with something running down the middle of it, and a pergola beam looks like a pergola beam until something grows along it. The usual answers are a table runner that slides around or a climber that takes three years and then dies in a hot February. These are two lengths of eucalyptus foliage, 180 cm each, on wired stems — lay them end to end down a table, wind one round a post, or run both side by side where you want it thick.

Why It Stands Out

• Two lengths, not one — run them in different rooms, or lay them together along the same line. Doubled up is what makes a greenery garland look like the picture instead of a thin green line.
• 3.6 m between them — enough to run a long table end to end with some to spare, or cover a table and a mantel at once.
• The stems bend and hold — wired through the length, so these artificial vines take the shape you give them rather than the shape they were packed in.
• Silk leaves, not moulded plastic — real texture and a matte finish, which is what stops fake plants reading as fake from across a room.
• Silver-dollar eucalyptus with flower clusters — round leaves in two greens with small white artificial flowers through them, so it has depth instead of one flat colour.
• Flat or hanging, either way up — down the centre of a table, along a mantel, or draped from a beam.
• It packs away and comes back — coil it, store it, reshape it next time. Not a one-event decoration.

Where to Put It

• Along a pergola beam — wound round the timber so the structure reads as planted, and still green through the months a real climber is bare sticks.
• On a covered verandah — along the rail or round a post, under the roof and out of direct sun, which is where artificial plants last longest outdoors.
• Down the centre of an outdoor table — it runs between the plates with candles set into it, and it does not blow off the way cut foliage does.
• Over a gate arch or an archway — bent across the top, which is where the wired stem earns its keep.
• Around a mantel or a staircase rail — indoors it is the same job, and there it holds its colour indefinitely.
• Shaped into a ring — bent into a circle around a hurricane lamp as a centrepiece, or hung on a door as a wreath.
• At an outdoor wedding or a party — along the back of a chair run or across a backdrop.

What It Does

1. It gives a flat surface a line to follow — a table, a mantel or a beam reads as finished once something runs along its length.
2. It holds whatever shape you bend it into — the wire inside each stem is what separates this from a loose spray of leaves.
3. It doubles in density when you want it to — one length for a subtle run, both together where the photograph matters.

How to Style It

1. Open them out before you place anything — they ship coiled and compressed. Two minutes pulling the side stems away from the main vine and each one doubles in fullness.
2. Decide one line or two — end to end covers more table; side by side covers less but looks twice as full. For a dinner setting, side by side wins every time.
3. Twist, do not stretch — wind round a post rather than pulling taut along one. A slight S-curve down a table looks planted; a straight line looks installed.
4. Turn the best face up — one side of each carries more leaf. Roll them over and check before you commit.
5. Tuck the ends under — fold the last 10 cm beneath itself so no cut stem shows, and overlap the join by a hand's width if you are running them end to end.
Tip: set tealights or a low hurricane lamp among the leaves rather than on top of them. Light coming up through the foliage from underneath is what makes it read as real after dark, and it is the one thing most people get wrong.

Care and Maintenance

• Dust them every few weeks. Dust on the leaves is the main thing that makes good faux foliage start to look cheap. A dry cloth, or a hairdryer on cool.
• Rinse them if they have been outside. A gentle hose and a day drying flat in the shade brings them back.
• Store them coiled loosely, not folded. A tight fold puts a permanent kink in the wire.
• Reshape each time you use them. Two minutes opening the stems back out and they look new again.

Specifications

What's Included

• 2 × Artificial eucalyptus garland, 180 cm each