They were once widely mocked, associated with lousy guesthouses, and used as a metaphor for all that is depressing in Radiohead’s hymn Fake plastic trees. But artificial plants, especially fake flowers, have become an unlikely but growing trend – despite reviews pointing to their negative environmental impact and ‘vulgar’ aesthetics.

The main driver of this boom has been the ‘flower wall’, with giant garlands of faux flowers and foliage providing a supposedly glamorous backdrop for selfies.

The trend seems to have started in a handful of upscale London bars and restaurants, which have noticed how the free promotion of social media posts and recordings has attracted new customers.

Mayfair club Annabel’s and celebrity-filled restaurant The Ivy were both early adopters and prominent adopters, and many more have followed. Even tasteful self-proclaimed referee Nicky Haslam gave them his approval. “I have to admit, I love shapely faux flowers,” he said.

There are now published listings touting the “most Instagrammable” restaurants – and they invariably feature extensive and elaborate artificial flower decorations.

The trend is now reaching beyond the catering industry – and the capital – and is picked up by hairdressers, beauty salons and even florists across the UK.

And it is also becoming a domestic trend. Typical is Tesco, which now has a dedicated buyer of fake flowers. “We have seen an almost three-fold increase in sales of artificial flowers year over year,” a spokesperson said.

At Amazon, there are clear signs of the exponential growth of the entire industry. The trend now has its own separate section within the “home and kitchen” department, where “decorative artificial flowers” ​​is a sub-branch of “artificial plants” – just as it might appear in a gardener’s catalog – and the range is vast.

In all fairness, not all artificial flowers are plastic – there are varieties made from real silk, but they are much more expensive and are only a fraction of sales. The vast majority are made from some kind of plastic.

The trend is also, again like the real flora it mimics, becoming seasonal: there are fall-specific variations right now – some Ivy restaurants, for example, feature plastic mushrooms and fall leaves, while plastic “Halloween wreaths” are getting more and more popular. Soon, the festive offers will be rolled out. Plastic isn’t just for fake Christmas trees; it’s for faux holly wreaths, faux pine branch table decorations and more.

Away from restaurants, the trend for plastic flowers in a domestic setting seems to have been dictated separately by social media influencers. Figures like Stacey Solomon and Ms. Hinch may have relatively low profiles in the larger media landscape, but on Instagram they are titans. And it may be inevitable that when either one releases a happy domestic image with an elaborate but artificial floral backdrop – as both regularly do – many among their 4.8 and 4.2 million d Respective followers want to “have the look” in their own home.

One London restaurateur who won’t join the craze is Oisín Rogers of Mayfair’s Guinea Grill., which remains stubbornly decorated in the traditional way, with hanging baskets full of real flowers. He believes the popularity of flowery walls grew out of the well-established trend of photographing plates of food in restaurants and posting them on social media.

“You can’t take a selfie with food on a plate as a backdrop when you dine out, but you can take one against those flower walls. And you can see how pretty you think they might be to begin with. But they’re not – they’re aesthetically awful and unfriendly to the environment.

A kind of backlash begins. Style and etiquette writer William Hanson this week denounced flower walls as one of the new indicators of vulgar taste – with the topical addition of ‘dinner with Salt Bae’.

He said, “Restaurants have had a tough year, and if that helps them get their butt in the seats, part of me can understand why they’re doing it. But it’s so ugly. Of course, it would be extremely expensive to have real flowers and have to change them every few days. But why have them at all? What’s wrong with a stylish sign on an attractive building? “

Beyond the question of taste, it is a more serious point. There has long been a controversy surrounding the popularity of artificial lawns. Not only can astroturf not be recycled, it destroys the habitats of birds, insects and, notoriously, hedgehogs. Now it looks like we also need to take the false flora boom ecologically seriously.

Constance Agyeman, plastic and recycling expert at innovation charity Nesta Challenges, said: “In Europe, we produce almost 30 million tonnes of plastic waste per year, and less than a third is recycled. It can take 450 years for the simplest plastic to break down. And as it decomposes, it produces microplastic remnants that enter rivers and eventually the food chain.

“To hear that we are now seeing an increase in the popularity of plastic flowers is quite depressing. We need less plastic in our lives, not more. “