Dracena & Artificial Yucca

Fifteen items, led by yucca reed grasses at 75cm, 115cm and 180cm in green, burgundy and black. Alongside them sit a 130cm multi-head dracaena, a 90cm cordyline, a 150cm snake plant, a 105cm cycad palm, a 100cm monstera, a 170cm taro elephant ear and a 55cm croton. For help selecting across the group, call 1800 617 341.

Yes, and the same goes for fake dracaena. Designer Plants uses artificial throughout. On strap-leaf plants the detail worth checking is the blade edge, because a real yucca or dracaena leaf tapers to a fine point and a blunt, uniformly wide blade is the clearest sign of a poorly made plant.

Yucca grass here is the fine reed form, many thin blades rising from a pot in a loose fan, supplied at 75cm, 115cm and 180cm. The 130cm dracaena is a multi-head plant with broader leaves clustered in crowns on short woody stems, so it reads fuller and more structured where the grass reads light and airy.

The yucca reed grasses at 75cm, 115cm and 180cm are UV resistant, as are the 105cm cycad palm and the 150cm snake plant, which makes them suitable for covered terraces and sheltered balcony planters. The dracaena, cordyline, monstera and croton are interior plants.

Real touch describes foliage moulded with a softer, slightly yielding surface rather than a rigid printed one, so the leaf gives slightly when it is handled. It is worth paying attention to at a reception desk, a bedside or a consulting room, where people are close enough to touch the plant rather than only look at it.

This group is defined by a narrow footprint and vertical blades, which is what makes it work in corridors and between windows. The artificial potted plants range is broader and denser and suits a corner that needs filling. Fitouts commonly use strap-leaf plants along circulation routes and broadleaf plants in the rooms they lead to.

The 75cm and 115cm grasses are the usual choices, since a planter box already sits off the floor and the plant height stacks on top of it. The 180cm grasses are better placed directly on the floor, where they break a sightline without pushing the foliage above head height.

Wipe along the length of each blade rather than across it, since dust settles on the upper face of a strap leaf and a sideways wipe pushes it into the fold. On the reed grasses, drawing a soft cloth up through a handful of blades at a time is faster than working leaf by leaf, and a hose rinse suits any of the UV-resistant plants installed outside.