No, they’re not “real”, Road Trips Gardeners, but in many ways they’re better (because they look “real” for a really long time).

We’re talking about the collection in the Leaf and Flower Museum at the Shirley Leaf and Petal Company, 58a High Street, Old Town, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

The company has been making artificial flowers and leaves since the Victorian era. All the samples on display are company originals — for example the velvets, silks and satins as used on ladies’ ball gowns and the waxed flowers popular with brides.

Visitors also can see the old clocking-on machine, bridal headdresses (including a Royal Air Force pearl tiara), correspondence from the 1920s, cutting tools, flower irons, Union Jack apple leaves and spools of raw thread used for bindings.

Many of the machines and fabrics are still used today. Leaves, for example, are molded from casts of leaves from all round the world.

(Photo courtesy of Shirley Leaf and Petal Company)