Where to put an olive tree

Every home has a spot that defeats plants. Behind the door, beside the north-facing window, at the dark end of a hallway. People try a fern, then a pothos, then give up and put a lamp there. That spot is the single best argument for artificial greenery, and it is almost always the spot our customers describe first.

Because ours do not photosynthesise, light stops being a constraint and becomes purely an aesthetic one. You are no longer asking where a tree can survive. You are asking where a tree looks right.

Three placements that work

• Flanking a fireplace, where the mantel gives the canopy a horizontal line to sit against.
• In the gap between a sofa arm and the wall — the awkward 40 cm that no furniture fits.
• At the turn of a staircase, where the height reads from two floors at once.

The mistake we see most often is centring. A tree placed dead centre against a blank wall looks like a shop display. Offset it, let it overlap a window frame or a doorway, and it starts to look like something that grew there rather than something that was positioned.

A real plant sits where it can live. Yours can sit where it looks best. Use that.

On light and shadow

One thing worth keeping: put the piece somewhere it catches real light for part of the day. Silk foliage has a soft sheen that only shows in raking light, and it is most of what sells the illusion. A tree in a permanently dim corner will look flatter than the same tree beside a window, even though neither needs the sun.

If the corner truly has no daylight, a floor lamp angled up through the canopy does the same job. Aim it from below and slightly to one side, never straight down.