Neewer Solar Power Flip Flap Flower

I’ve reviewed several house plants and garden shrubs over the years. They all have in common that they’re easy to care for and don’t make any trouble even if I occasionally forget to water them. I’ve always mentioned this in my reviews and have always received at least one comment by someone whose relationship with plants is so disturbed that they think they’d kill this plant off, too, because all plants die on them sooner or later.

There is help! You don’t have to take your hard earned money to a psychiatrist to find out what’s wrong with you. You can find comfort on the internet from 3.90 Euro upwards plus 4 Euro for postage. I’m talking about the solar powered flip flap flowers. Admittedly, they aren’t real, they don’t live but then they don’t die, either.

They come in ball shaped, coloured plastic pots which are about five cm high. The top is flat and black thus giving the illusion of soil. In the middle is a narrow rectangular opening of about 2 cm out of which two green leaves and a green stem with a coloured blossom at the end ‘grow’. Parallel to this opening is another one covered by a translucent piece of plastic, underneath is the solar cell which gives the flower ‘life’.

The advantage of flip flap flowers over real life plants is: they’re completely maintenance free. No water, no earth, no care. They don’t need batteries, the solar cells don’t have to be recharged. If I think of the longevity of my solar powered pocket calculator, I know that my flip flap flower will outlive me. A bit of sunshine or artificial light from a lamp are enough to make the leaves move up and down and the stem from side to side. The more light, the more pronounced is the movement. A flip flap flower makes no noise and doesn’t pollute the environment with emissions.

You can either please yourself or give a flip flap flower to a friend as a present. It’s ideal for someone whose household you don’t know well, but you assume that the person doesn’t really ‘need’ something like, say, a garlic press or a pepper mill. It’s just nice to have and you can’t help getting into a positive mood looking at the gently swaying leaves and blossom. It can stand anywhere, of course, but a good places are a desk or a window sill. My flip flap flower stands on my desk - I’m seeing it just now - where it isn’t hit by direct light from the sun or the lamp. It’s nice to watch how little light is enough to start it off.

I got three flip flap flowers from two generous friends who wanted to comfort me when they heard that I had to go to hospital. I took one flower with me and put it on the window sill in my room where it was very light and the flower was swaying with a lot of energy all day long. When I came home, I showed my three flip flap flowers to two girls of the neighbourhood. One said, “Cool!” and walked away with the red pot. The other one said, “Cute!” and walked away with the blue one. B. and F., I hope you don’t mind. You wanted to please me threefold, now you’ve made three people happy! The flower that stayed with me sits in a green pot and isn’t a real flower, at the end of the stem isn’t a blossom but a pink butterfly with blue dots on the wings. I checked the homepage of flip flap flowers but couldn’t find a picture of this specimen, it must be something out of the ordinary range. Maybe one day it’ll be as valuable as the Blue Mauritius.

You can order flip flap flowers from http://www.flip-flap-solar.com/en/home.h​tm . One specimen costs 3.90 Euro, shipment for all EU countries is 4 Euro (they come from Austria). You can pay by credit card, paypal or invoice. You can also get them from Amazon for 3.05 GBP each (if you don‘t want to send them abroad).

These combinations are available:
red (with a reddish flower) / orange (with a white flower) / green (with a white flower / blue (with a reddish flower) / pink (with a white flower). But it‘s not possible to order certain colours, they‘ll be packed at random. So there‘s always a surprise involved, too.

Dear friends B. and F., thank you again for this nice present.