Having plant life and vegetation placed around your diorama or vignette usually enhances the realism of the scene, when the builder is searching for lifelike scale plants the sticker shock sometimes forces crafting alternative ways to grow the landscape. I’ll share how I take an imitation Ficus from the crafts department and create a Banana tree . . .
You’ll need a woodburning/soldering tool . . .
. . . remove a branch or frond from the plant, then separate enough leaves to make a full plant, 5-7 should be plenty, trim the leaf along the midrib to provide a stalk and to shape the bottom of the leaf,
Use the point of the heat tip to etch a seration from the midrib to the edge making a “flag” . . .
. . . now you can use the heat tip to form and develope the leaf’s edges and buckleing contours of the flags by gently grazing the surface of the leaf and to droop the leaf . . .
. . next, using the point again, you can “weld” the stalk of the leaf to the trunk, the whole process takes a little practice . . .
. . . I understand it may not appeal to everyone but it has convincing results and is a lot more affordable than PE.
Cajun 
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That looks amazing .
Thank you for sharing this
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I am soooo going to burn my self
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Great idea Terry and looks very convincing. and I hope you dont mind me jumping into this thread with another idea … I was looking through another thread in here and the guy (sorry- cant remember who it was) … he used the aquarium plants you get for fish tanks , cut the leafs/parts he wanted and simply rearranged them and over painted them. I was looking at a multi pack ( £9.99 - 5 or 6 medium sized plants) last weekend in the local Pets at Home and I could see what he meant, they are very realistic and you get a lot to choose from.
I’ve looked at those plants and I seem to remember the post you’re talking about, the thing most concerning to me is finding a paint that will adhere to vinyl plastic, not sure which one to try.
Cajun
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Im going to just buy a multi pack and play about with them as test beds, its only £9 and Im also going to look at the floral section in the local Range and see if they have similar stuff to how you made the banana tree as that is really nice.
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. . .yeah if you find a crafts store with a good selection of floral stuff there’s a lot of plants that may be used.
BTW . . Happy Holidays to you and your family and all your mates! (didn’t you get a new furry family member this year?)
Cajun
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And the same to you Terry, wish you and yours a happy festive season and good New Year … lol … yeah, the furry beast … he is now a 6 month old delinquent but super cute and also super massive from what he was …
It would be nice to keep this thread active with other plants and foliage made and the methods used as these topics are godsends - Ive already bookmarked it.
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Wouldn’t a primer coat first solve that issue?
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Dried plants have lots of uses in models and have used many over the years. 
Don’t look at the dust.
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Yeah I think thats what the guy did in the tread I looked at … I did forget to add that to the above post 
I recall that someone makes a line of paints for vinyl figures such as GI JOE and the like but I didn’t save the info, so at least there is a product suitable for that medium.
Cajun 
Thanks for sharing your banana tree method Terry, the results were very impressive, really appreciated your taking the time to walk us through the process, 
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Have a great Christmas, and as tiny Tim said…god bless us, one and all, .
G, 
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It’s great to see idea’s for making plants as they are so expensive too buy especially when you need a lot to cover a diorama project .
Thank You
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Thanks G @G-man69, I was really hoping you’d get in on this, you had some really nice little dio’s going this year and I wanted to hear some of your suggestions for shrubs and such.
Cajun
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Thanks Terry, I’ve been working on a 1/72nd scale diorama at the moment which is mainly urban (a few images below in case you haven’t caught it, ) so not much chance at masses of foliage, the only thing that I really achieved was the stringy weed clinging to wooden pilings.
This was created by using plumber’s hemp soaked in white glue tinted black/green, which was then spread/teased out very thinly on a plastic ice cream lid and left to dry, 
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The whole base is A4 size.
You’ve inspired me to try a a 1/72nd scale jungle scene for my next build though, .
G,
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