Nice for artificial!  The stems are somewhat flexible, allowing the leaves to "fluff" out nicely after being compressed for delivery, you just have to go through each leaf by hand.  The black base is very small, making the plant top heavy and easily tipped over - your best bet is purchasing a larger pot or basket then adding padding inside around the black plastic base.  I also added two hardcover books beneath to base to boost the height by 1/2 foot.  As is, the tree height is just short of the top of our windows.