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A plant lover was left devastated when she discovered the reason her succulent remained in "perfect" condition wasn't down to her love and dedication.

Caelie Wilkes had been religiously watering the plant, making sure it was getting the right amount of sunlight and regularly cleaning the leaves, for two years.

She even admitted to having a strict watering plan for it, saying she would get "defensive" if anybody else tried to water it.

It was only when she went to re-pot the succulent that she noticed it was fake.

Caelie told her Facebook friends: "I just wanted to keep good care of it. I absolutely loved my succulent."

(Image: Facebook)

She explained that after finding a cute vase which suited it perfectly, she decided she would re-pot it.

But as she started to pull it out of its original plastic container she saw that it was attached to a block of foam, and decorated with sand which was glued on top.

She said: "Tried my hardest to keep it looking it's best, and it's completely plastic.

"How did I not know this. I feel like these last two years have been a lie".

Her story was shared to an Australian indoor plant group Facebook page, where a number of others admitted they'd also made the same mistake.

One said: "My friend at work always kills the plants because she doesn’t water them, so I put a fake one in the cafe. She watered it for a month before I told her it was fake."

And another added: "Another said: 'My dad watered one of my mum's plants for a year after she died not realising it was fake. We had a good laugh about it, I bet mum had a good chuckle upstairs too."