Propagating from a Beautiful Bouquet of Cut Flowers?

Hi all, I am new here and relatively new to attempting propagation of cuttings. Anyone able to advise if any of these flowers can be successfully propagated from a bouquet of cut flowers? The bouquet arrived on Saturday.



Also, I accidentally posted a similar message in the "Flowers" forum but couldn't find a way to delete or move it. I didn't see this perfect propagation thread at first!

Thanks for any help and happy gardening!

 

You can try with the roses but not knowing what they are,, may not work ! Do not know about the rest ! If you want to try just remove all the flower petaks and root in water with a dip of rooting hormone ! Old varieties root well but not so much for the hybrid varities !

 

Thank you so much for your response! I will give it a shot! I am not sure what the variety is either. I'd love to have something like the roses from this bouquet become a part of our long-term landscape. Thanks for your help!

 

Excellent idea Mart! Rooting hormone just might work. I was actually going to say the exact same thing - But you beat me to it!


The idea of propagating plants from a bouquet sure is a very interesting one... I never attempted it - But that's just because nobody ever gave me a bouquet. As I'm the type of guy people usually prefer to throw a brick at, upon sight, (not greet with flowers)!



But jokes aside, rooting hormone is the best idea. However we can't promise anything.

Another sure fire idea is plant tissue culture. Basically plant cloning. But seriously, that requires a whole new level of skill set in the field of biological sciences, (way beyond most of us here, who are just gardeners out of passion).

But if you are determined enough, like if the bouquet has some sentimental value, then there are today many channels on YouTube which do teach the entire process of cloning plants, (completely for free). But to stop the flowers from deteriorating, this should be done as soon as possible. So first put the bouquet in the refrigerator - Then start gathering all the supplies and equipment.

 

I have had success with rooting roses from cut bouquets. I never use rooting hormone. I just put them straight in a pot with Sandy well drained soil. No direct sun until they are well rooted. I also have more success when I root them with lavender cuttings.

 

I probably don’t have to say it, but be sure and remove the actual flower before beginning the rooting attempt. Why? So that what little energy is in the cut stem does not have to go into the hopeless process of making a seed pod.
Good luck there, Newbie.

 

I have good results with old roses but hybrids are a different animal ! But give it a try,, won`t hurt ! However the hybrids may not give the same type of roses as the bouquet !
More likely they will give either of the parent plants !

 

Amazing tips and love the humor - thank you! I'd drop a bouquet on your doorstep if you were our neighbor.

I sadly didn't see these posts until today as we've had a fun Valentine weekend with our girls at home making homemade saltwater taffy and movie night. I will see if I still have any luck - it is sentimental to me and I would love to have some luck if it's meant to be! TY!

Thank you - I have sand to try! I will give this a shot and have no lavender currently but I'm committing the tip to memory! <3

How often do you water them while trying to get them to root? TY!

Thank you! It's so funny you say that - I actually tried rooting roses one of my bridesmaids sent me before my wedding way back when. I didn't know to cut the flowers off so obviously nothing rooted but boy oh boy did our wedding photographer have a blast with that flower graveyard in our morning photo shoot the day of the wedding. I think he thought it was some weird voodoo thing!!

Thanks for the insight - I would be thrilled with anything that produces a bloom at all! Keeping the sentiment alive will be enough! <3 Also a very fun adventure if it works out.

 

Aside from rooting hormone, you can try coconut milk too. Since coconut is the biggest seed in the world - Means that it is packed with all types of growth enzymes which a plant would need to sprout!

I think the first time scientists successfully cloned plants in tissue culture, (late 1950s if I remember correctly) - They too used coconut milk as the growth medium...

 

Wow, my mind is blown! I actually have coconut milk! That would be a really cool experiment to try! I will have to look this up. Wonder if it can be just in a cup of coconut milk or mixed with sand or peat? Learn something new every day! Thank you!

 

Whenever in doubt, always follow how things would happen in nature... So since nothing in nature happens without soil, well, there's your answer, (roughly speaking).

However what you are attempting, which is propagating by cuttings - Doesn't really happen anywhere in nature...

So we now have 2 conflicting schools of thought.

Therefore, in an ideal situation, (provided that we have enough cuttings). It would make sense to split the cuttings in 2 groups. And so apply 1 of these 2 technique to each set of cuttings, the 2nd to the 2nd group.

This way at the very least, 50% will be successful, (hopefully). But you never know, if both techniques turn out to be successful, or a complete bust...

I guess we will never really know, unless we give it a try. Once the results are in, (even if not successful) - We will at least learn what not to do next time.

Wish I had something more encouraging to add. But this is how it is while gardening.

 

By the way, whenever attempting anything like plant tissue culture. Even in a crude style with coconut milk - We have to make sure that everything is super clean!

Otherwise bacteria will start to grow like crazy, before anything else even has a chance to sprout... This actually is often the major reason why plant tissue culture always fails for beginners.

But if you can take care of just this one issue, then success rate is often very high, (over 90% usually).

So best of luck!!!

Hint: Washing with ommon household bleach, or hydrogen peroxide - Are excellent when it comes getting rid of bacteria, (from plant surfaces)...

 

Very well said! I didn't really have a lot of good cuttings left since I enjoyed the flowers in the vase for a week or more... but some of them did have very healthy looking leaf nodes that may even have grown while in the vase. I'll try to get a photo tomorrow.

I did as you've suggested to the best of my ability, but I feel I may have cheated by putting the best cuttings in water since they started in water and looked so good still. Those that looked worse for wear I put 1 in peat and 2 in sand dipped in either honey or cinnamon since I couldn't find my rooting hormone.

This feels like an effort in futility, BUT I am ever the optimist so I will report back with progress of lack thereof as I am able!

About how long until I know if it was a total bust? 2-3 weeks?

Thanks again!

Ah, I forgot to disinfect them! (facepalm) hopefully the honey version helps with that. I guess it's a lesson and a learning experience either way!

 

Yes, you'll know in about 2 weeks if you've been successful or not. But just so there is absolutely no doubt about it - Give it 3 weeks just to be extra sure.

As long as there is green on the stems, you still have a chance that it will root. Once it becomes completely brown and dry - Then it's over.

 

If for whatever reason this doesn't work out - There is nothing stopping you from ordering another bouquet, (either in the real world, or by ordering online).

I mean, keep trying until you find success! Because I for one am now really curious to learn know - What it would take to grow plants from bouquet...

If successful, who knows, maybe someone else gets the same idea. And entered it into Google - And stumbled upon this thread? So I think that would be awesome, if you are able to accomplish this. And these posts become part of history, where it was achieved for the first time!

I know it's possible for sure. We have already been over all the techniques. Which for sure will eventually give us the desired results! But I wonder why no one has ever done this before?

Well, all the more reason for you to become the first to try it! And when successful - Do it again, and this time build a YouTube channel for doing this. If it got monetized, you'd be making a lot of extra cash also!