When you receive a bouquet you love, it’s hard to let it go. Maybe it’s the beauty alone or perhaps it’s because the bouquet is a reminder of your anniversary or birthday. Regardless of the reason why you hold these flowers so close, you want to keep them around.
Unfortunately, even if you’ve taken the steps to help bouquets last longer, the leaves will eventually begin to wilt and the flowers will fade. But that doesn’t mean it has to be the end of the bouquet! With a bit of knowledge and some patience, you can replant flowers and watch them grow. This process isn’t as simple as plopping your old bouquet into the soil and hoping for the best, but rooting old bouquet flowers isn’t magic. With the right mindset, everyone can learn how to do it!
How to Plant Cut Flowers
When you hear someone say they are getting ready to plant cut flowers, you may imagine them opening up withered flowers to gather seeds. They sprinkle the seeds in their garden, apply a bit of water here and some sunlight there, and before long the seeds have sprouted and grown into tall, straight stems topped with colorful blooms. If only it was this easy!
Unfortunately, most cut flowers don’t arrive with seeds in tow. That’s because growers harvest the flowers just as they’re beginning to open. While this leads to a long vase life, it means the flowers haven’t yet reached the seed production stage.
So, if you can’t just throw old flowers in the ground and watch them sprout into new seedlings, how do you replant flowers? By rooting the cuttings! This process involves placing cut flowers in a moist growing medium to encourage the stems to form roots. Once roots appear, you can treat your cut flower as a whole new plant. While this method skips the magic involved in watching the plants grow from seed to flower, it lets you observe another intriguing plant process.
Flowers that can Root from Cuttings
While regrowing cut flowers is possible, it’s important to recognize that not every plant will form roots. So if someone asks you “can you grow cut flowers from a bouquet,” the answer is “it depends!”
In general, flowers with woody stems will root better than those with lush, herbaceous stems. And don’t ever try to root some of the best spring plants like daffodils and tulips, unless you want a taste of disappointment. These bulb plants just aren’t cut out for rooting.
If you’re not sure where to start with growing flowers from bouquets, start with one of these easy-to-root flowers.
- Camellias
- Honeysuckles
- Roses
- Hydrangeas
- Azaleas
- Asters
- Chrysanthemums
- Lavender
- Mint
- Artemisia
- Dahlias
- Rosemary
- Lilac
- Wisteria
First Step: Find the Flower’s Nodes
The first step in knowing how to grow flowers from a bouquet is learning how to identify the nodes. Nodes are where new roots are going to grow from the stem, so they’re an essential part of growing a new plant. An easy way to locate nodes on a cut flower is to look for a leaf or twig—the node will be right below any of these features. If you cannot find nodes on the stem, the plant won’t grow roots.
Once you locate a node, use a sharp pair of pruning shears to cut the stem half an inch below the node. Trim remaining leaves off the top of the stem then dip the bottom of the cutting into a rooting hormone. While rooting hormone is optional, it will increase the chances that the stem develops roots.
Second Step: Select the Right Planting Medium
Once you’ve prepared your cuttings for planting, it’s time to find a planting medium that will encourage them to form new roots. The ideal medium will remain slightly moist but not wet. Some good options for rooting medium include perlite, coco coir, and sand. Avoiding using standard houseplant potting mix or straight soil, since these materials will hold too much water. Once you have a suitable medium, use it to fill a four-inch to ten-inch tall container.
Next comes the actual planting of the cut flower. Start by poking a hole in the mix—the hole should be just a bit larger than the plant’s stem. A pencil or chopstick is the perfect tool for making an appropriately-sized hole. The hole will allow the rooting hormone on the stem to remain intact as you place the stem into the hole. Insert the cutting so the bottom four inches is covered, then push the mix around the stem until it’s no longer wobbly.
When you replant flowers and root cuttings, high humidity is key. This air moisture helps prevent the plant from drying out while it lacks roots to take up the water from the ground. To create a miniature greenhouse, place a plastic bag above the pot. You don’t want the plastic to touch the actual cutting, so use sticks or another material to prop the plastic off the plants.
Third Step: Plant Care
At this point, the most important thing is patience. So take a deep breath, spend a few minutes designing your future garden, and step away from the cuttings. Rooting cut flowers is always a toss up, and it can take days or even months for new roots to develop. In the meantime, water the plant when the top layer of the planting medium you’ve chosen becomes dry. Remove dead or dying leaves and ensure that the plant is surrounded by high humidity.
Once the plant develops roots, you can repot it. You will be able to tell that the plant trimming has developed roots by very gently pulling on the top of the plant. If the trimming pops right out, it’s not ready. If there is a little bit of resistance, roots have likely formed and it’s ready for its new home! You’ll probably also see new green growth emerging from the above-ground portion of the cutting.
When the plant has roots that are at least half an inch long, repot the plant in moist potting soil or into a well-draining portion of your garden. At this point, care for your regrown plant as normal. Since many of the flowers you can regrow from bouquets are perennials, you’ll be able to enjoy your new plants for years to come. Before you know it, you’ll be able to cut fresh flowers from your plant to share with friends!
How to Grow Flowers from a Bouquet: Tips and Tricks
Can you plant cut flowers? You sure can! But will you always succeed? Not likely. But don’t let a bit of failure deter you. Keeping these tips in mind will increase your chances of success.
First up, keep the freshness of the bouquet in mind. The fresher the cut flower, the more likely the cutting will successfully root. That means you should skip buying bouquets that spent days wasting away in warehouses and look for flower arrangements that were harvested at bud form and shipped directly to your door. Hint, hint, Bouqs does just that. And if you can take cuttings from a flowering plant that’s growing in the ground, you’ll have a better chance of a successful replanting.
Second, remember the importance of nodes. Sometimes, you’ll receive a bouquet filled with stems lacking nodes. These cuttings won’t be able to form roots, so there’s no use in trying to replant them. Instead, wait until you receive a bouquet that includes stems covered with healthy nodes.
Finally, don’t try to plant seeds! Since we harvest our flowers in bud form, they haven’t yet produced mature seed. Therefore, there’s no need to plant your flowers and watch for seedlings to sprout. If you want to plant cut flowers like zinnias, sunflowers, and celosia, you’re better off purchasing flower seeds from a store. Flowers grown for seed production are allowed to fully mature before they’re harvested.
Send Flowers to Those You Love
While we know that any time is a good time to receive fresh flowers, some people think buying flowers is a waste of time and money since the bouquet will die and have to be thrown out. And while we encourage reminding them there’s nothing wrong with enjoying fleeting beauty, you can also let these people know that you can plant flowers from a bouquet or dry the flowers for future use.
Regardless of where your bouquet ends up, you always want to start with the freshest flowers. So the next time you want to send flower bouquets online, keep us in mind! We source all of our flowers from farms that utilize sustainable growing practices and ship the bouquets directly to the recipient. That means the flowers don’t spend any time sitting in a warehouse wasting away.
Get 20% off on Bouqs.com with code BOUQSBLOG. Exclusions apply.
