Welcome back! It’s been a while since our last update… Ian and I were busy getting hitched. After the strangest, wildest Kansas weather (including sun, rain, and snow!) during the week, the weather warmed up and trees kept their blooms. It turned out to be a beautiful spring day.
We picked late April for our wedding date because trees usually flower around this time in Kansas, including red buds, magnolias, dogwood, lilacs, and crabapple trees. You’ll see tulips and other ground flowers, too.
We told our florist that we wanted wildflowers for our ceremony and reception, the kind that are bright and colorful and typical of springtime around here. Jen did an absolutely amazing job! She is the owner of Stem Events in Lawrence, KS, and I am happy to recommend her to anyone else seeking floral arrangements.
My bridal bouquet was an combination of pink and white flowers. We originally planned for peonies, but they weren’t in bloom yet this year. I don’t know all the the names, but I see white chrysanthemum, pink roses, pink ranunculus, and possibly a white hyacinth.
These are the floral arrangements from the receptions tables. I took these photos a couple days after the wedding, but the flowers are still fresh and beautiful. According to the florist, this mix includes: gomphrena, ranunculus, anemones, pin cushion protea, olive branches, willow eucalyptus and silver dollar, Italian ruscus, and pitt.
These flower names are new to me. I didn’t recognize them at first either.
After the wedding, we gave flowers away to our guests, but plenty remained in our house. They kept our living room cheerful.
Now, after a week of sitting in vases… they’re losing their luster. We have dried leaves and petals on the floor, so it’s time to retire these arrangements.
I’ve seen videos of people taking roses from a bouquet and rooting them. In other words, the roses are trimmed and prepared so they can regrow roots and be planted again.
I wanted to try that. It sounds romantic, right? You can save your special bouquet of flowers and keep them around for a long time. They can grow back and bloom every year. I think the process can work for other flowers, too.
I decided to keep the roses, pin cushion protea, and chrysanthemums. They seemed hardy and have a good chance of rooting.
A word of caution: some flowers are toxic to pets. The anemomes and ranunculus in these arrangements were beautiful, but on the no-no list for cats. Too bad. I later learned that chrysanthemums are also bad for cats… maybe I’ll give those away if they grow.
To start off, I prepared a mix of potting soil and perlite. A height of four to five inches is enough soil. I also prepared clippers, peroxide and cotton balls to sterilize the clippers, and a jar full of water with a small amount of peroxide mixed in. The jar of water is to wash off and sterilize the stem cuttings.
The last and important ingredient is rooting hormone. You can pick up a small jar of this at any hardware store in the gardening section. They come in liquid or powder form. I have the powder version.
I removed the flowers from their vases and sorted them by type. The chrysanthemums, pin cushion protea, and roses went into separate piles. There was a surprising amount of roses of different colors.
The discard pile went into the compost bin. These sad plants were dry and droopy. They had their heyday.
I started with the chrysanthemums because there were only three of them.
First, cut off the flower head. The reason is because maintaining the bloom takes a tremendous amount of energy from the plant. We want to reserve energy now, so the plant can focus on surviving and growing new roots.
Next, cut the bottom of the stem. You want to cut about a 45-degree angle, so there is more surface area for the stem to draw in water. Also, make sure you cut below a node, which is a bumpy area on a stem where leaves usually grow. Try to leave some space beneath the node, like around a quarter- or half-inch of stem.
With the blade of your clipper, lightly scrape off the skin around the bottom of the stem (the last quarter- or half-inch of stem). Do this very gently, don’t go too crazy and damage the plant. Again, the purpose is to help the stem draw in water.
After cutting the stem, I dipped both ends into a jar full of a water mixed with a little peroxide. My hope is to rinse off any debris and also to sterilize the plant.
The moisture helps with the next step, which is adding the rooting hormone powder.
Next, dip the bottom of the wet stem into the rooting hormone powder. Gently tap off any excess powder.
I used the handle of a plastic spoon to poke a deep hole into the soil. Plant the stem into the soil, the powdered side goes down into the dirt.
I repeated the process for all three chrysanthemums. A helpful label made of painters tape goes on the pot, describing the color, flower type, and date. Hopefully, we’ll see some roots in the next three to six weeks. We’ll know if it works if the plant stays alive and gives resistance when tugged upward from the soil.
Sterilize the clippers with a cotton ball and peroxide between each plant.
I prepared the pin cushion proteas next. It’s the same method as before: cut off the flower head, trim the bottom of the stem beneath a node (cutting at an angle), and scrape off some skin around the bottom.
The proteas had a lot of leaves, which also steal energy from the plant. I removed most of the leaves, so that only three leaves remained per stem. I’m not sure if all leaves should be removed or not. Keeping some on seemed like a good idea.
Next, rinse off the stem, dip the stem into rooting hormone, then plant in soil.
The red protea had long, spiky leaves, which is interesting. The yellow protea had short, squat leaves. They look like funny trees.
There were so many roses. My favorite are these hot pink ones.
The only trouble is that they had these really short stems. Ideally, you want the stem to have around four nodes. At the bare minimum, you need two nodes.
One node becomes the roots, the other node becomes the shoots.
Less nodes means there are less opportunities for the plant to grow roots and shoots. We’ll see if these short stems will sprout or not.
The white roses had nice long stems, with at least three or four nodes. I think this variety will do very well. We also had roses of a light pink color, roses that were a mix of pink and yellow, and also some tiny pink roses. I didn’t take individual photos of those.
The rose varieties are planted together in the same pot. I built a rock fence in these pots to separate the varieties. Each plant has their own neighborhood.
The final step is to take a spray bottle and mist the soil with water. My plan is to keep these plants inside the house and mist them every day. The soil needs to stay moist, but not too wet. A greenhouse situation would be ideal, but we don’t have that. We’ll see what happens in the next three to six weeks.
The warm weather and springtime season should help, I think. Plants are in a growth stage.
After the plants grow roots that are at least an inch long, they can be replanted into individual pots. When they grow even bigger and stronger, they can be planted outside. Maybe in a few months?
The cut flower heads… still pretty, huh?
I didn’t know what to do with them, so I stuck them in a bowl. They can stay inside the house for a little while longer.
Squid enjoyed the flowers. She really liked the white roses and kept rolling around on them. It must be the scent.
Super cute.