teonanacatl Posted December 30, 2014 Anyone tried keeping cacti flowers in a vase or the like? If cut as a bud do they still open? I think the large flowering columnar types would be amazing even if only for the one night Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted December 30, 2014 guessing your best bet would be an ole' flowering tip cutting , in a "vase" of perlite ;) to root with any luck and if it likes the air ( i dnno if its humidity they want but mine aborted flowering half way through, was v hot n dry tho~) it might keep flowering for you ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hostilis Posted December 30, 2014 I always wondered what would happen if you grafted a flower bud! Probably would just be a pointless waste of a flower though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
incognito Posted December 30, 2014 (edited) Anyone pressed one? I've fond memory's of pressing flowers with my grandmother Edited December 30, 2014 by incognito 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
teonanacatl Posted December 30, 2014 I love pressing flowers incog, botanical specimens make great works of art! This is actually a serious question, so Ill rephrase it. Have you cut a cactus flower (Trich, Echinopsis, any of the dragon fruits or other larger columner types) and placed it in water as a "cut flower"? If so did it still open. There are a lot of flowers that dont last long, Nelumbo nucifera for example, that will still open when cut as a bud and placed in water. The cut flower industry is a big industry with many many flowers but yet no cacti flowers. So if you have a large cacti about to flower and dont want fruits or cannot cross pollinate it to get fruits could I perhaps trouble you to cut it off as a bud the day before it opened and tell me what happens. Its a curiosity of mine. Id do it myself if I had any flowering...... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doxneed2c-me Posted December 31, 2014 Someone once told me their grandmother had a "desert flower" which was ever blooming. All you needed to do was put it in water. I still to this day have no clue what it was nor did I ever see it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
incognito Posted December 31, 2014 I've got some about to open mate I'll give it a go for u 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
teonanacatl Posted December 31, 2014 Cheers incog my bala! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alice Posted December 31, 2014 (edited) I did this a few weeks ago, snapped the already-opened flower off a large pach. Took a decent chunk of rib flesh with it too, damn it. I suggest using a knife. I put it in water immediately, this was maybe 4pm. The flower had started wilting be next morning, so I chucked it. It looked pretty shit. I'd say that there wasn't any water uptake by the base of the flower. So a fail for me. I haven't tried it with a yet-to-open bud. Only an already-open flower. To replicate a proper cut flower you'd probably need to take the whole tip, "stem" and all. Edited December 31, 2014 by Alice 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zelly Posted December 31, 2014 i got a bunch of pc pach opening up so i took a still closed one due to open in the next day or so & stuck the whole thing in a glass of water in a garden window. stem carefully sliced off from the plant. will report back with a pic if its successful 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
teonanacatl Posted December 31, 2014 (edited) So I did some more searching and found a few mentions of Epiphyllum flowers being cut and placed in a vase. They use buds the day before they open and they only open for the one night/day. I look forward to seeing how the trich flowers go Edited December 31, 2014 by teonanacatl Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spanishfly Posted December 31, 2014 I think cactus flowers are too short-lived to ever be viable as cut flowers. I think the most spectacular cactus flower display is the night flowering Selenicerus (many hybrids) - I have one growing up my garden wall which flowers in May - but the flowers last one night only. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zelly Posted January 1, 2015 So I did some more searching and found a few mentions of Epiphyllum flowers being cut and placed in a vase. They use buds the day before they open and they only open for the one night/day. I look forward to seeing how the trich flowers go poppycock. this epi has been open for 3 days in a row. maybe its frozen open due to the cold weather (middle of winter here) pedro flower, 1st night pedro flower, 2nd night (lookin promising) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
teonanacatl Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) Awesome Zelly! Maybe some of the cultivars have been bred to open longer. Keep me posted on what happens, pretty funny. A lot of cut flowers have short shelf lives of only a few days. Lotus flowers whilst not popular as cut flowers in Aus are popular in Asian countries and they only open for 2-3 days. In my experience once cut they only really look good on the first/second day open. So they may not be the type you buy for your gf for valentines day but they would really shine on single day or night events such as weddings. Also keep in mind that transportation of flowers can be done at cool temperatures so their actual opening time might only be 1-3 nights/days but they may "keep" for up to a week after picking if refrigerated as is common with other flowers. That Selenicerus is beautiful SF Despite the short flowering period there are many positive attributes to cut cacti flowers including the spectacular nature of the flowers, scent in some, wide variety of genera, species and hybrids, variety of colours and the plants can be very floriferous. Thanks for the productive thread guys! Edited January 1, 2015 by teonanacatl Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
teonanacatl Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) Further reading suggests Epiphyllums will open for 2 days in warm weather, more in cold weather The same source (http://www.theamateursdigest.com/epis.htm) suggests that flowers can be kept in the fridge for up to a month to save it for a special occasion! Edited January 1, 2015 by teonanacatl Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamwalker. Posted January 1, 2015 I always wondered what would happen if you grafted a flower bud! Probably would just be a pointless waste of a flower though. I tried this last season (had no pollen).... I figured with the explosive growth of a bud....all that surge into a scion...It would go from 10mm to 150mm in a week or so....... but it was just a dream.....grafted on perfectly....cut the emerging bud off about 20mm from the trunk...rubberbanded the graft...but the whole stem fell off in a few days & the graft had never taken............so I guess the flower signal must have been coming from the trunk & not the the buds tip. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zed240 Posted January 1, 2015 I placed a schikendantzii flower in a cup of water last year and it looked pretty good for about 2.5 days. It had just opened when I cut it. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zelly Posted January 4, 2015 pedro flower, 2nd night (lookin promising) sad to say, thats about as good as it got... by the third night, it was toast so i guess if you want to use them as cut flowers, wait until they open first.... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
teonanacatl Posted January 4, 2015 Aww disappointing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
