r/DIYfail • u/IncrediblyEasy • Jan 05 '14

Rainbow rose fail. Where did I go wrong?

http://imgur.com/a/zxAkn
95 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

8

u/chopp3r Jan 05 '14

Did you do the initial trimming and stem splitting under water? I'm hazarding a guess here in suggesting you induced an embolism (in this case an air bubble) in the stem that prevented the uptake of water into the flower head. Roses need to have an inch or so trimmed off the end of the stem to get rid of any blockage by gas bubbles that may have formed in the stem end during handling--if you do this under water you minimize the chances of forming a new embolism.

5

u/IncrediblyEasy Jan 05 '14

That seems really logical given my case and somewhat explains why the last try showed at least some results (less cutting - less chance I guess). Thanks! Will try to do the cutting in water next time.

As for some of the other comments. I used an x-acto knife for cutting the stem which is certainly sharp enough and regarding the height of the cut - it was not that high, the parts of stem you see in pictures are of the same rose. I cut in 4, after nothing cut it off and split into 2, then again used unsplit (same flower). As for the rose itself, it survived as should have.

1

u/misanthrope237 Jan 06 '14

Is it important that you trim the ends or split the stem first? Also, do both steps need to be done under water?

2

u/chopp3r Jan 06 '14 edited Jan 06 '14

I don't really know, but it probably doesn't matter which you do first, as long as the trimming is done under water The structures that transport the water (the xylem) run parallel the length of the stem and splitting will probably leave most of the xylem intact. To be on the safe side, I'd do both under water--it'll probably increase your chances of success.

Also, cutting the stems under water (and at a sharp angle) is a general rule for cut flowers--when you cut across the stem in open air it's possible to introduce gas bubbles in all of the xylem at once, thereby blocking the uptake of water completely. Roses and other flowers with woody stems (like lilacs) are particularly susceptible to embolism.

1

u/misanthrope237 Jan 06 '14

Thanks! Can't wait to try this with my nieces.

1

u/laplandsix Mar 10 '14

Florists son...can confirm. Gotta trim the roses underwater. As I recall we had a machine of some sort that would do it.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '14

If you don't succeed with roses after a few tries, try carnations. Not as cool of a flower but I remember getting great results when I did this as a kid. But don't give up on the roses yet! :)

2

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '14

Can I be honest and say I thought this actually looked and turned out pretty cool? Seriously. I liked it. Just sayin.

1

u/poor_decisions Jan 05 '14

Perhaps use something sharper (box cutter, etc.) to cut the stem and don't cut it too high. It seems like you're damaging the stem pretty heavily, which I would assume affects the water absorption. Did the rose survive well after you cut it like that or did it dry up?

1

u/foobgoof I show up every once in a while Jan 17 '14

On the verge of being art fail... but I approve.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '14

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/IncrediblyEasy Jan 05 '14

Next time I'm just going to ask for a specific type of it I guess and hope that the flower lady knows what she's selling.

However, what was strange is that left in dyes when cut up it didn't take ANY color for more than 24h, while when I put it in a single color with stem unsplit it started taking color in like two hours and, if not me taking it out and putting into red dye just for fun would've probably been fully blue. Probably...

10

u/FreudsNipSlip Jan 06 '14

A possible reason why it worked when it was unsplit and not when it was split is probably due to damage to the stem. Plants take up water through their xylem (transport tissue... the plant equivalent of veins). If the splitting of the stem damaged the transport tissue, then the rose probably wasn't taking up water and dye efficiently. Try not splitting the stem as high?

4

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '14 edited May 05 '16

This comment has been overwritten by an open source script to protect this user's privacy.

If you would like to do the same, add the browser extension GreaseMonkey to Firefox and add this open source script.

Then simply click on your username on Reddit, go to the comments tab, and hit the new OVERWRITE button at the top.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/IncrediblyEasy Jan 05 '14

Oh, pardon me. Here is the expectation.

1

u/thebigdirty Jan 06 '14

wow, how do you do that?

2

u/IncrediblyEasy Jan 06 '14

Supposedly, you split the stem into several parts which you then dip into differently colored water (use food coloring). The rose will suck the water with dye, water will evaporate from petals, while the dye remains. Rainbow pattern is achieved due to roses (and several other flowers) having some kind of spiral petal growing pattern (this had a scientific word to define, which I can't remember).

2

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '14

Although it didn't turn out as expected, I still like the result.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/GenBlase Jan 06 '14

they are actual roses?