Indian Red Flowered

[Richy2237]

I purchased a Sword, Indian Red (Echinodorus Indian Red). It had recently flowered.

My question is this:
Can I cut the flower stalk off and
If so Can I plant the buds and have any success at growing them..

Thanks

Rick......

[JenThePlantGeek]

The flowers will turn into little plantlets. Let them grow a few leaves and roots, then you shouldn't have any problem planting them and getting them to grow. Congratulations - it's always neat when plants flower, and especially those swords!

[CampCreekTexas]

Originally Posted by JenThePlantGeek

The flowers will turn into little plantlets.

That's cool, Jen! I didn't know that. My terrestrial gardening experience tells me rooting flower stems won't work, so this is interesting! Then again, Airplane Plants' flower stalks grow new babies after they're done blooming... Hmmmmm ... wonder what other plants out there do that ...

[Daniel*Swords]

Well, to be exact, the flowers themselves won't turn into plantlets. The plantlets grow from the same nodes as the flowers. Many plants do grow plantlets on their flower stalks, say Agaves, for example. Actually, the runners are modified flower stalks as well...

Like Jen said, let the stalk stay with the mother plant until the plantlets on it have enough roots to anchor them in the substrate (say, at least 2''). Good luck!

[CampCreekTexas]

Agaves do that? As in "Century Plants"? Nifty! I'm not a big cactus or succulent fan, so I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to them.

[Daniel*Swords]

Well, I can't vouch for every Agave species (one of which is the Century Plant) but the two varieties I've seen around Mediterranean seemed to do that.