Question regarding a magenta dendrobium orchid

[RavenII]

My girlfriend and I went on a cruise and on our table they had this beautiful flower (which, after showing to my mom, was identified as an Orchid). I took it from our table since we both agreed it would be cool to grow it and keep it for as long as we can.

My question is....

Since they cut the stem...is there any way to get it to produce a root? or do I have myself a flower that will only last for another 2 weeks (if that)? My mom was saying that there's more than likely no way of getting it to live for too long (which is a bummer)...

Thanks in advance.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

This is going to be complicated, so...

Technically you can grow an orchid from a flowering stem, it's called stem propagation.

However...

It's not as simple as putting rooting hormone on a flower stem that's been removed from the plant and sticking it onto a tree and hoping it'll grow.

The kheiki (orchid baby) will only grow from where the buds are produced and only if the flower buds have not formed at all. This in common horticultural terms is called an "eye". Scientifically it's generally called a meristem (there are many kinds of meristem, ie. apical meristem, etc.).

For what you want to accomplish, you'd have to grow the flower stem with unformed buds in a bottle (in-vitro) with a special multiplication agar medium used for cloning (specifically meristem cloning).

This is not a simple process. I've tried meristem cloning with no success. But then again, I only mucked my way through it without going about the proper procedures.

Meristem cloning also has flaws. Genetic degradation, mutation, or sterility has occurred as a result of repeated cloning.

It's better to just buy a plant. Cloning takes a bit to get right.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

There is a kheiki paste that someone on this forum has used to get kheikis going on a flower stem that has not been removed from the plant.

You can try that.

[RavenII]

Sorry, but it seems as if I have a ton of questions and very little time to google all of them.

I don't know if this makes any difference, but my mom pointed out that the 2 stems were actually 1 piece at one point, they cut one stem to make it 2, one had flowers, and the other had...umm...soon to be budding flowers? The ones at the tip look like a bean sprout...if that's descriptive enough. Could that help? I'll try to post pictures. Thanks for the quick response.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Okay.

You can start by googling what a meristem is.

For info on kheiki paste go to the Advanced Discussion forum and look up the thread titled "Keiki Paste as Promised!". It was posted by BikerDoc5968.

Don't worry about everything else yet...

A heads up, information on meristem cloning on the net is not plentiful or useful.

[Ray]

The simple answer is that if you have only the flower spike, separated from the plant - no, you will not be able to root it.

The stuff King was talking about typically involves a lot of lab work, and is rarely done with dendrobiums.

[learning2letgo]

I say go for it anyways, if you have the time and patient consideration it would require to attempt such a feat! You don't know what will happen unless you try, you know?