Flowers that grow in water

There are plants that can root, grow and produce beautiful flowers in water alone. All you need is a transparent flower vase, preferably glass, the flower stems and water. And depending on how well you look after them, you can have them forever.

According to Mr. Paddy Namanya, a Manager at The Flower Centre Kampala, Freedom City Mall, they have a variety of these. They have Lilies, Begonias and the Kalanchoe. The Kalanchoe belongs to the Crassulaceae family and is a succulent that produces flowers.

How to grow water plants
Propagate the Water Lily by growing it from a bud in the bulb of the parent plant. Propagate the Begonia and the Kalanchoe from buds in their stems.

‘The Water Lily is like a yam. Cut it and put it in another bucket, in water and it will grow,’ says Mr. Namanya.
Their maintenance is simple. Put them in a vase with water in it and change the water once a week.

‘Of course tap water can work, but I would prefer rain water, because it is natural. The plant adapts to rain water quicker than it does tap water. Tap water has chemicals in it and it takes a long time for the plants to get used to it,’ Mr. Namanya advises.

The Lily, for example, will root at the bottom of the stem and continue to grow. Trim the stem at the bottom to maintain it at the height you may fancy; or let it grow tall if you want it big.

Place the vase wherever you may wish to have it – on a shelf in the corner, on a stool, coffee table, dining room table or the shaded parts of verandahs, balconies or backyards. They will prefer cold and shaded areas because they are water flowers and naturally grow in swampy places.

‘If you have children and you have glass vases, you are better off placing them on shelves in the corners,’ Mr. Namanya stresses.
Water flowers typically don’t have strong scents unless you draw close to them. This makes them suitable for people prone to allergies.
‘The smell of flowers like Tuber Roses, for example, is strong and some people can’t get close to them,’ says Mr. Namanya.

The arrangement looks beautiful in glass vases, but because many people are wary of their delicate nature, The Flower Centre adopted the idea of plastic vases. So that even if the vases get knocked over, only the water will spill; and that is easy to clean up and replace. The vase and the flowers would remain intact.

To decorate the transparent vases, there are red, blue, yellow and green crystals available. Coloured sand is also a new decorative addition. They come in blue, white and red.

Place the sand at the bottom of the vase, depending on how you would like to decorate your vase. You can either mix the different colours of sand together and pour it at the bottom of the vase or lay it in different colour sand layers.

If you want different arrangements for your bouquet, add fresh cut flowers to the arrangement every week. The fresh cut flowers will last a week in the water. An addition of fresh cut peach Roses to the White Water Lilies, for example, would look refreshing.

Apart from using these arrangements to decorate the interior and exterior of your home, use them on your tables when you have functions like weddings and birthday parties. The bigger ones used for home exteriors would suit the entrances of function venues, for example. It doesn’t get more versatile than this.

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