How Long Can Beautiful Long Stem Roses Last?

It was a breathtakingly beautiful Valentine bouquet with nineteen roses in all.  By the time I saw them they had begun to fade.  The pink roses faded first. They were the first petals to be dried.  The lavender roses still looked pretty great.

These two color roses were yellow on the inside of the petals and pink on the outside.  This one was still lovely.

The single red rose had its stem trimmed, was moved to a small vase, and is still looking pretty fantastic after two weeks.

We just couldn't let these flowers fade away into compost. They were spread out to dry for potpourri.  For awhile it seemed like I had rose petals spread out everywhere.

Some of the petals were pressed in a book.   The flat petals retained there color nicely.

The petals dried beautifully.  One rose was left to dry whole. While working on this process it all made me think of my Mom. Whenever she would get a rose that she liked, she would cut a short piece of the stem and get an empty peanut butter jar. Then she would go out to the flower bed, stick the piece of rose in the ground and place the peanut butter jar over it pressed into the soil. Mom had a green thumb and more often than not her roses grew.  I thought that this hardly seemed like a sensible time to start roses, but two of the stems, one lavender and one bi-color had just the hint of leaves that looked like they might want to grow. There was nothing to lose!

Two short rose cuttings were made. Here they are under their juice bottle covers.

After a little less than two weeks this is the lavender rose.  I removed the top just long enough to take the picture.

This is the Bicolor rose.  It has new growth too.  I know it's March and cuttings don't always make it, but if they want to live, they have a good chance. So how long can beautiful long stem roses last?  It's just too soon to tell!