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People have been told not to throw away carnations next time they buy a bouquet from the florist or supermarket, as a gardener revealed a 'clever' use. The tip was shared in a popular post by the presenter and gardening content creator, Gardening with Ish.

Taking to TikTok, the gardener said shoppers could make the most of their purchase by keeping and growing any carnations in the bunch. Ish told his 160k followers: "Don't throw away those carnations from your flower bouquets, use those thicker stems to grow your own.

"It's a clever way to grow your own carnation plant for free by taking cuttings from your display and pot them up. Today's gardening tips will show you how to grow your own carnations from a floral display." The 'clever' method could help people save money on flowers while also serving as an enjoyable gardening activity.

In his video, Ish explained: "Something you may not know is you can grow your very own carnations from a bouquet. Let me show you how. Now, the process is really simple. They don't need to be in full flower and they also don't need to be buds. It just needs a nice, good, thick, healthy stem."

Demonstrating the method, Ish said: "So I picked this one out of the bunch and it'll do perfectly fine. You wanna cut just below a node so it's got plenty in order to be able to have its roots come out, and then go about four or five inches over the top.

"So as you count three or four nodes and then cut like that, remove any bottom leaves, leave a top leaf and that's it. You wanna then just dunk the bottom in some water, dunk it in some rooting powder and then put it straight in a nice pot full of potting compost, something that's gonna retain moisture quite well."

According to the gardening enthusiast, getting the humidity right is essential. "Don't let it sit there and dry out, it'll stress it out, it won't work. Keeping the soil fairly moist throughout the course of this is the key to success," he explained.

Ish said he often places a plastic bag or glass jar over the top of the pot, before placing it on the windowsill in a sunny spot." He concluded: "In about four to six weeks, you should start to see signs of life. Now, you may notice here that I've only put one plant per pot in, and unlike other plants, it can get a little bit stressed when it's being moved about.

"So go for a fairly deep pot, but also go for something where it's not going to be sharing its root. So if you pot it on, it's not going to die afterwards. That's the last thing you want after you spent all that time getting this to grow. So if you've ever wanted to grow your own carnations from a bouquet, now you know how."

Social media users appreciated the tip. Ish's video gained over 200,000 views and thousands of likes. A commenter wrote: "What a genius tip - using the thicker stemmed carnations from a bouquet for propagation is something most people would never think of. The rooting powder step is key to getting those cuttings to take successfully." Someone else wrote: "I love carnations. I'm definitely going to try this thank you."