i remember reading something about watering your plants with diluted leftover alcohol to slow their growth and flower development.. but i cant find anything about that flower development part anymore. either i suck at googling or i read it in a magazine article.
i would try that thing you do with celery and food coloring, except with freshly cut stems and flavoring. maybe add coloring to track the progress.
i tried to root a cutting before, in water and within a week i had added some cocacola to the mix. oh and i tried to stick it to a blackberry root as well. needless to say, that experiment ended in failure, since plants dont need the sugar from the cocacola. i thought maybe the phosphoric acid and sugar would help.. maybe the phosphoric acid but not the high fructose corn syrup..
oh, and the sodium benzoate, definitely couldn't have helped