Amorphophallus perfume

From: LMassey628 at aol.com on 2004.06.24 at 14:44:33(11671) In a message dated 6/24/2004 10:38:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, Ronmchatton@aol.com writes: I agree that the odor isn't that bad. Several flowered this year and we +More hardly noticed them. It isn't a constant odor and, at least with the clones I have, you need to be quite close to smell them. Amorphophallus paeoniifolius is another story. We had neighbors two houses down tracking down the odor. The first time my paeonifolius bloomed our neighbor across the street came over and asked if I thought the sewer had backed up. And a few years later I heard a terrible noise on the metal roof of our porch and when I went out to look there was a flock of vultures. The odor had even fooled them. I definitely would not want a paeonifolius in the house at blooming time. Linda

From: Ronmchatton at aol.com on 2004.06.24 at 15:52:13(11673) Believe it or not that's actually happened to us. Last fall we pulled in our 40 pound corm into our sunroom for the winter (still in its 36" pot). We were in the process of selling the house and relocating so it just sat all winter in the house. With only one of us in the house, one thing lead to another and it didn't get moved out before the flower opened. The stench was so strong it made my partner's eyes water three rooms removed from the sunporch. Putting a cardboard box of the flower made it tolerable for the day or two it was perfumed. Obviously we won't make that mistake again. By the way, Am. coaetaneus is another one with a wicked stench. The first time this flowered we could smell it 30-40 feet from the greenhouse with the exhaust system closed. You would think we had a garbage dumpster full of dead rats. +More Ron McHatton

From: "Bryant, Susan L." <SLBryant at scj.com> on 2004.06.24 at 16:55:23(11674) Laugh! I hope you weren't showing the house while it was blooming.... Susan +More winter (still in its 36" pot). We were in the process of selling the house and relocating so it just sat all winter in the house. With only one of us in the house, one thing lead to another and it didn't get moved out before the flower opened. The stench was so strong it made my partner's eyes water three rooms removed from the sunporch. Putting a cardboard box of the flower made it tolerable for the day or two it was perfumed. Obviously we won't make that mistake again.

From: Steve Marak <samarak at gizmoworks.com> on 2004.06.24 at 19:00:54(11679) Linda, I'll have to forward your note to my long-suffering wife, to let her see how much worse it could be. Back before I knew konjacs were completely hardy here in zone 6, I kept them indoors over winter, and she (a teacher) was home on spring break several years when one flowered. I've come home to find one room of the house closed off with towels stuffed in the cracks around the door. I agree that it seems to vary by clone, and I think also from year to year with the same clone. In the past, any konjacs indoors always flowered and leafed earlier than those outdoors, no matter what I did. However, this past fall, I dug a fair-sized konjac (maybe 8-10", 20-25 cm diameter) to give a friend, never got it to him, and it is just now putting up an inflorescence, while those outdoors were done in mid-April. At this point I've given up trying to influence whether (or understand why) an amorph stays dormant or doesn't; like the cat, they will do as they do do and there's no doing anything about it. But I personally think typhoniums are in general worse, especially in how a rather small inflorescence can be nearly eye-watering through the entire house. Steve +More On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 LMassey628@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 6/24/2004 10:38:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, > Ronmchatton@aol.com writes: I agree that the odor isn't that bad. > Several flowered this year and we hardly noticed them. It isn't a > constant odor and, at least with the clones I have, you need to be quite > close to smell them. Amorphophallus paeoniifolius is another story. > We had neighbors two houses down tracking down the odor. The first time > my paeonifolius bloomed our neighbor across the street came over and > asked if I thought the sewer had backed up. And a few years later I > heard a terrible noise on the metal roof of our porch and when I went > out to look there was a flock of vultures. The odor had even fooled > them. I definitely would not want a paeonifolius in the house at > blooming time. > > Linda > -- Steve Marak -- samarak@gizmoworks.com

From: Ronmchatton at aol.com on 2004.06.24 at 23:06:32(11687) Luckily not. Renovations were still in progress. Ron

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