Dracunculus, hardiness and seed set

From: Steve Marak <samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 1997.06.01 at 15:34:24(783) Stacy, aroid hardiness is a messy question, and in many cases the true hardiness of some aroids of rather tropical range is way beyond what I would have expected. Dracunculus vulgaris specifically is hardy to at least USDA zone 5, and grown by a number of us in USDA zone 6. I get the odd night with temperatures down to -25 C (-17 or -18 F) and have been growing them for years. An elderly lady near us said the plants in her yard had been there since she was a child, so they are long-term survivors in this climate. However, I've not heard any reports of survival beyond USDA zone 5, and I didn't believe a lot of the other zone numbers in that catalog, which I also happened to see. Kevin, I get seed set every year on my plants, which are all offsets from the 3 original bulbs given to me, which in turn were all offsets from 1 original bulb given to the person who gave them to me. If you have several flowers opening at about the same time, I expect you will get seed. You also asked about good general reference books. The one we all seem to universally recommend for familiarity with the whole family, "Aroids", by Deni Bown, is not currently in print. Whenever someone reports finding a few copies somewhere, that store is besieged with requests immediately, but you might be able to locate a copy somewhere. It is (was) published by Timber Press, and the ISBN is 0-88192-092-4. We are all hoping for a second edition. There are also some excellent works on specific parts of the family, some done by members of this list, if you are interested in particular groups. Steve +More -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

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