A. konjac's blooming

From: "Plantsman" plantsman at prodigy.net> on 2002.05.09 at 20:36:35(8743) I just wanted to make a few comments after visiting a friend's aroid and carnivorous plant gardens today. He'd called me yesterday to tell me that his A. konjac's were open and I'd better get there quick if I wanted to take pictures. I'd visited his gardens last summer and his A. konjac's were the largest I've seen yet. One massive bulb has probably divided itself and had three very large leaves almost five feet tall and wide with stems almost as big as my forearm. He's growing these in the ground here in Northeast Tennessee, about three miles from the VA border (Zone 6a). This plant has been reliably hardy with a mulch since it was set out three years ago and has survived 8?F temps. He also manages to grow a huge clump of Alocasia plumbeae (sp?) outdoors with a mulch and a variety of Arisaemas. +More When I pulled up in his driveway, the two towering spathes couldn't be missed. One was a little over four feet tall and the much larger one was over six feet tall. Beautiful, scary looking things! The flies were buzzing everywhere and with good reason. This was the first time that I'd smelled these and after having grown Typhonium guttatum (sp?) and Dracunculus vulgaris for a number of years, I couldn't see how anything could be much worse. Well, I was wrong. The konjacs smelled very similar to the Dracunculus but much louder! I had to hold my breath when taking pictures down the spathes of the flowering parts. Almost four hours later, I still catch myself thinking that I smell it. It must do something to your mind to cause olfactory hallucinations! Anyway, it was a most pleasant diversion for the lunch hour and I took several pictures. Several of his tropical Arisaemas were also blooming including a large clump of A. triparta and one of the fully-eared purple cobra lily types. Also in bloom were large quantities of Sarracenia (sp?) pitcher plants in multitude of colors in his raised bog gardens. He hybridizes them and you never what he'll come up with in new flower colors. David Sizemore Kingsport, TN "Where the Typhonium guttatums (Sauromatum) have been flowering for a week! "

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