Voodoo Lily, Corpse Plant, Leopard Palm, Snake Palm, Konjac or Devil's Tongue! A plant with that many names is lucky to have a single botanical name: Amorphophallus konjac. I will call it the inoffensive name Konjac as per the the definitive book Aroids - Plants of the Arum Family by Deni Brown. This plant has been cultivated in China for more than 2,000 years!
Eric Perrette (Senior Gardener - Grower) at Powell Gardens' greenhouses poses next to our first one to bloom this year. Eric is 6'-1" so our flower is 5 feet tall! At this point he said he is "used to" to the unpleasant smell of the flower.
I asked Eric to give the flower a sniff and you can see the expression! The flowers smell (and look like) rotting flesh so they attract appropriate flies to pollinate them. This is the largest one we've grown; they grow larger over time until the bulb weighs about 22 pounds. The flower emerges from the dormant bulb in winter or early spring.
The foliage of Konjac is quite beautiful comprising the large plant in this container (taken summer 2008). You can see why another name for this plant is leopard or snake palm because of the beautifully mottled black on pink stems. The leaves emerge in spring and are a huge candelabra of foliage through the summer. The plants get larger and larger each year. They are marginally hardy, able to survive outdoors if planted in a sheltered spot near a warm foundation. We let our plants go dormant and store them in the greenhouse headhouse until the flowers begin to emerge -- then we pot them up and move them into the greenhouses. This year they will be on display in the fragrance display! (Come see this plant on display this weekend.) The real nasty smell only lasts a couple days.
We also have two related species: the Elephant Yam Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, which produces an even larger bell-shaped, fluted flower. Its bulb can weigh up to 55 pounds and ours is not old enough to bloom yet. The largest flower of them all is Ammorphophallus titanum the Titan Arum, which always attracts national media attention when it periodically blooms at botanical gardens across the country. Our plant has years to go until it will flower and we will surely let you know when it does!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
An Olfactory Experience
Monday, July 21, 2008
Containers in Color
We are a month past the Summer Solstice and the summer annuals and tropical plants are full sized and exuberant at Powell Gardens! Here's a brief show of some of our containers and plantings...
This container in the Perennial Garden (by former Senior Gardener Jay Priddy) is one of my favorite. It contains the three "classic" elements of container design: thriller, filler, and spiller. The thriller is hare's tail grass (Lagurus), the filler is a cultivar of black-eyed-susans (Rudbeckia hirta) and the spiller is Margarita Sweet Potato (Ipomoea battatus). The use of a grass and a cultivar of a native wildflower really speaks to our region of native grasslands.
The Chapungu Sales tent covers part of our terrace beds outside the Visitor Center but the remaining corner functions as a container. The dramatic use of a Variegated Fucrea (Fucrea)"thriller" and shocking 'Crystal Palace' red geraniums makes quite a composition. The crisp stone edging to the bed makes use of a "spiller" obsolete here. This design is by Horticulturist Anne Wildebor.
This container by Anne Wildebor has a mix of harmonious foliage plants with just a splash of contrasting pink flowers. The dramatic foliage is Canna 'Sunburst' on either side with a Black Elephant Ear (Colocasia) in the center. Coleus 'Fishnet Stockings' and Alternanthera 'Red Thread' are fillers all being set off by the pink angelonia in bloom. Again the low crisp container would be muddied up by a spiller.
This container by Anne Wildebor is about texture and the wonderful color we take for granted: GREEN. A spectacular 'Macho' Boston fern is perfectly punctuated by a white Caladium. This container only gets morning sun under the east overhangs of the Visitor Center.
This dramatic Leopard-Palm (Amorphaphallus konjac) has a pink caladium to help set off the subtle pink in the print of its stem. A spiller would "muck up" the elegant container. This design is by Anne Wildebor.
Even Edible Landscaping can be unique: this container near the entrance to the Heartland Harvest Garden has a dramatic fig (Ficus carica) with a base of curly parsley for contrast. It's all green but the drastic change between coarse dramatic leaves of the fig and fine detail of the parsley leaves make it work. This design is by Matt Bunch and Barbara Fetchenhier: look for their containers of edibles at the entrance plaza to the Heartland Harvest Garden north of the Visitor Center.
The seasonal display beds around the Visitor Center are reaching maturity with this wonderful planting (designed by Tracy Flowers - now gardener at the Kauffman Memorial Garden) outside the north side of the Conservatory: huge Castor Beans, sword-like Purple Majesty Millet, purple and white Kahuna Petunias and an edging of trailing Blackie Sweet Potato all make for a stunning, tropical-esque composition.Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Summer is the Season for Colorful Containers
Tropical plants in containers displayed outdoors in the garden are one of the botanical pleasures of our hot, steamy summers. Below are some masterful container combinations put together by our Horticulturist Donna Covell for the Under A Blue Moon Rare Plant Auction at Powell Gardens last Saturday night. The combinations were so spectacular I thought I should share them with our Powell Gardens' friends for container combination ideas. It is not too late to put together some of your own masterpieces! Most of the plants depicted were donated by Heartland Nursery (I-470 and View High Drive) and Vintage Hill (north of Boonville, MO--a great day trip from here).
Here Belize Rubber Tree with its spectacular pink tinged variegated foliage is the "thriller" of this tall, dark green ceramic container. Good container design often uses "thriller," "filler" and "spiller" plants (P. Allen Smith's terms). Chenille plant will be a spectacular spiller as this container grows.
This hanging cone basket has 'Black Coffee' begonia as its thriller, white impatiens as its filler and fronds of Boston fern as future spillers.
Agapanthus makes the thriller in this ceramic container, with petunias as filler and Margarita sweet potato and purple heart as future spillers.
The thriller of this plant is the 2008 hot plant Agonis 'Jervis Bay After Dark' or "Peppermint tree" from Australia. We got this plant from Heartland Nursery and the use of brown Kalanchoe and silver Curry Plant make this an exquisite combination for the blue ceramic container.
The Leopard Palm (Amorphophallus konjac) with Calatheas in a translucent tan container was the hit of the silent auction.
These combinations of white and chartreuse plants in contemporary, translucent aqua blue containers were also a hit. The back container's thriller plant is a variegated ginger and the foreground planter's is Kona Coast Copperleaf.
