Topic: Dragon Arum

[jennym]

These flower so briefly, but this year they are huge!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mine has a vast flower which was beginning to open last night. They haven't really developed their scent much so far this year, but that's no bad thing!

[Marianne]

What a strange and beautiful plant jennym!  I have never seen anything like it before!  :o

Thank you.

  :D ;D

[Heldi]

They are great!

[Curryandchips]

I am not normally one for flowers, but they are spectacular ...  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I have a bud which is just beginning to open, and I measured it tonight. It's just over two feet long! I believe the seeds aren't hard to germinate, though I'm not sure how long it takes. They certainly self-seed. With any luck I may have some on offer later.

[dandelion]

Groovy looking plant 8)! Does it stink?

[Robert_Brenchley]

It certainly can. Like any plant, the smell depends very much on the weather; I had a flower the other week which I couldn't smell at all. At other times it's like deliquescing corpses. My roses are just coming into bloom and I can't smell them either.

[lorna]

I am with Marianne on this one... I have never seen one. looks great ,what a cracker.
Thanks for posting Jennym.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Here's my monstrous bloom. It's over two feet high, stinking (I could smell it 20 yards off), and covered in flies. They land on the spadix, which is slippery, and slip down into the bulb at the base of the flower, where pollination takes place. I managed to get a look down inside it. and it was a heaving mass of insects, mostly beetles.

[GREENWIZARD]

very striking :)

[jennym]

Wow Robert, that's a good one! Mine do smell a bit sometimes, but not that much - but then they live on the shady side of the garden, maybe that affects the smell. I did also take a photo when they first started coming up, the stems look so peculiar, and sort of, well alien!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Alien is the word, it's the most sinister-looking hardy plant I've come across. I think that's the fascination.