Lee Reich | In the Garden Meet the flower that can sprout without soil

IN RETROSPECT, I AM not sure whether the plant from the fellow up the street was meant as a neighborly gift or as chicanery. I had never spoken to him before, but he stopped to chat as I was outside spreading leaves over my vegetable garden one fall day. He began to describe and soon had offered me what seemed a most fantastic plant — one that would flower reliably every winter without even being planted in soil! He returned later that day with a warty tuber somewhere in size between that of a softball and a basketball.

I resisted the urge to plant the tuber in soil, and set it on a saucer just to prevent it from toppling. Sometime in February, as I recall, a dark, pointed shoot began to emerge atop the tuber. In a day, any skepticism I may have had about whether this plant would grow without soil dissolved. The shoot grew noticeably each day — to one foot, two feet, three feet, and four feet. Then, at five feet, an inverted, plum-purple skirt unfurled beneath the chocolate-brown shoot. The flower actually was more eerie than beautiful, with the eeriness intensified by the flower’s being perched atop a five foot stalk emerging from the top of a naked tuber.

Now for the possible joke: my neighbor, perhaps purposely, had said nothing of the flower’s aroma. The whole room where the plant was now reeked like an abandoned fish market. The plant was not admired long before I whisked it into the basement and sealed its head in a plastic bag.

One day soon after, I stumbled upon a picture of this flower as I happened to be thumbing through “Volume

A” of a gardening encyclopedia. There was no mistaking it; my plant was in the aptly named genus, Amorphophallus, probably A, Riviera. The genus Amorphophallus is in the Araceae family, which also includes plants like the Jackin-the-pulpit and the calla lily.

As with the Jack-in-the-pulpit and the calla lily, the true flowers are on the phallus-like, pointed spadix. The inverted “skirt” actually is a modified leaf.

As I delved more deeply into other sources, I learned that Amorphophallus plants have achieved newspaper headlines in their day. In 1932, the New York Botanical Garden received from Sumatra a sixty pound tuber of A. titanum. The tuber grew only leaves for a few years, but on June 8, 1937, a flower stalk emerged. The tuber at this time weighed over a hundred pounds, and the flower unfurled to a width of four-and-a-half feet across after the shoot attained a height of more than eight feet. A New York Times clipping from that time showed the great botanist, Hugo de Vries, perched on a stepladder, peering into the giant flower. How could he have tolerated the stench? (Incidentally, the odor of these plants attracts carrion insects which pollinate the flowers in native habitats.)

I learned from my reading that the show was not over when my plant’s flower finally wilted. (It was over for the specimen at the New York Botanical Garden; that particular species dies after flowering.)

Each year after flowering, my plant needed to grow leaves to feed the tuber for another winter show.

So when the soil warmed in the spring, I planted the tuber in the garden under cover of a few inches of soil. Shortly thereafter, a stalk emerged, this time pale olive-green with dark-brown splotches. A single leaf unfurled when the snakelike stalk reached a couple of feet in height. This single leaf was divided and spread out like three radii of a circle, with each of the three sections fur-

Garden Notes

STOCKBRIDGE Botanical garden programs

Berkshire Botanical Garden presents the following upcoming programs;

• Online, Saturday, Feb. 11, noon to 1 p.m., “In Unison: Creating Harmonious Combinations for Pollinators and You.” Led by garden author Tovah Martin, this lecture provides ideas for a pollinator-pleasing place where colors echo while textural themes reverberate and weave in and out throughout the growing season. Photographed at Furthermore-the instructor’s garden-this lecture is an intimate chronicle of a community of plants and their interrelationships. Steal these ideas. Co-hosted with New England Botanical Garden. Cost is $14 members, $16 nonmembers; ther subdivided. At this stage, the plant was quite attractive, though still eerie. is located at 5 West Stockbridge Road.

At the end of the growing season, I dug the tuber, which had enlarged considerably, for storage. As a tropical plant, even the dormant tubers must never be exposed to temperatures below fifty degrees Fahrenheit. My plant also had grown offsets, miniature tubers growing from the ends of underground runners. After a few years of growth, these also would reach flowering size. Amorphophallus is not likely to be found among the bins of gladiolus, begonia, and dahlia bulbs at garden supply stores in spring. Amorphophallus does periodically turn up for sale in mail order catalogues and on the web under such names as Voodoo Lily, Snake Palm, or Devil’s Tongue. I no longer grow and do not recall what I did with my plant or its progeny. But I don’t think I passed them on to any (unsuspecting) fellow gardeners.

Any gardening questions? Email garden@leereich.com and I’ll try answering them directly or in this column. Visit my garden at www.leereich. com/blog.

EAST LONGMEADOW Garden Club scholarship

Applications are now open for the 2023 Esther A. Rosati Memorial East Longmeadow Garden Club Scholarship in the amount of $1,000. Applicants must presently be an East Longmeadow High School senior or a recent graduate of East Longmeadow High School, be planning to attend an institution of higher learning, or a graduate student who is a resident of East Longmeadow and is attending or planning to attend an institution of higher learning, or an East Longmeadow student who is a resident and has been accepted to participate in a special program.

• Saturday, Feb. 11, 1 to 3 p.m., “Houseplant Healthcare Clinic,” in person. In this workshop, led by Jenna O’Brien, you’ll learn the basics of good house plant health care, from identifying pests and problems to the preventive steps you can take to ensure your prized plants make it through the winter healthy and happy! Students are invited to bring along a house plant they have questions about or one to which they’d like to give some extra TLC. Cost $25 members, $30 nonmembers;

• Saturday, Feb. 11, 4 to 6 p.m., “February: A Celebration of Women in Wine.” In honor of Women’s History Month (March) we’ll be featuring 4 amazing female winemakers who are trailblazers in their industry. Wine tasting will be paired with light snacks from the Dare pantry and a special DIY flower arrangement workshop led by BBG staff. Stay tuned for a list of winemakers and wines that will be featured. Cost $65 members, $75 nonmembers. For more information, or to register, visit www. berkshirebotanical.org; Berkshire Botanical Garden

All applicants must be planning to pursue a degree in agriculture, botany, conservation, ecology, environmental engineering, environmental science, floral design, forestry, landscaping architecture, oceanography, perma-culture/agro-ecology or a related field.

Applicants must include a copy of an official grade transcript and applications must be received on or before Feb. 28. Applicants being considered will be contacted by the East Longmeadow Garden Club’s Scholarship Committee for an interview. The recipient will be awarded the scholarship at the annual May meeting of the East Longmeadow Garden Club. Scholarship applications can be picked up at the high school guidance office or the East Longmeadow Public Library or download it from eastlongmeadowgard. wixsite.com/gardens.

Send completed application and transcript to East Longmeadow Garden Club Scholarship Committee, c/o Diane A. Tiago, 38 Rogers Road, East Longmeadow, MA 01028.

Send items for Garden Notes to pmastriano@repub.com two weeks prior to publication.

Don

and Dave Runyan | Project of the Week