We are always interested in checking out the offspring, when plants in the garden have unexpected romantic rendezvous with their distant cousins…often when we least expect it. We have found arums tend to be quite promiscuous in the garden. While most offspring go to the great compost pile in the sky, a few are worthy of adoption and naming.
Below is our selection of a cross of Arum dioscorides x Arum italicum that we named Arum ‘Love Child’. While the foliage resembles typical Arum italicum, the spring-borne flowers show great influence of Arum dioscorides with the purple spotting inside the spathe. It’s our hope that Plant Delights will have a first crop of this new hybrid to share in the 2023 catalog.


When the promiscuous plants procreate, how can you be sure who crossed with whom? Do you do genetic testing to determine that or just make a best guess by the visible results?
Great questions. With most plants, you can visibly observe traits of both parents. In some cases, especially in the first generation, there may not be any traits that indicate a hybrid, so DNA testing would be the only option.