Cognac or Konjac – We’ll take the Latter

For those who have followed us for a while, you know we have a fascination for tuberous aroids, particularly those in the genus, Amorphophallus. We’ve spent quite a bit of time making seed selections as well as hybrids, often using the super winter hardy Amorphophallus as a parent. So far, we have 14 species that have survived our cold winters in the ground (Zone: 7b/8a).

Most of the typically seen selections of Amorphophallus konjac are either on the tall side or don’t have a dense growth habit, so we thought we’d tackle trying to create some shorter and more compact selections, so the clumps would stay tighter in the garden. In 2021, we made our first selections from many hundreds of seedlings, when they went in the ground for field trials. Below are a few that we’ve found interesting.

One of the Amorphophallus konjac selections that the late Alan Galloway loved, was a Dutch cut-leaf selection we acquired decades earlier, and named Amorphophallus ‘Shredded Umbrellas’. During the last few years of his life, he made crosses with it and Amorphophallus albus. We’ve selected one clone from his cross (bottom image) and named it in his honor, as Amorphophallus x konbus ‘Alan’s Legacy’.