There’s just something about a plant, whose inflorescence looks like a giant phallus, and smells like a pile of rotting meat, that people just can’t resist. Perhaps, it’s the horticultural equivalent of staring at a car wreck. If you’re one of those individuals who is so inclined, or you’re just entranced with nature’s sense of humor, we’ll have something special to show you soon.
When we last posted an image two weeks ago, the bud had barely broken the soil. As you can see below, the impending inflorescence on our Amorphophallus titanum ‘Homo Erectus’ is now growing like Jack-in-the-proverbial-beanstalk. Below is an image from July 24, when the height measured 42″. We track several stats that will hopefully help us predict the opening date, but despite our best attempts, this is an imperfect science. We equate predicting a bloom date to predicting the birth of a child.
Based on what we know currently, we predict the inflorescence to open on Sunday evening August 3 around 4pm. If the date holds, we will be open then from 1-8pm. Since the show typically lasts for 24-48 hours, we will be open 8am-8pm as long as the show continues. To keep updated on the progress, be sure to follow our Facebook page for updated opening times. We should have a more accurate opening prediction 48 hours prior, when the cataphylls fall…think the equivalent of your water breaking.
We’ve just moved it into a more public location in our hosta sales greenhouse, so the public can visit. You can also watch our livestream of the grand event on our You Tube feed. You can also find out more about the Titan Arum, and explore the list of all the documented flowerings in human history here.
To get an idea of what you’ll see once it fully opens, the bottom photo is an image of the same plant when it last flowered in 2023.
