Our recent Titan Arum flowering caused quite a stir in the area, resulting in 8,400 visitors to Juniper Level Botanic Garden. On the two other occasions we’ve had one flower, our attendance hadn’t exceeded 1,000 people, so having this many folks was quite unexpected. At times, the line to see, smell, and touch, exceeded 300 people, resulting in a wait up to 3 hours. We are incredibly thankful that everyone was so patient, especially during a 1.5 hour soaking thunderstorm on Friday evening when the line was near peak.
This clone, Amorphophallus titanum ‘Homo Erectus’, flowered for its second time. This is a plant we started from seed in 2004, and gave to plantsman Alan Galloway. When Alan passed away in 2020, we re-inherited it. At peak, this years spike reached 69″, which is actually our shortest inflorescence to date. The list of worldwide cultivated Amorphophallus titanum flowerings continue to grow, and will soon pass the 1,000 mark, since 1889. So far, only seven gardens have flowered the same Titan arum five times, and only two, University of California Davis and Eastern Illinois University have flowered the same clone six times. You can find the flower tracking list here. If you know of any omissions, please let us know.
Based on our past flowerings, we had put together a spreadsheet to help us predict our flowering date, which we had scheduled for Saturday evening. On Thursday after noon while I was at a meeting in Iowa, I received a texted photo that it’s water had broke and flowering had begun. Fortunately, I was able to return home by late Friday afternoon, in time for most of the weekend festivities.
The typical life expectancy of the inflorescence is usually 24-48 hours, but the spadix (central spike) remained erect on our plant for a whopping 88 hours. We have our fingers crossed for another flower in 2027, but with these unpredictable plants, who knows.
When I heard it was opening on Thursday I decided to get up early Friday and come. I thought at my age may be my last opportunity..lol. I made the 2 1/2 hour drive from Va and it was a fabulous experience. I must say when I came it was only a few people and no line, a blessing for me. I was happy to see families with children learning about the plant. Of course I came home with a box of plants and 4 new amorphophallus. Please continue to add them to your catalog and if you know of a source for other species that aren’t hardy for us I would love to know. I have a small collection of them I winter over in my garage and am hoping to add more.
A missed opportunity for the endowment fund Tony….even if you had only charged $1.00 a person!
Yes, we learned that lesson for sure. Some other gardens charge as much as $25.
The live feed and seeing all the visitors getting a peek was wonderful! The crew worked hard to accommodate so many folks and a friend of mine who went was most complimentary.
It was great to experience and see all the excitement