Found some voodoo activity in winter storage

[DeepWater]

12 years ago my wife-to-be got some voodoo lily bulbs (tubers) from a retired professor at a garage sale. I took a liking to them because of the beauty in the leopard splotched stalks and cool prehistoric looking leaf patterns. Every year I plant 1 to 3 in pots and decorate our screened in porch with them. The bigger ones went into half wine barrels outside. In the fall when they die back I dig out the bulbs, put them in a bucket, wrap the whole thing in a couple black garbage bags, and put it in a dark cool basement corner for the winter.

They started as a bunch of 1" bulbs. Every year they grow a little bigger and they multiply with little shoots coming off them with new bulbs. After the decade of growing, the biggest is now the size of a coconut. A few others are grapefruit sized.

Well the strangest thing happened. I noticed the other day that a stalk had shot up almost 4 feet tall right through the garbage bags! I immediately brought it upstairs and put it in potting soil in the biggest pot I had available. Any day now we should be treated to a beautiful flower and a disgusting stench!

The scientific name is AMORPHOPHALLUS BULBIFER. (translate that for an LOL) Here's a link that shows a picture of the normal plants and a bunch of pictures of various flowering and seeding stages: https://www.rareflora.com/amorphophallusbul.htm

Stalk poking through garbage bag:

Bulb is over 6 inches wide, set in pot before adding soil.

Length of stalk on Feb 28 is 39 inches:

Length of stalk on March 2 is 46 inches, it grew 7 inches in 2 days. Color has changed from yellow (in the darkness), to getting more red to it (by the window with reflected daylight):

 

[Gemma]

Thank you for sharing, I had no idea of the existence of this beautiful and unusual plant

 

[Meyer Jordan]

A little Jurassic park horticulture. These are really neat plants. You need to get a 'Titanum'.

 

[morewater]

Gonna be a stinky one. The phylum name has "phallus" in it. Wonder why?
Get it out of the house before it blooms or you'll have the neighbors calling in CSI.

 

[adavisus]

I can hear a little cry 'feed me'

 

[DeepWater]

Roughly 24 hours later, this is March 3 and it's grown to 50 inches! The phallus has turned a deeper color, somewhat purplish. Still no aroma and I'm not certain exactly when it will open up.

 

[addy1]

Waiting for the finish!

 

[Timothy]

Like Morewater said, those things really do have an obnoxious odor. It will fill your house with it and people may look at you strangely when you go out.
I think it's the same plant I've heard called the "cadaver" plant....for good reason.

 

[adavisus]

Once the spathe opens, pollination must happen the same day. In many species, the inflorescence emits a scent of decaying flesh in order to attract insects, though a number of species give off a pleasant odor. Through a number of ingenious insect traps, pollinating insects are kept inside the spathe to deposit pollen on the female flowers, which stay receptive for only one day, while the male flowers are still closed

Amorphophallus bulbifer is one of the prettiest of the Voodoo Lilies and the inflorescence doesn't smell that bad compared to others of the genus. Amorphophallus only blooms when mature and even so it doesn't bloom every year. The unpleasant smell that the flower omits is only present for a few hours after the flower opens. If the flower is pollinated (normally by flies if the plant is outside) it will take 1 year for the plant to mature its seeds. The seed stalk is very pretty with the seeds changing colors from green to red. During this time the tuber will not produce a leaf.

You might need to do some fly catching

 

[DeepWater]

3 days later on Monday, it's up to 56 inches tall and the Phallus is very dark purple. The petals of the flower are becoming more apparent as they start to separate a bit from the stalk. It measures 8 inches in diameter. Still no scent to it. I have no idea how many more days until it kicks into full bloom. As winter is still clinging on around here, there are no insects yet (though I did kill a mosquito on Feb 18 during that week of 60 degree weather - it didn't come from MY pond lol!)

And look here - there is a 2nd large bucket in basement storage with 3 more bulbs in it. Turns out 2 of them had some foot long stalks pressing up into the garbage bag. I've potted them too. In 3 days they've grown from 11 to 13 inches for the shorter one, and 15 to 20.5 inches for the medium one.

 

[addy1]

How neat!

 

[moby]

Looks like they were all eager for some action! They won't start to pong till the flower opens. I grow stapelias aka 'corpse flower', pretty, but oh my, do they stink:-(

 

[DeepWater]

It's happening! Yesterday morning 3/9 a scent became slightly apparent when sticking my nose right up into it. It's a floral smell, not wonderful like cherry blossoms, but not stinky or rotten.

Today it's much stronger. Being in an opposite side of the house I think I can smell it. Going in the same room I can easily get whiffs of it. Putting nose against and it's strong. Still just a neutral floral smell, not good, not bad.

It's 18 degrees out this morning... no flies or insects to do their thing. I'd like to kick it into the seed pod phase.

This thing is 62 inches tall, with pot it's taller than me! Measurements as of Friday March 10, from top of bulb to top of plant:

Friday March 10 flower petals starting to open:

 

[addy1]

How so neat! I am so glad you are sharing this adventure!

 

[Usman]

wow seen it 1st time such a strange plant , love rare things
1st i thought u found some one doing magic activity in ur storage like vodo doll lol

i read about it , it blooms after few years and for few days it produces unpleasent odor , flower can reach upto 4-6 feet