You just never know where your next gardening adventure will come from.
On a recent quiet day, I heard a knock at the door. The Men of Allphase were paying a visit: Tom Gilbert and Dave Andeen, talented craftsmen. Allphase Construction is their company.
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They built the room that has become a sunny, peaceful plant room at our home, but on this day, they were not wearing their building hats.
The subject was gardening. Specifically, Dave had brought me a box, from which he took a tuber he had dug and saved. Dirt and promises of spring cling to it.
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Already, the orange-sized tuber shows pink growth rising from its center.
Leave it in the box, put it in the basement until spring, and don't water it, Dave says. Then, I should either plant it in the ground or in a large pot, as the tuber will grow to a very large size, he tells me.
So, the basement becomes an incubator again. A few years ago, Tom shared some red canna tubers with me, which I wintered in a plastic bag in the basement. While some red blossoms lit up part of my field the following summer, my success was nothing like Tom's at his home nearby.
The gift tuber from Dave descended from a plant given to him by a friend years ago. As often is the case with gift plants, the name is missing, but I think Dave and I have figured out what it is: amorphophallus. More interesting are its common names, including voodoo lily, snake palm, devil's tongue.
Dave's description of its growth, bloom and smell matches what I've read about the plant. Fast grower, two inches a day or more, with a speckled stalk, beautiful leaves and a spectacular flower.
What's most spectacular about the flower?
As Dave puts it: "It smells like rotten meat. That's what it smells like to me."
One of my books, Curiosities of the Plant Kingdom, agrees, saying, "The smell of carrion emanates from the flowers, attracting hosts of flies," which serve as pollinators.
I can't wait to smell what I think.
Lee May gardens in East Haddam and writes at LeeMaysGardeningLife.com.
