The Garden Community for Garden Lovers
 

Kincardineshire, United Kingdom Gb

Hi there everybody .....I trust you and you gardens are all thriving?
Now than I am looking for some help as ever...!
My sitootery has been looking fab again this year with an increase in exotics as doing annual stuff is quite beyond me nowadays but Dot my gardener is doing her best.
However - does anybody recognise this plant?
It pops up every year - never fails and never flowers and just dies back down after a few weeks!
I must have planted it MANY years ago but have not the foggiest what it was/is. My only idea is something of the ginger plant type of thing as I once did plant one but I doubt if it survived!
By the way....yes the stem is very mottled brown/green - almost leopard-like.... and the leaves are almost brown "stained".
My apologies for the pic, folks....blame the reproduction..it looks ok on the original!!

Some of you will know I am sure ......



Mystery_plantimage1

Answers

 

A cautious YES! It is an aroid, certainly, and I think Sauromatum venosum or Voodoo Lily. The trouble is that you live in Kincardineshire and the Sauromatum needs a dry rest period over winter. We grow it but as a pot plant. I have just unpotted the tubers of ours and I will now keep them in a tray in a cool part of the house, totaly dry. They will be potted up again, in dry compost, in February time, now in the front porch, where it will put up a arum like purple spathe in late April (which last for about 48 hours!). The pot then goes onto the patio and the foliage, which I love, comes through in Late May and lasts until August. If it is Sauromatum, which I strongly suspect, then it is not totaly happy with being in the open Scottish garden but I am very pleased to see that it is surviving!

11 Oct, 2014

 

Sorry BBH....I should have reminded everybody that my
sitootery is indeed undercover and is virtually a conservatory!! So my "oddity" is far from being in an open Scottish garden...and must have survived in the frost-free conditions in there for about 10+ years!
It gets all the dry and mulched rest - with everything else in that small bed - that it wants over the winter period and I completely forget even where it is...until it reappears - as healthy as ever!!
My one complaint is that it hasn't flowered in all that time.... Which of course would have given me a clue or two...LOL
Voodoo Lily rings a bell and indeed - on reflection I remember being "given" just such a thing by one of the mail order companies many moons ago.
Now that I have identified it, this year I will encourage it and thank you for your help BBH - as ever - invaluable!
Yours aye
Alz.

11 Oct, 2014

 

I would say an aroid, probably Sauromatum venosum. It is a lot more hardy than most think (I have heard -18C). A winter mulch in the UK and planted deep and in loose soil and I should be hardy even up in NE Scotland. It should flower every year!

11 Oct, 2014

 

I don't think that cold would such an issue as winter wet up here, Botanic, - we don't do 'dry'! I have occaisionaly tried offsets outdoors but they only last a year.

12 Oct, 2014

 

Good morning each! Spot on both - it is a very definite aroid voodoo lily.....and having just visited the society's website and seen my mystery plant clearly depicted there - I thought to quote the caption to it for our mutual edification ... Remembering of course that the society is in the USA ....

" Fairly common in the nursery trade, Sauromatum is probably one of the hardest to kill and easiest to multiply aroids in existence.
The only serious threat to its well-being is low humidity and spider mites, to which it is singularly most susceptible. No other plant I've seen can develop serious infestation of spider mites as fast as Sauromatum can."

Interesting info..and happily neither problem has troubled my very mature specimen....so far!!
Now then - to go back to the website and find out how to make it flower......!!
Thanks again both for you help - very much appreciated...I will let you when and if it does ....but don't hold your breath....LOL

12 Oct, 2014

 

Actually, A, you might want to hold your breath when it does flower :-)))))))))

12 Oct, 2014

 

VERY TRUE BBH.......there are no flies on you...:-))))))))

12 Oct, 2014

 

Sauromatum venosum does not have a strong aroma. It must have some scent as it produces lots of seeds (and small bulblets) every year, so it tickles somethings fancy.

Good point on winter wet Bulba. Mine is in the umbrella of a huge Tetrapanax Rex, so it stays pretty dry.

13 Oct, 2014

 

I'm not sure what sort of TAME variety of Voodoo Lily you have Botanic.....but here is what Kew gardens say about it...LOL

"Native to upland areas of Africa and Asia, voodoo lily has flowers that emit a foul smell resembling rotting meat. This odour attracts insect pollinators such as flies. Despite its putrid smell, voodoo lily is popularly cultivated as an ornamental. Its popularity is due in part to it being one of the easiest aroids to propagate and one of the hardest to kill".

13 Oct, 2014

 

Botanic grows it in the open garden. Ours are pot grown and are in the front porch to flower - and yes, it does smell! I liken the smell to that of fresh cattle slurry; it is a smell that does not bother me and it only last for 24 hours. One day I will succeed in getting it on the showbench during that 24 hours!!!!!!!

14 Oct, 2014

 

Will you be standing close by the bench with nose clips BA?

14 Oct, 2014

 

Oh my goodness - you are wicked BBH!!
I gather you will NOT be expecting to win any prizes then...LOL

15 Oct, 2014

 

Well folks - I am happy to say that the voodoo lily has STILL never flowered yet so we have not been affected by the reputedly horrible aroma!!
VERY healthy leaves as always.... But perhaps it is better that way...LOL
I hope you are all having a good summer and that your gardens are flourishing?......... mine certainly is looking very lush after all the rains!!

10 Jul, 2015

 

Ours flowered in April Alz, as usual, and is just starting to come into leaf.

10 Jul, 2015

How do I say thanks?

Answer question

 


Not found an answer?