Easy Propagation Method and Voodoo Lily
Easy propagation method.
When the variegated ivy put out a long shoot of growth last fall, I tucked one end of it into a shorter bowl filled with vermiculite.
Both bowls sat on an east facing windowsill over the winter and were watered infrequently but at the same time. Both containers dried out between watering.
Today, I cut them apart. How easy is that?
VOODOO LILY
When Brent and Becky's Bulbs had their end of the season sale, I bought a Dragon. It was planted in a large pot and stayed in the garden shed over the winter. Here is its bloom as of yesterday.
Paghat says, "Dracunculus vulgaris (aka Arum dracunculus) is variously called the Dragon Arum, Voodoo Lily, Ragons, Snake Lily, Black Arum, Black Dragon, Dragonwort, & Stink Lily. In Greece it is called Drakondia, the dragon or serpent being the long spadex inside the enormous maroon-lipped spathe.It is native to the Balkans, to Mediterranean Europe, Greece, the isle of Crete & the Aegean Islands, all the way to Southwest Turkey. In some places it's a veritable weed in its natural settings, albeit a weed of splendid countenance.Though it looks like it ought to be tropical, it is not; & it transfers to the temperate garden with great ease, doing well in zones 5-8."
Someone took one into a local garden center and asked what it was. A local plant expert said it was a weed and to some people it is a weed because it spreads freely if it likes where it is growing.
If mine made baby bulbs I'll try one in the ground.
When the variegated ivy put out a long shoot of growth last fall, I tucked one end of it into a shorter bowl filled with vermiculite.
Both bowls sat on an east facing windowsill over the winter and were watered infrequently but at the same time. Both containers dried out between watering.
Today, I cut them apart. How easy is that?
VOODOO LILY
When Brent and Becky's Bulbs had their end of the season sale, I bought a Dragon. It was planted in a large pot and stayed in the garden shed over the winter. Here is its bloom as of yesterday.
Paghat says, "Dracunculus vulgaris (aka Arum dracunculus) is variously called the Dragon Arum, Voodoo Lily, Ragons, Snake Lily, Black Arum, Black Dragon, Dragonwort, & Stink Lily. In Greece it is called Drakondia, the dragon or serpent being the long spadex inside the enormous maroon-lipped spathe.It is native to the Balkans, to Mediterranean Europe, Greece, the isle of Crete & the Aegean Islands, all the way to Southwest Turkey. In some places it's a veritable weed in its natural settings, albeit a weed of splendid countenance.Though it looks like it ought to be tropical, it is not; & it transfers to the temperate garden with great ease, doing well in zones 5-8."
Someone took one into a local garden center and asked what it was. A local plant expert said it was a weed and to some people it is a weed because it spreads freely if it likes where it is growing.
If mine made baby bulbs I'll try one in the ground.
Comments
The bulbs were about the size of a small egg. I put them in a half barrel in the corner of my garden. Nothing happened in the spring of '06 and I forgot about them. Around the first of April of '07 two unusual plants came up I thought was some kind of weed, but left them alone because they were attractive; then a spike appeared on each of them and grew rapidly to two feet long. Then the spike began to unfurl to the most amazing deep purple flower with the spathe sticking out of it on April 30. I identified it on the internet, but detected no odor. The flower wilted in less than two weeks, then the whole plants. There were no seed pods and I just left it alone.
In the spring of '08 three plants appeared in mid April, one seemed to be an offshoot of another, and the flowers did not open til May 10 and smelled like a dead rabbit for a couple of days, but not unless I got really close to it. One of them was at least three feet long (High). The flowers lasted about 10 days again. Then near mid June I discovered the newest plant had produced a seed pod. It was about the size of a piece of KFC corn on the cob.
I was so excited, I harvested it and ran in the house to see what to do with it, and learned I should have left it until it dried. Oh, well. I closed it up in a brown paper bag.
A couple weeks later I peeked in the bag and the seeds were falling off of the "cob". Some had turned orange. I have been pressing them into starter parts and sharing with friends with no promises.
Yesterday I decided to move the plants and dug up the bulbs. The plant that produced the three foot flower had a bulb 51/2 inches across and 21/2 inches thick! It looks like "babies" growing on the sides (like green hen and chicks produce smaller ones on the mother plant) I snapped some of them off and hope to grow more Dragon Arum from them.
The older of the other two plants the bulb is about the size of my fist and the newer one, the size of an egg.
I am wondering if the bulbs can be cut up in smaller pieces.
I haven't had a minute to look into the pot. Glad yours is still thriving.
I wouldn't cut the tuber/bulb. I think they multiply by making bulblets rather than by being cut. The little ones you are planting will take a couple of years to become large like the mother bulb.
Oh, and mine only smelled foul for a day or two, also.
Strange and wonderful plant isn't it?