Denver Botanic Corpse Flower about to bloom

I have been on watch for the last few days for the blooming of the Giant Corpse Flower that is at the Denver Botanic Gardens. There is a 24/7 webcam. It dropped its final sepal this morning early sometime and has not done much else since. They were expecting Sunday or Monday for a flowering but it has not yet come to pass. Keeping an eye on it through the night. Here's the link below
Martha


https://youtu.be/j_gXWINuPuw

I know UCONN had one that bloomed a few years ago........didn't go, thought it would be too stinky.....

I went to see the UConn one. Franklin Park Zoo in Boston owns 5 of them in various growth stages two of which bloomed a couple of years ago that I went to see. I also saw one that bloomed a couple months ago at a small college here near where I live. I have watched the one at the US Botanic Garden in DC on webcam also.
Martha

Do they bloom more than once, or do they die off after flowering?

Just once each cycle. It takes about ten years for the corm to get big enough to produce a flower and then depending on conditions 3-5 years or so between blooms. There are a few instances of some blooming back to back two years in a row and some reports that it took others another 10 years. The spathe will crumble in a couple of days, the spadix which has the reproductive parts {the true flowers} will put out a big seed stalk with red seeds if it has been pollinated. If you have ever seen a peace lily flower, that is what the flower parts look like inside the big petal. Denver says they are not pollinating theirs but collecting the pollen to send to another botanic garden who will then return the favor. The rest of the non-blooming years, they put out one giant leaf stalk that looks kind of like a patio umbrella. I saw the one at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston and they said that Morticia's corm weighed about 80 pounds. It was fun checking in all night on the webcam to see this unfurl. It really did take all night to do.
Here's a picture of Stinky from Denver taken from their webcam.
Martha

Yay for stinky! 80 pound corm.....holy moly!

What fun. Perhaps there are other local green houses that have them too? Not sure if memory serves, but perhaps there is one at the Smith College botanic gardens also? Since taking out the garbage is a weekly thing, i bet the short-lived stink wouldn't really be totally horrible, or would it?

Smith has one though it was only a resting corm the last time I saw it back in 2009 or 2010. I don't know what state the ones at Franklin Park Zoo are in.
quite a few colleges have them now.
Martha

It makes good publicity when one blooms, no doubt.

Denver reports an attendance record. over 1000 more people than attended their free Chihuly exhibit day. Lines to get in were long!
Martha

I'd make the numbers a draw, because Chihuly glass is pretty amazing too.

This corpse flower video is cute! from the 2013 flowering of Perry {Hyperion} T. Titan at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. Thanks to P. Tchaikovsky for the music.

https://youtu.be/Cz4gi8mhBvw

Enjoy!

Martha, this gigantic flower is many things, but I would not call it cute. :)

Carrie,
The Waltz of the Flowers as the score is cute too!
Martha

Classical music is highly serious, not cute. You are saying my life's work is "cute?" Hahahaha. Actually Tchaikovsky is not a very "serious" composer at all. He was not lined up with Russian composers of his day. I guess we think there is not enough tension in his music. It's surely poular though.

Ha ha! It's like how we call our gigantic dog our baby puppy. I enjoyed the video.

They are selling these plants on Logees. Anyone here have the patience to own one?

Nope.....couldn't even lift the corm!

Carrie,
Tchaikovsky may not be "serious" but more people have seen The Nutcracker than have seen all the other russians put together. Waltz of the Flowers was the first 45 rpm record I ever owned!
Martha

Excellent point, Martha! The first 45, hunh? My first 45 was probably ... hmmm, I can't remember! I do remember that my parents had this "great works" record set, and there was one called "Rite of Spring." I though about that one for a long time, finally I got together what I considered a fitting ballet costume (no idea) and danced to Rite of Spring....until I heard it! My childish memory is "Ugh!" Nowadays, I can talk about Stravinsky's periods and his use of Russian folk melodies and the audience reaction in 1913 Paris and Stravinsky's arrangement with Dhiagalev but....UGH!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiH3vA7q0jo

The Rite of Spring is what lots of people think of when they think of "modern music." Fantasia made Stravinsky much more mainstream with Disney animation, but to my seven (? maybe six) year old proto-ballerina self, it was certainly NOT what I expected from a record called "Rite of Spring." Of course, Tchaikovsky is in Fantasia too!

Rosemary,
I think I saw them for sale at Plant Delights in their catalog. But you better have the proper conditions to grow them in before you even send them your credit card number. They need the right amount of space, light, temps & humidity, and water. The one in Denver reached about 5 ft and they have been known to grow to 6 or 7 ft. Then, their leaf stage can also reach 10 ft or so.
It's a committment to grow one of these babies.
Martha

The commitment is more than I'm up to unless a greenhouse is ever in my future!

Thanks for sharing about the flower. I kept thinking of the Disney hippos dancing with the video.

My first recording was Ravel's Bolero, and it ushered in a lot of fancy dancing, too.

I love Ravel.

Here you go guys!
https://youtu.be/mrEk06XXaAw
Martha