A year ago I bought a bat flower plant. At the time, it had 4 leaves and 2 dying blossoms. For about 6 months I kept in the house, where it got filtered sunlight and good air circulation. On an overcast, rainy day, I took it outside to allow it to possibly benefit from the nutrients and minerals in the rain water. With no direct sunlight where it stood, I left the plant outside. It got it's first blossom and a new leaf in March. Since then, a new blossom and leaf has followed, one after the other. 6 months, constant. 13 new flowers and leaves, and counting! I don't know if this growth is unusual, but there doesn't appear to be any let-up, which is a happy surprise to me. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to upload photos.
Bat flower - Tacca Chantieri
Hello, irchairweaver, and welcome to the Accessible Gardening Forum. Unfortunately, I don't know what a bat flower plant is. Wer'e chatting over on this thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1404438/
I had to look this one up. How cool! A truly black flower. Zone envy. Do you think it will still be flowering on Halloween? That would be fun.
Thanks for including the botanical name. My mind jumped to cuphea when I saw the common name “bat flower”, but cuphea is called bat-FACE flower, isn’t it.
Welcome to the forum.
You’ve got to see this one, Carrie. It’s a trip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacca_chantrieri
(Jim)
Yes, I thought of cuphea too, Jim.
That would make a fabulous article for Halloween--I wish there were more information about it! (I just need to jump start my article-writing career again. It's not exactly writer's block; I just haven't finished an article since May 1. Partly because I was sick, but still.)
Irchairweaver, I wish you could send me some pictures! This is an exciting plant.