The large one is over 5 feet tall and the stem is at least 3 inches across – that means the rhizome must be the size of a football!

Here is another unusual thing in my garden – an Italian tomato call Cuore Di Bue (which means Heart of Ox) – It’s a fancy oxheart type tomato with lots of flesh and not much seeds.   Have not had any turn red yet, but I’ll post a pic when they do!  How’s your garden growing?

My black eyed Susan (rudbeckia) is blooming gangbusters!  And spreading out nicely – Lots of flowers to cut and bring inside in a vase!

What?  You don’t have flowers in your yard to cut and enjoy!  Well stop into any Walter Knoll Florist location and check out our Summer Roses – a full dozen are only $12.50 cash n carry – at $12.50 a dozen, I think you’ll want 2 or 3 dozen!   What a perfect day to take a dozen roses over to your neighbor who is grabbing your newspaper off your front lawn while you vacation next month!

SR36 - 36 summer roses, arranged and delivered for $81.98 (LOCAL ONLY)

Or we have mini hydrangea bunches at wholesale pricing too – $24.95 for a mixed pastel colored bunch.  (While supplies last)

HYDR Hydrate Your Day Hydrangea Bouquet $61.98 Delivered thru 7/24 (LOCAL ONLY)

Mr Stinky and Family

As you can see they are just beginning to sprout – much more interesting is the fact that several corms I left in the garden have been growing for about 2 weeks – REALLY GROWING! Two plants are over 3 feet tall and nearly that wide – take a look

See the smaller Stinkies in front of the steps?

This one showed up in the middle of the Iris Patch

I love the speckled stems

Strange foliage - looks pre-historic to me

So I guess with the mild winters we now have in St Louis, Mr Stinky will be perennial!

23-1/2 Inches today 3/26/09

Not as much height growth over the last 24 hours - but the flower is certainly beginning to take shape

5pm on March 25 - he's 21-1/2 inches

9am on 3/24 Mr Stinky is 18" tall

Interesting Foliage during Summer Months

Here’s a little left-over something from my Chicago days. One of my flat-mates’ father was a missionary who traveled the world. He brought a funny tuber back from India that many years later he shared with me – funny potato-looking thing with a very bizarre but interesting growing pattern. He called it an Indian Stink Lily. Many years later and thanks to the internet I have been able to find out about this curious plant – Amorphophallus – also known by many other names including elephant foot, voodoo lily, Telinga potato, corpse flower, and dragon flower just to name a few. When this plant blooms it exudes a fragrance not unlike the smell of rotting flesh. And how funny to receive a plant with such a phallic shape from a missionary!

Mr Stinky on 3/17 - St Pats Day, 1 day of growth!

My one tuber has multiplied many times over but I have only had one bloom before this year’s attraction – that other bloom was in my living room – the March after I received the tuber – before I could smell any foul odor coming from it, any dog guests I had immediately lifted their legs upon entering my apartment. Well, no more doggie friends until this thing is done blooming, but after a day of smelling it, I had to put it out on the back porch to let it die back in the cold. According to Wikipedia, “these are typical lowland plants, growing in the tropical and subtropical zones of the paleotropics, from West Africa to the Pacific Islands.   None of them are found in the Americas although a remarkably similar but not closely related genus, Dracontium, has evolved here” and can be found on the West Coast.

I have planted the tubers directly into my Saint Louis gardens and forgotten to dig them up to bring in for the winter – only to have them reappear around late May – wintered over in the garden! Of course it is too cold here for them to bloom outdoors but they will act like perennials even though they are purported to be tropical or sub-tropical – St Louis weather is really not any kinda tropical (well, perhaps a bit tropical in August).  Here are a few more pictures of my plants’ really unique foliage.

Eventually they create an umbrella shape

Top view, before the leaves canopy

Some very strange speckled stems!

Mr Stinky's Flower stalk, not open yet - and growing 3 to 4 inches a day! This photo is shot in our greenhouse today, 3/24/09

Usually I dig them up and pot ‘em and put them in the basement to winter over, but this year I put them near a South facing bedroom window and about a week ago started to see a bloom coming! Well I own a dog and wasn’t going to put up with that leg-lifting business again so I brought Mr Stinky to work. His bloom as of today has not completely formed and he’s growing 3 or 4 inches a day! Come visit him at our garden center at the corner of California and LaSalle – come soon, I’m sure the garden center helpers are going to make me take him away once the “odor” arrives! While you are here check out all the new spring items coming in, we have some wonderful hand blown glass hummingbird feeders and other giftware as well as tons of growing things coming in almost daily!  Here are a few pics for you!

Azaleas

Our new pottery line includes pots with saucers and matching birdbaths.

Red and Yellow Stemmed Dogwoods

Marigolds (buy one for each tomato plant!)

Yarrow Plants

For years I have searched for information on my VooDoo Plant but have never found foliage or flowers that look like mine – until today, check out Martha’s blog here for more info and photos – I wonder if she got her’s from a missionary!  It looks to me that we have the same variety.  I’m planning to put a photo up daily chronicalling Mr Stinky’s bloom so check back!