Amorphophallus titanum flowering at Selby Gardens

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 1999.05.10 at 21:22:38(3345) Here is a copy of our latest press release. The largest bud is now showing spathe and spadix through an opening in the outer sheaths and is about 35 inches tall, growing about 3-4 inches per day. Based upon flowering data from Fairchild Tropical Garden and Atlanta Botanical Garden, our largest bud should be open in about 10-12 days. The smaller may be up to a week later, so we are planning a pollination attempt. Stay tuned to our web site at: www.selby.org Donna Atwood Selby Gardens +More 8aa S. Palm Ave. Sarasota, FL 34236 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COLOSSAL BOTANICAL SUPERSTARS PREPARE TO FLOWER AT MARIE SELBY BOTANICAL GARDENS The Titan arum, or Amorphophallus titanum, considered by some to be the world?s largest flower, is rapidly developing its immense bloom at Selby Gardens. Sometime during mid-May, this bizarre behemoth of the plant world will unfold a frilled crimson pleated bud encasing a towering columnar spadix, rising from the center, ultimately reaching a predicted height of seven feet or more. This rare flowering event has only occurred 7 times during this century in the United States. It is a true botanical wonder! Over the next two weeks, the Titan Arum, known only from Sumatra but a close relative of the more familiar Jack-in-the-Pulpit, will vigorously unfurl its complex inflorescence composed of hundreds of individual male and female flowers. During this time, the bud will grow about 4 inches a day, but the full flowering will last only 48 hours, afterwards collapsing dramatically of its own weight. This event promises even greater titillation than all others of this kind, as Selby will have TWO of these magnificent monsters in bloom! Because all living organisms vary, both plants may not reach their peak flowering on exactly the same day. But this lapse of a few days between the critical point will allow Selby?s horticulturists an unprecedented opportunity to hand-pollinate one of the plants by transferring pollen from male flowers of one plant to female flowers of the other. Never before has the Titan Arum yielded seeds in cultivation, so this planned attempt, if successful, will be a first! Visitors can view the flowering giants in the trellis area just outside the doors of Selby?s Display House, beginning Thursday, May 6, 1999, from 10 AM to 5 PM daily, until the end of flowering which is predicted to be sometime around May 20-25. It is not yet certain exactly how long this amazing display will last, so visitors are advised to call 941-366-2815 for a recorded message with daily progress reports. For images and updates throughout the flowering event check Selby's web page at: www.selby.org

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1999.05.12 at 03:08:07(3347) Dear Donna, GREAT NEWS!! Congrats!!! Thanks for letting me know about this 'blessed' event!! One point, if at ALL possible, try to 'slip in' a note about Jim Symon`s roll in bringing the seeds of these wonderful plants out of the wild and sharing them with the Botanical Garden`s of the World, all at his own expense, and his unfortunate death BEFORE he could see the seeds grow and bloom! He will appreciate it. Again, congrats to all at Selby!! Sincerely, Julius +More P.S. How is the Montrichardia doing?? >Here is a copy of our latest press release. The largest bud is now showing spathe and spadix through an opening in the outer sheaths and is about 35 inches tall, growing about 3-4 inches per day. Based upon flowering data from Fairchild Tropical Garden and Atlanta Botanical Garden, our largest bud should be open in about 10-12 days. The smaller may be up to a week later, so we are planning a pollination attempt. Stay tuned to our web site at: www.selby.org Donna Atwood Selby Gardens 8aa S. Palm Ave. Sarasota, FL 34236 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COLOSSAL BOTANICAL SUPERSTARS PREPARE TO FLOWER AT MARIE SELBY BOTANICAL GARDENS The Titan arum, or Amorphophallus titanum, considered by some to be the world?s largest flower, is rapidly developing its immense bloom at Selby Gardens. Sometime during mid-May, this bizarre behemoth of the plant world will unfold a frilled crimson pleated bud encasing a towering columnar spadix, rising from the center, ultimately reaching a predicted height of seven feet or more. This rare flowering event has only occurred 7 times during this century in the United States. It is a true botanical wonder! Over the next two weeks, the Titan Arum, known only from Sumatra but a close relative of the more familiar Jack-in-the-Pulpit, will vigorously unfurl its complex inflorescence composed of hundreds of individual male and female flowers. During this time, the bud will grow about 4 inches a day, but the full flowering will last only 48 hours, afterwards collapsing dramatically of its own weight. This event promises even greater titillation than all others of this kind, as Selby will have TWO of these magnificent monsters in bloom! Because all living organisms vary, both plants may not reach their peak flowering on exactly the same day. But this lapse of a few days between the critical point will allow Selby?s horticulturists an unprecedented opportunity to hand-pollinate one of the plants by transferring pollen from male flowers of one plant to female flowers of the other. Never before has the Titan Arum yielded seeds in cultivation, so this planned attempt, if successful, will be a first! Visitors can view the flowering giants in the trellis area just outside the doors of Selby?s Display House, beginning Thursday, May 6, 1999, from 10 AM to 5 PM daily, until the end of flowering which is predicted to be sometime around May 20-25. It is not yet certain exactly how long this amazing display will last, so visitors are advised to call 941-366-2815 for a recorded message with daily progress reports. For images and updates throughout the flowering event check Selby's web page at: www.selby.org <<<

From: "Scott Hyndman" <hyndman at magicnet.net> on 1999.05.12 at 03:11:40(3348) Donna, I was very happy to see your note on Aroid-L about your twin Titan Arums; CONGRATULATIONS! I may not be able to be there for the first inflorescence opening due to a trip to London at month's end for the Chelsea Flower Show, as well as a Kew visit, but hopefully the inflorescence phenology of your second tuber will wait for me. I saw the nearly open Fairchild Amorphophallus titanum inflorescence last year, and it was incredible! You asked me some months ago about Am. titanum controlled pollination, so here are the essentials on the pollination of your twins. This information is from my personal experience on pollinating other Amorphophallus species, as well as the information from Jake Henney's learned experience in ornamental aroid controlled pollination. The technique discussed in the following is not precise, as there is probably more art than science involved. And others may have other methods that have worked too; anyone else please do give their input too. Wilbert gives an interesting account of general Amorphophallus pollination in situ at http://hoya.mobot.org/ias/Genera/Amorphophallus/amintro.html Amorphophallus pollen is not physiologically amendable to long term storage, unfortunately. It may last a month or so under the proper storage conditions, but that may even be pushing the potential of the viability. However, the window of opportunity for pollen viability with human intervention is far greater than the female flower receptivity as I am sure you are aware of; the stigmas will be at peak receptivity for just a few hours. +More The principal reason for this fleeting pollen viability is that it is trisomic, i.e. it has three nuclei rather than the more typical disomic pollen in the majority of the plant kingdom. This factor along with other genetic, physiological, and morphological factors make for a short lived pollen. But in this case, in the native Sumatran rainforests that the Amorphophallus titanums are endemic, it gets the job done so to speak. This same pollen type also exists in other aroids from that region like Aglaonema, as well as others that may be undefined as of yet. So, think high humidity, and in order to prolong viability, a bit cooler conditions than the pollen would normally experience so as to slow down the metabolism. This is how you should collect, store, and finally apply the pollen to the receiving female flower stigmas: 1. The pollen must not get wet or moist, nor should it be allowed to dry out. 2. Collect the pollen with a clean instrument to minimize microbial contamination that could cause problems during the cool, moist storage conditions. This "instrument" could be a spatula or small spoon that was flame sterilized. Try to avoid using fingers if possible. 3. Pollen collection could be facilitated by cutting a small access into the base of the spathe in the region of the male and female zone of the spadix. The Atlanta Botanic's horticulturists did this with their inflorescence last year, and you can see the technique at http://www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org/cut.htm 4. Place the pollen into clean, dry glass containers that have closures that can be left loose fitting to allow gas exchange. Perhaps you could use test tubes and the plastic caps that go with them that you may have left over from the days of the Eric Young Micropropagation lab operation at Selby. There will be a lot of pollen shed, so collect as much as you think you might need. But do not over load the containers with pollen as this may cause adverse physiological conditions, i.e. anaerobic conditions, mechanical squashing, poor gas exchange, etc. Again, the closures for the pollen storage containers should be loose fitting to allow gas exchange. 5. Put the containers of pollen into another clean container that has a moist, but not wet, clean paper towel on the bottom to promote high humidity. This container could be, for example, a Rubbermaid or Tupperware tub with a tight fitting lid. How ever you decide to engineer the storage containers, keep in mind that you want the pollen to remain in a high humidity environment, but the pollen should not get wet. 6. The next critical ingredient in this botanical feat you are attempting to accomplish is to keep the pollen at cool temperatures until you are ready to apply the pollen to the recipient stigmas. Cool temperatures in this case means a refrigerator at about 45 to 50 F (7 to 10 C). Try not to go below 40 or above 55 F (below 4 or above 13 C) as this could cold damage the pollen, or hasten the pollen metabolism via warm temperatures respectively, and subsequently diminish viability in either case. Too cold is probably the worse of the two extremes though. 7. Allow the pollen to reach ambient temperatures before pollination. 8. For applying the pollen, use a clean, moistened brush to apply pollen to each of the stigmatic surfaces. 9. After you finish the pollination, you need to maximize humidity to as near 100% as possible in the zone of the female flowers on the spadix for the following 12 or so hours. Jake Henney does this on Dieffenbachia and Aglaonema pollinations by loosely wrapping the spadix first with a damp paper towel, and then enclosing this with plastic wrap. Perhaps damp paper towels wrapped around the spadix appendix to effectively plug the funnel of the spathe topped off with some plastic wrap would keep the humidity high to promote the pollen germination. 10. You will know within a day or less if the pollination is successful as the spadix will remain in place as the spathe degenerates at the end of the phenology. Please do keep us posted on your progress, and please take good photo documentation for all of us to follow your success. Good luck, Scott -------------------- Mr. Scott E. Hyndman Winter Park, Florida, USA USDA Hardiness Zone 9b E-mail: Homepage: http://hoya.mobot.org/ias/Aroider/hyndman.html ---------- >From: SelbyHort@aol.com >To: hyndman@magicnet.net >Subject: Amorphophallus titanum flowering at Selby Gardens >Date: Mon, May 10, 1999, 5:24 PM > > Here is a copy of our latest press release. The largest bud is now showing > spathe and spadix through an opening in the outer sheaths and is about 35 > inches tall, growing about 3-4 inches per day. Based upon flowering data from > Fairchild Tropical Garden and Atlanta Botanical Garden, our largest bud > should be open in about 10-12 days. The smaller may be up to a week later, so > we are planning a pollination attempt. Stay tuned to our web site at: > http://www.selby.org > > Donna Atwood > Selby Gardens > 8aa S. Palm Ave. > Sarasota, FL 34236

From: "Alan Galloway" <alan at unity.ncsu.edu> on 1999.05.13 at 03:06:09(3349) On May 11, 10:13pm, Scott Hyndman wrote: > Subject: Re: Amorphophallus titanum flowering at Selby Gardens Donna, Congratulations to the Selby staff on the upcoming Titan event.....Are you folks going to be taking photos that can be used to print postcards? > +More > You asked me some months ago about Am. titanum controlled pollination, so > here are the essentials on the pollination of your twins. Scott, Thanks for this aritcle on pollinating Amorphs. I found it very interesting. I have to disagree with you somewhat. From my very limited experience of pollinating Amorphs I have noticed 2 types of pollens. For the non-amateurs, I will conitinue this thread in non-technical terms. Amorphs such as A. paeoniifolius have a yellow, wettish, heavy type of pollen that is rather difficult to work with. This type of pollen probably should be handled as Scott stated. Amorphs such as A. konjac have a black, dust-like type of pollen. I have kept A. konjac pollen in a plastic container in the refridgerator for 1 year before using it and the results were near 100 percent successful. I have collected A. konjac pollen in a plastic container and left it in the greenhouse without a lid on the container for 6 days and it was still perfectly good. The greenhouse temps ranged from 45- 80 degrees within the 6 day period. If and when my lil titans come into bloom, I'll be following Scott's advice and hopefully Donna's confirmation on Amorph pollination. Alan -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Galloway alan_galloway@ncsu.edu Computing Services, Information Technology Campus Box 7109 http://www4.ncsu.edu/~alan North Carolina State University (phone) 919-515-5483 Raleigh, NC 27695-7109 (fax) 919-515-3787

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 1999.05.15 at 01:50:25(3357) Thanks Alan, for this suggestion. I am sure we will be getting some good photos, and it will be fairly simple to get some postcards made after the flowering. I'll let you all know if that happens. I've had other suggestions, such as one to print up airline courtesy bags with a statement something like "I survived the Amorphophallus flowering at Selby Gardens!"...a souvenir for those who are only coming only to be grossed-out by the smell. Our "Big Boy" was over 49" (124.5 cm) this morning, Friday May 14, and grew about 4-5 since yesterday, mostly at night. The more petite bud is 28 inches (71 cm), and beginning to grow more rapidily now that it is free of the cataphyll.. The cataphylls have not fallen yet on the larger bud. I noticed on Fairchild's web site that their cataphylls fell about June 18th, and the flower opened June 24-25 or so, about 5-6 days later. It looks like Atlanta's bracts fell around July 2 and the flower was open only 2 or 3 days later. We are looking at the timing of our flower development and can't quite figure our opening date, with this amount of variability between those two events. I guess we can say, once the bracts fall, that we have anywhere from 2-6 more days to go! Our web site should have more pictures up today (www.selby.org). We are putting up a series of photos made starting about 6 days after these plants broke through the soil. These will be linked to a set of tables with daily measurements for each plant. If anyone sees a press report of this event in their local media, I would certainly appreciate knowing about it. Thanks, Donna Atwood Selby Gardens +More 811 S. Palm Ave. Sarasota, FL 34236 phone: (941) 954-1237 fax: (941) 366-9807 e-mail: selbyhort@aol.com Amorphophallus Hotline: (941) 366-2815 In a message dated 99-05-12 23:05:56 EDT, you write: << Donna, Congratulations to the Selby staff on the upcoming Titan event.....Are you folks going to be taking photos that can be used to print postcards? >>

From: Wilbert Hetterscheid <hetter at vkc.nl> on 1999.05.17 at 18:10:38(3364) Ah, so it IS going to flower! Well, that makes my previous message superfluous. That's what you get when you leave town........ Cheers, Wilbert +More > ---------- > From: SelbyHort@aol.com[SMTP:SelbyHort@aol.com] > Reply To: aroid-l@mobot.org > Sent: maandag 10 mei 1999 23:21 > To: hetter@VKC.NL > Subject: Amorphophallus titanum flowering at Selby Gardens > > Here is a copy of our latest press release. The largest bud is now > showing > spathe and spadix through an opening in the outer sheaths and is about > 35 > inches tall, growing about 3-4 inches per day. Based upon flowering > data from > Fairchild Tropical Garden and Atlanta Botanical Garden, our largest > bud > should be open in about 10-12 days. The smaller may be up to a week > later, so > we are planning a pollination attempt. Stay tuned to our web site at: > www.selby.org > > Donna Atwood > Selby Gardens > 8aa S. Palm Ave. > Sarasota, FL 34236 > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > COLOSSAL BOTANICAL SUPERSTARS PREPARE TO FLOWER > AT MARIE SELBY BOTANICAL GARDENS > > The Titan arum, or Amorphophallus titanum, considered by some to > be > the world?s largest flower, is rapidly developing its immense bloom > at Selby > Gardens. Sometime during mid-May, this bizarre behemoth of the plant > world > will unfold a frilled crimson pleated bud encasing a towering columnar > > spadix, rising from the center, ultimately reaching a predicted height > of > seven feet or more. This rare flowering event has only occurred 7 > times > during this century in the United States. It is a true botanical > wonder! > Over the next two weeks, the Titan Arum, known only from Sumatra > but > a close relative of the more familiar Jack-in-the-Pulpit, will > vigorously > unfurl its complex inflorescence composed of hundreds of individual > male and > female flowers. During this time, the bud will grow about 4 inches a > day, > but the full flowering will last only 48 hours, afterwards collapsing > dramatically of its own weight. > This event promises even greater titillation than all others of > this > kind, as Selby will have TWO of these magnificent monsters in bloom! > Because > all living organisms vary, both plants may not reach their peak > flowering on > exactly the same day. But this lapse of a few days between the > critical > point will allow Selby?s horticulturists an unprecedented opportunity > to > hand-pollinate one of the plants by transferring pollen from male > flowers of > one plant to female flowers of the other. Never before has the Titan > Arum > yielded seeds in cultivation, so this planned attempt, if successful, > will be > a first! > Visitors can view the flowering giants in the trellis area just > outside the doors of Selby?s Display House, beginning Thursday, May 6, > 1999, > from 10 AM to 5 PM daily, until the end of flowering which is > predicted to be > sometime around May 20-25. It is not yet certain exactly how long > this > amazing display will last, so visitors are advised to call > 941-366-2815 for a > recorded message with daily progress reports. For images and updates > throughout the flowering event check Selby's web page at: > www.selby.org >

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 1999.05.21 at 15:44:26(3381) Selby Amorphophallus titanum update: On Thursday, May 20, at about 3 PM, the first of our Amorphophallus titanum flowering buds began to open. The bud sat unchanged all day and no one had noticed any discernible changes until about 4PM, when one of the staff passed through the viewing area on her way home. She noticed that the spathe had begun to spread away from the spadix and was rapidly expanding. All of us scrambled for cameras, press were notified and a photographer, who had been selected for the assignment was called in. It was an exciting evening as several of the staff witnessed the unfurling! And the nauseating stench emitted was everything we might have imagined! The stench began almost imperceptibly, then as the evening wore on, the waves of foul odor began pulsing at what seemed like regular intervals...at times the wall of putrid stench would seem as through it was slamming into each of us with a tangible force. It seemed to have a great deal of power. The security guard arriving for the 10 PM shift announced he had smelled the odor from the parking lot, even before he got out of his truck. At one point as I was facing the almost fully expanded inflorescence, a magnificent burst of fetid breath seemed to hit my eyes...it felt as though something had actually touched the surface of my eye, and my eyes immediately smarted strongly bringing tears! The effect was so totally incredible, it must be experienced to believe. I do hope all of you with A. titanum waiting to flower will have the opportunity to sit in front of this stupendous plant and witness the whole event! We have another flower that should open within 2-3 days and today we will collect pollen from the open inflorescence and save it to pollinate the second. I will post another messsage as time permits. Donna Atwood Selby Gardens +More 811 S. Palm Ave. Sarasota, FL 34236

From: Lester Kallus <lkallus at earthlink.net> on 1999.05.21 at 21:27:50(3382) Donna, I find this description of the stench interesting. The folks in Miami & Atlanta both described their bloom's odor to be disappointingly mild. Do you have any idea what accounts for the overwhelming nature of the odor in the Selby inflorescence? +More (Actually, I find the draw to the odor much like the Saturday Night Live skit that showed a family passing a jug of milk around so that all could experience how foul it had become.) Les

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 1999.05.28 at 20:49:10(3405) Les, The first inflorescence's smell was really undescribably potent during the opening, but the second one was downright dainty by comparison....Both started opening late in the afternoon, beginning at almost the same time. The first started opening on Thursday, May 20 at about 3 PM, and continued expanding til about midnight. The second started opening about 3:30-4 PM on Monday, May 24 and was fully expanded by about 11 PM. We pollinated this second inflor. late on the night of the 24th, when the females were most receptive. +More I will send an update posting after I have had some sleep and can gather my thoughts. We are all terribly sleep deprived here and just moved both titanums back into the greenhouses this morning and tucked them into bed. Now we are all going home to crash. Two Titanums flowering at the same time is almost more than a person can endure! I guess now I know what its like to have twins! More soon, Donna In a message dated 99-05-21 17:27:42 EDT, you write: << Donna, I find this description of the stench interesting. The folks in Miami & Atlanta both described their bloom's odor to be disappointingly mild. Do you have any idea what accounts for the overwhelming nature of the odor in the Selby inflorescence? (Actually, I find the draw to the odor much like the Saturday Night Live skit that showed a family passing a jug of milk around so that all could experience how foul it had become.) Les >>

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1999.05.31 at 15:38:50(3406) Dear Donna, Thanks for keeping 'us' up to date on your twin 'babies', and enjoy the well-deserved rest! I`d like to suggest that you keep your eyes on the second and smaller (also perhaps significantly, much less 'stinky') inflorsence. It may just yet give another clue to something I`ve been seeing in some Aroids (Anaphyllopsis americana, for example), and which has been 'proven' in the genus Arisaema, which is the ability for a smaller ('weaker'?) plant to contribute to the gene pool by it`s pollen yet not it`s seed, as it is/may be unable to provide enough resources to support the development of seed during the long time it takes for an infructesence to develop. Even if the pollenation on the second and smaller inflor. does not 'take', maybe a portion of the female zone should be preserved in spirit so that the structure of the female flowers would be available at a later date for dissection and analysis? This may all be a moot point, as hopefully you will see signs of an infructesence developing soon! Please keep us informed, and again congrats! Sincerely, Julius +More >>>Les, The first inflorescence's smell was really undescribably potent during the opening, but the second one was downright dainty by comparison....Both started opening late in the afternoon, beginning at almost the same time. The first started opening on Thursday, May 20 at about 3 PM, and continued expanding til about midnight. The second started opening about 3:30-4 PM on Monday, May 24 and was fully expanded by about 11 PM. We pollinated this second inflor. late on the night of the 24th, when the females were most receptive. I will send an update posting after I have had some sleep and can gather my thoughts. We are all terribly sleep deprived here and just moved both titanums back into the greenhouses this morning and tucked them into bed. Now we are all going home to crash. Two Titanums flowering at the same time is almost more than a person can endure! I guess now I know what its like to have twins! More soon, Donna<<<

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 1999.06.03 at 16:19:16(3413) Dear Julius, Yes, we are concerned that the smaller inflor. won't be up to the task of fruiting. Too bad the big, vigorous one did not open second instead. The second inflor. was not even very fragrant. It did have an interesting coloration, don't know if you saw the web photos....but it did not turn red all the way to the edge of the spathe....had a green "picotee" around the spathe edge. Also the color was more "orangy" than maroon. We'll see.. Can anyone tell me exactly what signs we should be seeing if we have successful pollination? +More I think we should have taken some tissue samples to see under the microscope. The spathe tissue was most interesting...really big cells! Also the spadix interior was full of thin white spider-webby fibers. I am afraid that by now most of the tissues have deteriorated beyond the point of any use. The big inflor. (the first one) is really holding up pretty well....the base of the spadix (with female and male flowers) is still quite firm and does not seem to be disintegrating. I will see about getting some sections made of this tomorrow and have some microphotography done. More later, Donna In a message dated 99-05-31 11:38:48 EDT, you write: << Dear Donna, Thanks for keeping 'us' up to date on your twin 'babies', and enjoy the well-deserved rest! I`d like to suggest that you keep your eyes on the second and smaller (also perhaps significantly, much less 'stinky') inflorsence. It may just yet give another clue to something I`ve been seeing in some Aroids (Anaphyllopsis americana, for example), and which has been 'proven' in the genus Arisaema, which is the ability for a smaller ('weaker'?) plant to contribute to the gene pool by it`s pollen yet not it`s seed, as it is/may be unable to provide enough resources to support the development of seed during the long time it takes for an infructesence to develop. Even if the pollenation on the second and smaller inflor. does not 'take', maybe a portion of the female zone should be preserved in spirit so that the structure of the female flowers would be available at a later date for dissection and analysis? This may all be a moot point, as hopefully you will see signs of an infructesence developing soon! Please keep us informed, and again congrats! Sincerely, Julius >>

From: Lester Kallus <lkallus at earthlink.net> on 1999.06.03 at 16:24:00(3414) Donna, Any idea whether the pollination was successful? How long will it take for us to find out? Les +More At 03:50 PM 5/28/99 -0500, you wrote: >Les, > >The first inflorescence's smell was really undescribably potent during the >opening, but the second one was downright dainty by comparison....Both >started opening late in the afternoon, beginning at almost the same time. The >first started opening on Thursday, May 20 at about 3 PM, and continued >expanding til about midnight. The second started opening about 3:30-4 PM on >Monday, May 24 and was fully expanded by about 11 PM. We pollinated this >second inflor. late on the night of the 24th, when the females were most >receptive. > >I will send an update posting after I have had some sleep and can gather my >thoughts. We are all terribly sleep deprived here and just moved both >titanums back into the greenhouses this morning and tucked them into bed. Now >we are all going home to crash. Two Titanums flowering at the same time is >almost more than a person can endure! I guess now I know what its like to >have twins! > >More soon, >Donna > >In a message dated 99-05-21 17:27:42 EDT, you write: > ><< > Donna, I find this description of the stench interesting. The folks in >Miami & > Atlanta both described their bloom's odor to be disappointingly > mild. Do you > have any idea what accounts for the overwhelming nature of the odor in the >Selby > inflorescence? > > (Actually, I find the draw to the odor much like the Saturday Night Live > skit > that showed a family passing a jug of milk around so that all could >experience > how foul it had become.) > Les > >>

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