A. titanum at Selby - update

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 1999.05.13 at 23:48:23(3352) Here's the latest on the Amorphophallus titanum flowering event here at Selby Botanical Gardens. We have two flowering buds developing and they appear to be timed about three days apart. The larger bud has broken free of its cataphylls and is now enlarging rapidly. This morning it is 113 cm, or 44.5 inches tall. It has grown over 3.5 inches since yesterday. The smaller bud started "peaking" out from its cataphylls yesterday and is now 65.4 cm or 25.75 inches high. We are tentatively predicting that the larger bud will open about 8 days from now, the smaller one about three days later. That will place peak or near peak flowering for the first bloom around the weekend of May 22-23. Of course, we can't know with any certainty this far in advance, so I will keep you all updated every couple of days on the flowering progress. I am gathering some information about our cultural techniques for these two plants and will post that in my next message. I do hope some of you can make a trip to see this double flowering. It is apparently very rare for two titanums to be so sychronized. Does anyone have any information about whether a double flowering in cultivation has ever occurred before? Please let me know via this newslist or e-mail me directly at More soon! Donna Atwood Selby Gardens +More 811 S. Palm Avenue Sarasota, FL 34236 phone: (941) 954-1237 fax: (941) 366-9807 e-mail: selbyhort@aol.com Amorphophallus titanum Hotline: (941) 366-2815 - recorded message updated each morning by 9:30 AM ET

From: Craig Smith <craigsmith at sprintmail.com> on 1999.05.14 at 02:52:59(3355) Dear Aroid-L and Donna, Donna Atwood wrote about the double flowering Titanums at Selby Gardens - that they would probably flower 3 days apart. I have observed informaly that the A. Konjac seems to respond to temperature reductions by growing more slowly. With over a week to go and only 3 days apart, would it be possible to shelter / cool the first plant a bit and bring their flowering closer to improve chances of a pollination????? +More Might be worth a try. Regards, Craig

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 1999.05.15 at 01:46:27(3356) Craig, We can't move the titanums indoors to do any temperture controls. Right now they are placed outside under a roof near the exit of our Display House. One of the things we have struggled with is how to stage these massive plants so that visitor traffic flow won't be bottlenecked. We really don't have a good place to display such large plants! Something for all of you who have potential flowering specimens to think about! We are concerned about night roaming animals such as racoons and opossums when the plants near peak flowering and release odors that might attract such critters, so we have 24 hour security keeping watch. As for the timing of flowering: we can probably successfully store the pollen for a day or two under controlled conditions. Scott Hyndman provided some useful notes about this procedure a couple of days ago. Donna Atwood Selby Gardens +More In a message dated 99-05-13 22:52:52 EDT, you write: << Dear Aroid-L and Donna, Donna Atwood wrote about the double flowering Titanums at Selby Gardens - that they would probably flower 3 days apart. I have observed informaly that the A. Konjac seems to respond to temperature reductions by growing more slowly. With over a week to go and only 3 days apart, would it be possible to shelter / cool the first plant a bit and bring their flowering closer to improve chances of a pollination????? Might be worth a try. Regards, Craig >>

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