My Voodoo Lily is Blooming!

One day toward the end of January I innocently opened my pantry door, and a coiled snake was staring me in the face. 

My startled gasp had barely escaped my lips and my heart had not recovered its normal rhythm, when I realized it was not a snake at all. It was my Amorphophallus konjac, AKA voodoo plant, snake lily, devil's tongue and corpse plant. All of these names are appropriate.

This is what happened: Back in the fall I had dug up the tubers of my two voodoo lilies, which live in pots out in the garden through spring and summer. After brushing the dirt off the tubers, I put them in a sack and placed them on a shelf in my pantry, with plans to replant them when new growth began in the spring. 

My excuse for owning these plants is that I did not know what I was doing when I bought them; and once I had them, it was too late. For the full story, read my old post Under the Spell of the Voodoo Plant. When I first acquired them in 2010, my voodoo plant tubers were tiny, the largest being only about the size of an almond. It takes about five years for these plants to grow to blooming size. The largest one was almost four inches across when I dug it last fall, and 2015 would be its fifth year; so I was expecting it to bloom this spring.

This is what the larger voodoo plant looked like after I rescued it from the pantry shelf. The tuber is almost four inches across. Note how wide the stalk is as it emerges.I thought the smaller one, which was about an inch smaller, could need another year.

Notice I said I thought it would bloom this spring. The reason the plant is called corpse plant is because the flower is said to smell exactly like rotting flesh. (Surely that was an exaggeration!) Because it would be out in the garden when it bloomed, I was not concerned.

The plant decided to surprise me. The smaller tuber sent up a slender stalk, which poked a hole through the plastic sack and then grew upward until it encountered the bottom of the shelf above it. It then turned sideways and reached the cabinet door, which I am sure it would have pushed open if I had not first opened it myself.

I stared in amazement at this thing. There was a swelling at the end of the coiled, spotted stalk, which could easily be interpreted as the head of a snake. I realized the plant was going to bloom.

In February. Inside my house. Oh, no.

Upon research, I discovered that Amorphophallus konjac sends up its bloom in late winter to early spring. So my plants were right on time. I untangled the tuber from the plastic sack. The larger tuber was also pushing up a stalk. It was shorter but much thicker than the other one. It was going to bloom, too.

This photo was taken February 1, about a week after I took the voodoo plants out of the pantry. The smaller tuber is still leaning dramatically to one side, but it has begun to straighten.

I transferred the tubers to a pot, and I watched anxiously as both plants grew rapidly. With space and light, the little one soon straightened itself. Its inflorescence unfurled by the second week of February.

February 7. The first bloom! Our cat Autumn checks out the smell.Powerful enough to bring tears to my eyes, the bloom had the stench of a very bad crime scene. Fortunately, we had a few warm days while it was blooming, so I was able to sit it outside during the day. We were amazed by how many tiny flies came to the plant, hunting for food but being cruelly tricked even as they did their part in pollination. At night I brought the plant inside and put it in the back part of the house where our cat Autumn stays. I made sure the door was firmly shut between that area and the main part of the house. I am not sure how Autumn felt about this arrangement. After one whiff, she kept away from the plant.

The stink persisted about a week, and then after a couple of weeks the bloom began to decline. Meanwhile, the larger plant was growing to about three feet tall with a stalk over an inch thick. Now, a month after the small one bloomed, the larger one has opened its cobra-like hood.Strange and beautiful! In the lower right image, one can see remnants of the first bloom, to the right of the stalk.

The weather, which has been freezing this week, warmed up today and will stay mild. Outside the voodoo plant goes! By the time it has finished blooming, it will be time to plant these weird plants in their summer pots. In a month or so they will send up unusual, umbrella-like leaves, which will add an exotic note to the garden.

My plants are young. In coming years the tubers could grow to a foot in diameter and send up stalks nearly six feet tall. Amorphophallus konjac is stunning in every way. What do you think? Would you forgive the stench?

Under the Spell of the Voodoo Plant

Did I make a mistake?

First, I should explain the two ways I choose plants for my garden.

Number One: I wander around my garden, noticing gaps and identifying needs. I then browse plant catalogues, as well as search through my garden books and magazines. I list plants that could fit my criteria. I research their light, soil, and water requirements. I make sure they will grow in my 7b hardiness zone. I think about how they will complement their plant neighbors. I consider their growth patterns. How big will this plant get? How does it spread? Will it become invasive? I always look for beautiful foliage and hope the plant will have pretty flowers, too. Sweet fragrance is a wonderful plus. It had better be low maintenance. Finally, I choose the one that appeals to me, and then I go outside and look again. I may place an object, a rake or a bucket or something with the same general shape and size, in the potential planting spot. Will it really look good there? If the answer is yes, then I hunt for the plant, preferably locally. Sometimes I order via catalogue or on line, but I always get a larger plant for a better price from local sources. Then, at last, I plant it. This whole process can take months or longer.

It may work, or it may not.

Number two method: I am not in the market for a plant, but I happen to spy one somewhere. Oh, I love it! I must have it! I buy it and bring it home. I don't know a thing about it, and I have no idea where I will put it.

This also may work, or it may not.

I used method number 2 when I recently acquired a Voodoo Plant at Carol Washington's garden party. I wrote about her garden in my last post, A Southern Garden Party. I was captivated by the plant because of its stem, which is patterned like snakeskin and feels eerily like human flesh. Another common name is Snake Lily.I brought the plant home and later did some research on it. 

The botanical name is Amorphophallus konjac. It's an exotic perennial which is hardy in zones 5 to 9, though it doesn't like wet winters and may do better if the corms are dug, shaken free of soil, and stored in a cool, dry place for the winter. They will also do well in a pot and can be grown indoors.

Maybe I will grow mine outside in a pot.

It likes high humidity and heat.

That's me!

It grows in shade to filtered sun.

That's fine. Sounds like the woodland garden will be my plant's new home.

It likes moist soil during the growing season and should be watered weekly. Plants in the ground should be fertilized in June and August. Potted plants should be fed monthly. Any general fertilizer is okay to use, but for best corm development the fertilizer should be high in phosphorus and potash. A good tomato fertilizer will work. 

None of this is a problem, and I was congratulating myself on finding a great new plant. Then I started reading more. The leaves at the top of the stem are actually leaflets, part of one giant, umbrella-like leaf, which can grow to two feet wide or larger. The round, spotted stem may grow over four feet tall. By now I realized I had, not one, but two plants in my pot!

This sounds great! I was smiling.

After several years mature corms will send up a hooded bloom in spring.

It blooms! This is getting better and better!

And then I read more about that bloom. The inflorescence is a large maroon, lascivious thing. The plant has another name: Devil's Tongue. It smells like a rotting corpse — another name: Corpse Plant! The foul odor attracts flies and other pollinators. The smell is so bad that in its native Southeast Asia people have been known to faint from the stench. It is said to be the most stinky plant on earth.

So there I have it, a plant whose putrid bloom will have my neighbors calling the cops to look for dead bodies. And I have two of them! Carol Washington, was your lack of full disclosure on purpose, or, like me, are you just another gardener under the spell of the Voodoo Plant?

If I had known, would I still have brought it into my garden? Most certainly. Yes. Of course I would! I like the weird and wonderful. And the Voodoo Plant only blooms for a few days. I don't think it will be that bad. But if I see the vultures circling over my garden, I will go take a sniff. I will carry a gas mask with me just in case. If I have to use it, I will cut the bloom off and bury it under two feet of compost...or maybe I won't!

Update on Monday, July 11, 2011 at 4:09PM by Deborah Elliott

To discover what happened in 2011, read A Little Voodoo Plant Magic.

Update June, 2014

My Voodoo plant hasn't bloomed yet, but it has certainly grown. I started with two corms, each the size of an almond. Now they are the size of baseballs. I always store them over winter and replant them in April. Each is in its own large pot, and now the stalks coming out of the soil are about an inch thick. I suspect the corms will grow to be much larger this year. 2015 will be year five, and I think they will probably bloom then. I read somewhere that Amorphophallus konjac takes about five years to bloom. We will see, and smell!

Update, March, 2015

Yes, it bloomed! Read My Voodoo Lily is Blooming!