Dracunculus time in the Ozarks

[Steve Marak]

I detected a stench while stacking pots in the bleach barrel today, so I was pretty sure the first Dracunculus vulgaris inflorescences were open even before the Turkey Vulture buzzed me at low altitude. Other than our native Arisaema, this is the tuberous aroid I've grown outdoors the longest, and it's still a favorite. I'm curious how many others grow this surprisingly hardy, very easy, and dramatic species?

Steve
NW Arkansas

[Robert_Parks]

It is not entirely happy outdoors in SF (presumably summer too cool and dry even with irrigation), but it comes up and increases in size slightly each year.

Sauromatum venosum (also planted out) comes up late and sometimes flowers.

[Steve Marak]

Interesting as I'd have expected it to do better in SF than NW Arkansas. Here it will tolerate full sun but is much happier in half shade.

Sauromatum venosum is also hardy here and has also been outdoors 30+ years, surviving brief lows around -20 F (-29 C) several times. It also flowers every year, and often sets seed, as does Dracunculus vulgaris. Amorphophallus konjac grows well and flowers but never sets seed.

Steve

[Robert_Parks]

Interesting as I'd have expected it to do better in SF than NW Arkansas. Here it will tolerate full sun but is much happier in half shade.

Sauromatum venosum is also hardy here and has also been outdoors 30+ years, surviving brief lows around -20 F (-29 C) several times. It also flowers every year, and often sets seed, as does Dracunculus vulgaris. Amorphophallus konjac grows well and flowers but never sets seed.

I'm on the west side in the hills, so summer is comprised of days in the 60s/nights in the 50s, gusty winds, and enough fog blasting through that under the dripline of trees irrigation isn't always needed! The backyard is more clement, but the wind still comes through and tears stuff up. If I was on the east side of town, I suspect it would be extremely happy...as would most of my other plants (zone 10B instead of 10A (and daytime temps 10F higher), 50% of the wind, 10% of the condensing fog).

My Sauromatums may have gotten pollinated this year, as the flowers are only lasting a few days (last year they remained for weeks!) we'll see. The only other aroid that sets seed is Zantedeschia aethiopica (various forms).

For most of the big Amorphophallus, I have to cheat in the spring...store cool in the garage (50F) or outside covered (lows 30s/40s), I bring them into the warmish house, pot them up, and once they break the soil, put them outside, where they will expand despite the cool temperatures, otherwise they won't break dormancy til Indian Summer in Sept/Oct. I have one big konjac that blooms every year, the others increase slowly.

[MarcR]

I have it planted; but it hasn't flowered yet.  I think it may be in bud for the first time.

[Diane Whitehead]

I haven't tried that one.  The closest I have is Arum nigrum.

[Steve Marak]

My Sauromatums may have gotten pollinated this year, as the flowers are only lasting a few days (last year they remained for weeks!) we'll see. The only other aroid that sets seed is Zantedeschia aethiopica (various forms).

I noticed tips of Sauromatum just above the soil while taking the Dracunculus pictures so they'll be flowering soon here.

I've tried Zantedeschia aethiopica outdoors here several times and the issue isn't cold-hardiness of the geophytic part, but that it gets fooled by early warm spells and then zapped by late hard frosts. (Dracunculus puts foliage up in late February and it will tolerate 20 F [-7 C] no problem, which still surprises me.) Zantedeschia species and hybrids which are theoretically less cold hardy often do better outdoors here because they break dormancy much later, and will persist a few years, but an unusually cold winter always gets them eventually.

Steve

[MarcR]

Steve,

You might try a deep mulch of hardwood leaves. Oak or Maple work well[ avoid Walnut].

[Judy Glattstein]

Dracunculus is hardy here in western New Jersey. Flies crawl all over the flower. Last year had a black turkey vulture looking for a ?dead woodchuck it thought must be somewhere around. But neighborhood dogs are completely uninterested.