Dear All: Ellen Hornig sent this post to me thinking it went to the PBS list members, too. I responded thinking I was responding to the full PBS list, and not until then did I realize that we were posting "privately". So with Ellen's consent, we're going public with this. Enjoy! Hi, Jim - I *did* mean to post it to PBS - guess I didn't check first, since I thought it always went to PBS if you replied to a list message there. Whoops. Unfortunately, I was writing via mail2web.com, and didn't save a copy. If you have the energy to re-post it for me, along with your own response (and a brief explanation of what happened), it might be of interest to other people. I don't think very many people think to try arisaemas in the sun - but that is indeed where a few species like to be. Here is Ellen's post, followed by Jim McKenney's response: Switching here to the arisaema question: Jim, you mention that A. consanguineum doesn't look happy for you. I wonder if many people are giving it too much shade? Here in the north, it is absolutely fine in full sun (though the blue ones look less blue there - a touch of shade becomes them), and will take sharp drainage as well. It's one tough plant. In shade, it stretches, flops, and languishes; in full sun, it's stocky, mostly upright, and vigorous. If in between, it's fine, but based on my observations it really does need at least a half-day's full sun to flourish. And I observe a lot of them....those little offsets get into the compost and end up all over the garden (which is how I first learned that they're happy in full baking (northern) sun). A. candidissimum, BTW, also likes at least a few hours of full sun - keeps it stocky and blooming well. And Jim: *of course* it's worth a drive all the way to here, in the middle of nowhere. Did you ever doubt it? :-) Ellen Seneca Hill Perennials Oswego NY USA Zone 5, with outstanding snow cover And Jim's response: Ellen, I have not tried these Arisaema in the sun yet, and your description of plants in the shade under your conditions sounds just like the ones here (which are in the shade). Several of the Asian Arisaema seem not to like it here: A. ciliatum, A. consanguineum, A. candidissimum, A. griffithii, A. elephas and others come to mind. In fact, I'm doubtful about all of the Arisaema on the monsoon schedule. Arisaema candidissimum grew here for years, and bloomed each year; but I eventually trashed it. Why? Because the plants came out of the ground inflorescence first, and the "stem" of the inflorescence continued to grow with the result that the spathe always ended up arching over into the mud. It didn't live up to its name here very well - here it was not so much Arisaema candidissimum as Arisaema pelodytes. Now I realize that I may have acted too soon. It never occurred to me to try them in the sun. In fact, I had always placed them in the coolest places in the garden. My A. consanguineum have been here for years but have never bloomed. And yes, they sway and arch and in general give the impression that they are trying to get away from my garden. I'll move them and see what happens. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where our local Maryland monsoon is apparently not fooling those Asian Arisaema.