Dead Horse Arum
James Waddick (Thu, 19 May 2011 21:24:18 PDT)
I've had two Helicodicerous for several years, one kindly provided by
James and one from a nice person on another plant list.
Dear Leo,
Glad to hear your tuber has grown well for you.
On 5/11 I posted that one of my tubers outside actually
survived and bloomed. Even after a -12 low this winter. I think you
should be able to grow your plant outdoors all the time. It is native
to the Eastern Mediterranean and is subject to very warm summers.
Mine is in almost full sun, but you might go for less than all day
sun there. I think most sources rate them Zone 7 or 8.
My potted plant - wintered in a cool, frost free greenhouse -
is in a ten gallon black nursery pot. Although it came up a few weeks
before my outdoor plant, it did not bloom this year. My plant in a
pot always makes lots of extra tubers. My potted plant did not bloom
this year.
As for getting seed take a look at the wiki page for a good
summary of pollination strategy for this species. Very interesting.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
I have been told they need more winter cooling than Phoenix gets and that
I should dig them in the fall, put them moist in the refrigerator for a
few weeks, and plant out again when they sprout roots. I wish I had time
to try this. The past few winters we have had a lot of cold (by our
standards) with sporadic freezes to the low 20s F / -5C. I left them
outside and they have done well.
I think this should be great for them outdoors in the ground.
My Dracunculus are just forming flowers now and they'll be in
full bloom in a week or so. Another garden 'stinker', but extremely
interesting. I think I'll have about 6 flowers scattered around the
garden. Even this does not insure pollination, but I hope to get at
least one seed feed form.
Good luck and hope you try one of yours outside.
Best Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
Summer 100F +