The growth rates of Amorphophallus titanum are incredible at this stage, I was measuring 6" of daily growth. The flower is really starting to develop and is gaining in mass. Here it is September 12, 2016. #Lupin2016

At this stage you know you have a flower bud developing. You can see the spathe showing. Photo taken September 8, 2016

After 13 years from seed, my Amorphophallus titanum has developed it's first flower bud. It is typical for them to take 10-15 years until the first bloom. At this stage it can be very tricky to identify whether it is a flower or a leaf petiole. This later turned out to be a flower bud. We named it Lupin and it became the hashtag of  #lupin2016  Photo taken August 30, 2016

Amorphophallus titanum

It's amazing how fast plants can grow. Shown here is a comparison of Amorphophallus titanum, just 5 months later. These plants complete an annual growth cycle, one leaf per year. Each leaf will remain for up to one year. This specimen is about 2 years from flowering size.

 

Poinsettia crop showing nice color

Musa basjoo in flower

A large clump of Musa basjoo grown in ground in Philadelphia, surprised me with a flower bud early on in the spring. One of the mature canes survived no winter damage, with protection and first thing pushed out a flower bud. This was a huge surprise for the backyard of a zone 7a garden. This would also allow the fruit to develop considering it had the whole summer of warmth, rather than a flower developing at the end of summer and having no time to develop before frost.

Northeast Times

Made the front cover of the Northeast Times... Couldn't be better!

Featured with my Amorphophallus konjac specimen, which made its 5th annual appearance at the Philadelphia Flower show