The garden may be the last place on earth where the virtue of patience is taught. You may have to wait several months or more after planting vegetable seeds to get a crop, and it will often take two or three years after planting an already good-sized container-grown fruit tree to see fruit.
Sometimes the wait for a reward can be significantly longer, as illustrated in the following e-mail from Kathy Kravitz, who gardens in Winnetka.
“About 30 years ago, a mysterious plant appeared in my backyard. Every year after a lot of rain, it would spring up. Then the sizzling summer heat would arrive, and the foliage would die. I learned it was called a voodoo lily. This year, the weather pattern changed, and for the first time ever, a bloom arrived! It opened on Mother’s Day. My son went outside and immediately smelled something rotten. That’s what made me look at the voodoo lily and realize it had bloomed. What a different kind of gift to receive for Mother’s Day!”
The carrion odor of a voodoo lily is meant to attract pollinating flies and beetles. It is a famously slow grower, and its corm, a type of bulb, must reach the size of a baseball, weighing approximately one pound, to produce a flower. This could well explain having to wait three decades to see it bloom. It will not typically flower every year unless grown in a climate more tropical than that of Southern California. However, by more frequent watering and regular fertilization with phosphorus — which increases the flowering capacity of plants in general — you may see voodoo lily flowers bloom on a close to annual basis. Phosphorus is vital to root growth, and the more extensive the root system, the greater the capacity for absorbing water and minerals from the soil, increasing a plant’s overall robustness and readiness to flower.
Voodoo lily (Amorphophallus konjac) shares kinship with several popular garden ornamentals that display a tropical flair, as well as several noteworthy indoor plants. All of these are members of the aroid family (Araceae) and are easily recognizable by their flowering apparatus, consisting of a spadix and a spathe. A spadix is a column eventually studded with tiny male and female flowers that give way to berry-like fruit covered with scales that fall off after the berries are fully ripe. The spathe is a curvaceous, hood-like, modified leaf or bract that attracts insects with its color and then traps them against the spadix, ensuring pollination.
Be advised that only a small fraction of arums are malodorous. Those that smell are thermogenic, meaning their spadixes generate heat that radiates their tell-tale smell through the air, attracting insects that crave rotting meat.
One of the most popular shade-loving aroids is the calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica). It is the quintessential representative of the aroid group on account of its unmistakable golden yellow spadix surrounded by a pure white spathe. Calla lilies thrive even in poor-quality soil and do not require fertilization when grown in the garden. The key to keeping calla lily plants looking good is to prune out all leaves and flowers as soon as they begin to bend. Calla lilies spread quickly by means of fleshy underground stems known as rhizomes. A calla lily variety known as Green Goddess has white spathes flushed with green. Black calla (Arum palaestinum) has deep purple spathes and spreads reliably in the garden with a minimum of care.
I should mention that you often see calla lilies for sale with spathes in a variety of colors, including pink, red, purple, apricot, and orange. I have tried growing these without success. In my case, they rebloomed once, and quite pitifully, before dying. Has anyone had success with these colorful callas, coaxing them to bloom year after year as advertised? If so, how did you do it?
Peace lily or Spathiphyllum, with white spadix and white spathe, is suitable for both indoor and outdoor growing, at least where it is protected from frost by overhanging trees and situated against a wall. I speak from experience, having observed such a plant survive many Jerusalem winters, which are colder than those in Los Angeles, with the benefit of this precise set of circumstances. It is known that walls absorb the day’s heat and radiate it to adjacent plants at night, an important microclimate consideration when situating frost-sensitive plants. While requiring morning sun, poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima), when grown successfully outdoors in our area, are typically planted against a hardscape feature for the heat that it radiates at night.
Before leaving aroids meant for outdoor gardens, I must mention Philodendron/Thaumatophyllum Xanadu, a stalwart, yet irresistible plant for the shade where you want nothing more than decorous green leaves with deeply, yet softly lobed leaf margins. This may be the most whimsically charming leafy plant you will ever see.
The most illustrious aroid for indoor growing is spathe flower (Anthurium andraeanum), easily recognized by its lacquer-textured, heart-shaped spathes usually in red or pink but occasionally in white. This is the only indoor plant I know that flowers nonstop as long as you fertilize each time you water with liquid fertilizer at one-quarter of the recommended dose. If you are willing to settle for an aroid that, in the absence of flowers, is constantly colored due to its leaves, then red Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema cultivars) is for you. Chinese evergreens have a reputation for easy care, and their many colorful cultivars offer a variety of red and pink variegations. Just make sure to give them a brighter exposure than that required by the classic green Chinese evergreens.
All parts of all aroids are toxic, with one exception, which happens to be among the most popular indoor plants. I refer to the Swiss cheese plant. Its scientific name, Monstera deliciosa, refers to its qualities, with monstrous vining growth up to 70 feet and delicious berries whose taste combines the flavors of pineapple and banana. The Swiss cheese descriptor is derived from the fenestrations or window-like perforations in its foliage.
Other famous aroids include devil’s ivy or pothos, dumb cane of Dieffenbachia, arrow-leafed Nephthytis or Syngonium, and grandiose Caladium.
Have you grown an aroid of which you are proud? If so, send your experience to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments, as well as gardening conundrums and successes, are always welcome.
California native of the week: Giant chain fern (Woodwardia fimbriata) deserves wider use where ferns are sought. The more popular Australian and New Zealand tree ferns, with their hairy trunks, get tired looking after a while, even while the giant chain fern expands radially into a huge clump with leaves up to 5 feet tall or taller. In time, it really does impart a “Jurassic Park” look. Grow a giant chain fern in some shade and, once established, its water needs will be minimal. This species makes an excellent subject for container growing as well.