Tired of
Tradescantia? Sick of Stachys? Exhausted from Echinacea?
Stick THIS in your border!
Dracunculus vulgaris at the Hahn Horticulture Garden, Virginia Tech. Hardy to USDA Zone 5b.
Closely related (as one might imagine) to
Amorphophallus. Lovely silver-splashed foliage, velvety crimson spathe, and big honkin’ spadix in early summer.
Easy to grow; part shade and good drainage seem to work well. After a few years, you’ll have several offsets to share with your dearest friends/worst enemies.
At the peak of bloom, the fragrance is reminiscent of lily or tuberose (if they were arranged on a patty of rotting hamburger).
Garden Interns Brittaney and Anna think it’s JUST FABULOUS!
Available from that purveyor of all plants phallic,
Plant Delights.
(They have lots of other stuff, too.)
I love how yours are nice and bushy. Mine come up, flower and immediately die back. The foliage is gone very quickly.
Are turkey buzzards a problem for yours? I usually get a group of turkey buzzards hanging around my plants for about a day every year!
I also tortture the kids in the neighborhood with them. I get them to go smell them. Even after 5+ years they still smell it so they an say ewwwww!
Brittaney and Anna are epitomizing proper color combinations with their work shirts! They could teach many a landscape architect a thing or two about tones and tints.
Ed, yep – our foliage seems to hang around for quite a while – nice and tropical-looking. Haven’t noticed buzzards, but I bet they’re getting some possum visitors at night. Shawn, thank you for noticing – we take great care in regards to color coordination here at the Hahn Garden.