Voodoo Lily

Every once in a while you come across a plant so weird and unusual that you just don’t quite know what to say.  These plants don’t have any of the traditional flower traits that we normally value like vibrant color, pleasing scent, or overall attractiveness.  They are, well, just plain weird.  Complete oddities.  So here’s one of the weirder that you can grow in our area.

Amorphophallus rivieri, or the Voodoo Lily, is the little brother of Amorphophallus titanum, which holds claim to the largest flower on earth (up to 8′ tall).  A. titanum needs it to be constantly warm, and is usually relegated to conservatories where they draw huge crowds of people and the local news if they can get it to flower.  A. rivieri grows just fine outdoors in our area though, and has an equally odd-looking flower that grows to only a few feet tall (still plenty of weird to go around).

We just happen to have a supply of mature Voodoo Lily, that are currently in flower and ready to go home and be planted in your yard.  We must warn you, they tend to put off an interesting aroma at the height of their bloom, strong enough to attract the flies that pollinate them.  This odor wears off quickly though, and is just another part of the total weirdness that is the Voodoo Lily.  You know you want one!

A Pack of Butterflies

I was walking through our production greenhouses this morning, and was suprised at what I found in one of them – A few thousand butterflies!

After the initial shock (this would have made a great horror movie, especially the dramatic sound of a few thousand little wings flapping), I looked it up and identified these little guys as Painted Lady Butterflies (I believe the Western Painted Lady).  Apparently they found the greenhouses to be a good warm place, and a good source of moisture.  We’re not sure where they came from, but it was a real sight to see!    They are starting to disperse through the nursery and places beyond now, but we were glad to have them here while we did!

Yes, this was an April Fools Day joke.  These plants don’t actually exist, and are not even remotely possible outside of Photoshop.

At the Farmington Gardens lab, we come up with many unusual and fascinating plant specimens in the course of our work.  We are especially proud of two of our most promising developments, which are currently undergoing further testing and refinement before being released to the public.

x Thujodendron ‘Mardi Gras’ – A party just waiting to happen!  We figured that since Western Red Cedar is a native and  should be adaptable to most garden situations around here, that would be a good basis for our work.  So we found the loudest screaming yellow form that we could find, and crossed it with a Rhododendron, another Northwest garden staple.  What we ended up with is the ultimate Northwest landscape plant, a tag team of two of our favorite plants, with retina burning vibrance that will brighten up any winter landscape!

x Magnunculus ‘Winter Bliss’ – A plant for all seasons, and all landscapes!  It grows to 12′ tall in about a year, and never gets any bigger after that!  It is completely evergreen, and never drops any leaves that we have seen (and we test the leaves of each of our plants with leafblowers to make sure that they stay tidy).  It is also very disease resistant.  We tried to infect it with all of our common plant diseases, but not only did it resist them all, it also developed an antidote and innoculated all of the other plants in our test gardens.  And to top it off, it blooms all year long!  Even through the winter months, as can be seen in our picture.  The flowers give off a strong yet pleasant honey-jasmine scent that attracts hummingbirds, butterflies, and other cute and friendly wildlife.  You may even see a baby deer or two resting beneath this tree since it attracts adorable young animals, but never fear, it is completely deer and pest proof.

x Magnunculus 'Winter Bliss'

x Thujodendron 'Mardi Gras'