Corpse Flowers and Life's Disappointments

Do you know anyone who gets excited about things that seem strange to you? There are normal things that cause normal excitements; nice weather is pleasant and, I guess you could call it exciting. Gardeners tend to get excited when their own plants look good, yes. Most people are happy to see flowers blooming, though perhaps "excited" is too strong a word. What about a giant, three-foot tall flower? That's awesome, right? Yeah! And it smells like a decomposing corpse! 

This is one was in bloom at the Unversity of Copenhagen in 2012

Woo? What? I guess that's where the strange kind of exciting comes in. 

Duke Gardens recently announced that they had a Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum), also known as a Corpse Flower, on display. It was on loan from the Duke University biology department. Like an insect drawn to the light, I had to find a way to go and see it. Who wouldn't want to?

Unfortunately, I was too late...

Image courtesy of the Duke Gardens Facebook page

Turns out the recent warm spell was too much for the flower to handle, and it started to decay faster than expected in near 90-degree heat. There's a good reason these are usually only seen in conservatories.

I've never been so disappointed to miss out on something that's supposed to be so gross. The trip wasn't a total loss, though. It's hard to feel like any time spent at Duke Gardens is a waste. Today was the first time I'd ever been to the gardens to the North of the visitor's center. The Titan Arum would have been residing in the new Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden. The relatively new garden "demonstrates and teaches about plants that provide people, animals, birds and insects with food and shelter."

Everything about the garden has a warm and welcoming feel

The winding path up to the barn is lined with fruit trees and vegetable plants

Near the barn there were dozens of planters fulled with interesting and odd plants

I'll admit these display gardens made me wish my personal vegetable gardens were a bit nicer...

Raised beds held related vegetable plants, with flowers as an incentive for pollinators

Mixed succulents planted in a wash basin? Classy!

The dry riverbed was placed for drainage and planted with ornamental grasses that like it wet, but can also tolerate dry spells

Even though Mandy and I weren't able to be grossed out by a three-foot tall flower that smells like death, we had a nice time anyway. Coming back to the Charlotte Brody garden, as well as the whole of Duke Gardens, is already on my list of things to do this summer.

Even though the disappointment of the absent Corpse Lily, there is one plant that captured our attention. It will be the subject of a mini-blog post in the coming days:

Any guesses as to what it might be?