OT intro then two aroid notes

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Wed, 25 May 2011 13:36:41 PDT
April is gone and May is fast fading - this year is going much too fast for me; I can't keep up. 

This week is probably the most fragrant week of the year in my garden. The roses on the pergola (right now the early nineteenth century hybrid 'The Garland') and the Noisette roses on the side of the house are in full bloom and pouring out fragrance. Lonicera japonica is also coming into full bloom: what a scent powerhouse both of these are. The somewhat acrid scent of boxwood - a favorite here - is the perfect compliment to the sweetness of the roses and honeysuckle. It's a combination which reminds me of eating something very sweet and then taking a bite of grapefruit peel.

But that is not all that's blooming. I went out to the pergola to get closer to the roses there and as I got close I got a whiff, a whiff I could not ignore, of something disagreeable: the Sauromatum are blooming, too, and their stealth stench is making itself evident here and there in the garden. I grow a lot of various aroids, and it intrigues me that they each seem to have their own brand of stink. 

Seeds arrived today from the Arisaema Enthusiasts Group; included are seeds of Arisaema nepenthoides. I was looking at the images of this species on the wiki: the last one shown for this species, the photo by Giorgio Pozzi, the one with the pointed auricles, has a color pattern which is more convincingly reptilian than that of any aroid I've ever seen. 

Jim McKenney



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