Waiting to see the Corpse Flower Bloom

[Briar Lee]

About four hours ago my wife said the corpse flower is blooming and off we went to Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis.

Missouri Botanical Garden - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

There are thousands upon thousands waiting in line to see it.

The guides say our point in line is another two and a half hours.

I’m the only smoker in line.

Xxxx
The titan arum, also known as the corpse flower, blooms infrequently, typically every 2 to 3 years. The bloom itself is short-lived, lasting only 24 to 48 hours. While the exact timing is not entirely predictable, it generally blooms when its underground corm (a type of tuber) has accumulated enough energy to support the large inflorescence.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

• Initial Bloom:
  It often takes 7 to 10 years for a titan arum to bloom for the first time after being grown from seed.
  
  
• Subsequent Blooms:
  After the first bloom, the plant may bloom again every 2 to 3 years, as the corm is already at a size to support another bloom.
  
  
• Factors Influencing Bloom:
  The blooming frequency can vary based on factors like the plant's size, energy reserves, and specific environmental conditions.
  
  
• Duration:
  The bloom is a fleeting event, with the inflorescence and its strong odor lasting only a day or two.

Xxx



Whenever you think the arts and sciences are in decline, wait to see the corpse flower bloom with your sweetie.

 

[Servant King]

I’m the only smoker in line.

"Daddy, why does the flower smell like Buoy Gold?"

"Beats me, son."

 

[bullet08]

We have one going on in NC x)

 

[OzPiper]

I hope you smoked a blend with a nice room note

 

[Briar Lee]

Five hours in line.




My feet hurt.

Excuse me while I lay down for a bit.

 

[Briar Lee]

We arrived about 10:35 and finally saw the Corpse Flower at 3:35

I had five hours to observe my old Mammy Adams’ dictum about human relationships,,,

There is a lid for every pot.

The way the line worked, was the arboretum employees had set up signs where the couples snaked around back and forth on sidewalks about a quarter mile I’d guess to see the attraction and we got to see the couples who had seen it, on their way out.

God bless mothers. If my kids had been little, or if I’d been little, my wife or my mother would have made double sure to make her child see it.


Not only was I the only smoker in the line I was about twice the age of the average couple.

The kids were well behaved, playing around the fountains, or mothers would sit in benches with them asleep while we men waited in line.

Why it took five hours was, each couple got photographed with her phone and his by two young employees, along with any kids, holding a sign—-

I smelled Octavia.

And grandma and grandpa at home could see it live streamed over the internet.

They had a similar system for Pike’s Peak and Garden of the Gods and the Denver Mint sixty years ago, except they used a Polaroid.

The employees said we’d be in the Guinness Book of World Records. They had rest rooms open. We were promised if we were in line, nobody would be turned away.

Right at the end, behind us a Union civil war renactor in full Yankee regalia at the very end of the line started singing—

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Which reminded me of another of my old Mammy’s maxims—-

There’s more Christians than there are sinners, except they don’t make the newspapers.

 

[kcmontie]

Saw one at Cal State Long Beach about 10 years ago. I too had to wait in a long line. It was neat.

 

[Kobold]

I didn’t know that it was that huge in size. Really cool.

 

[Briar Lee]

Saw one at Cal State Long Beach about 10 years ago. I too had to wait in a long line. It was neat.

I wonder how many corpse flowers are out there in America?

And, can you imagine the first arboretum employee that said

Boss, there’s this giant flower that only blooms every few years for about twenty four hours.

It smells like old gym socks and rotting fish.

If we advertise it and take a picture of everybody that sees it, every woman in a hundred miles around will drag her man and her kids to see it.

 

[Briar Lee]

I didn’t know that it was that huge in size. Really cool.

Waiting in line for hours, the employees give encouragement and for whatever reason it stinks worse outside, than inside. You must get acclimated to the smell quickly.

They grow several feet in a few hours when they bloom.

Sometime today, or tomorrow, Octavia will pollinate (the smell is to attract pollinators) and she’ll close her bloom and quit stinking and sleep for several more years until she blooms again.

They come from the tropical jungles in Sumatra in Indonesia.

 

[OzPiper]

Another “corpse flower”, the Rafflesia.
Also native to SEAsia

 

[Sig]

Ohhhh, my wife and her Day Lillies!!
If I don't see EVERY ONE OF THEM bloomed, im a dumbass!

 

[Briar Lee]

Ohhhh, my wife and her Day Lillies!!
If I don't see EVERY ONE OF THEM bloomed, im a dumbass!

Last night I went to smoke in a secluded place away from the line and walked past little girls and little boys all playing out in a garden area, their mothers like sentinels on the benches watching, the fathers all holding their places in line.

Do not try to convince me that the reproduction of the flowers and the birds and people were an accidental process of evolution.

It was all designed by an unseen hand.

 

[sardonicus87]

One flower I want to see that's a rare bloom, is a night-blooming cerus Selenicereus grandiflorus. That's like one of the coolest looking flowers I've read about.

I have a century plant (Agave americana) I want to get rid of, but I also want to see it bloom first (another that blooms rarely, once at the end of its 10-30 year lifespan). I've been with my wife for 10 years aand she's had this house for maybe 15 years (?) and we don't know when this one started growing (was here when she got here).

 

[OzPiper]

One flower I want to see that's a rare bloom, is a night-blooming cerus Selenicereus grandiflorus. That's like one of the coolest looking flowers I've read about.

My grandmother had a large one of those. There would be over a dozen blooms each time it flowered.
It flowered once a year. The blooms open at night, and by morning they were wilted.
Their heady perfume was noticeable several feet away.
As kids it was a treat to wait up to see the buds open, instead of going to bed at the usual time.

 

[lraisch]

About four hours ago my wife said the corpse flower is blooming and off we went to Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis.

Missouri Botanical Garden - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

There are thousands upon thousands waiting in line to see it.

The guides say our point in line is another two and a half hours.

I’m the only smoker in line.

Xxxx
The titan arum, also known as the corpse flower, blooms infrequently, typically every 2 to 3 years. The bloom itself is short-lived, lasting only 24 to 48 hours. While the exact timing is not entirely predictable, it generally blooms when its underground corm (a type of tuber) has accumulated enough energy to support the large inflorescence.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

• Initial Bloom:
  It often takes 7 to 10 years for a titan arum to bloom for the first time after being grown from seed.
  
  
• Subsequent Blooms:
  After the first bloom, the plant may bloom again every 2 to 3 years, as the corm is already at a size to support another bloom.
  
  
• Factors Influencing Bloom:
  The blooming frequency can vary based on factors like the plant's size, energy reserves, and specific environmental conditions.
  
  
• Duration:
  The bloom is a fleeting event, with the inflorescence and its strong odor lasting only a day or two.

Xxx

View attachment 408174

Whenever you think the arts and sciences are in decline, wait to see the corpse flower bloom with your sweetie.

Waiting in line for 5 hours on an August day to see a flower that smells like a corpse is not my idea of fun. After 4 hours, I would smell as bad as the flower.

 

[anotherbob]

Five hours in line.


View attachment 408208

My feet hurt.

Excuse me while I lay down for a bit.

that's a crazy plant behind it too.

 

[Sig]

Last night I went to smoke in a secluded place away from the line and walked past little girls and little boys all playing out in a garden area, their mothers like sentinels on the benches watching, the fathers all holding their places in line.

Do not try to convince me that the reproduction of the flowers and the birds and people were an accidental process of evolution.

It was all designed by an unseen hand.

I weed, feed, and care for all these very basic looking Lillies, waiting for them to bloom ONE day.....then die within 12 hours.
I completely understand why nature did this. Reproducing with the least amount of nutrients and effort.
But why on earth people care for these what look like weeds, for a one day bloom is beyond me.
My wife is also an orchid person. She grows and breeds them. Some species only bloom once every 3-4 years. The flowers last a couple months....then they die.....for another 3.5 years.
Talk about delayed gratification!
My wife will call me at work to tell me an orchid bloomed.
She takes 100s of pictures and sends the pics to friends. She gets giddy when she sees a bloom. Weirdo.

 

[Briar Lee]

I weed, feed, and care for all these very basic looking Lillies, waiting for them to bloom ONE day.....then die within 12 hours.
I completely understand why nature did this. Reproducing with the least amount of nutrients and effort.
But why on earth people care for these what look like weeds, for a one day bloom is beyond me.
My wife is also an orchid person. She grows and breeds them. Some species only bloom once every 3-4 years. The flowers last a couple months....then they die.....for another 3.5 years.
Talk about delayed gratification!
My wife will call me at work to tell me an orchid bloomed.
She takes 100s of pictures and sends the pics to friends. She gets giddy when she sees a bloom. Weirdo.

As my hair turns silver and I get closer to my Master each day, and more determined to postpone that day, the more I remember the lessons of my youth.

My father stood on hard concrete countless hours. Two and a half hours of morning and the same every evening.

Twice a month I’d run that milk check out to the barn and Daddy would say take that right straight to Mama.

And of evenings after supper, I’d fetch Mama the guitar Daddy bought her and she’d always sing sometime in her repertoire

Consider The Lillies

If I’m not a good man I can’t blame my parents

 

[sardonicus87]

that's a crazy plant behind it too.

That looks like maybe an Angel Trumpet of some kind (Brugmansia)