We love the corpse flowers too! Sadly, their blooms are very unpredictable which is one of the things that makes them so special. NYBG has had terrific success with producing blooms from our corpse flower plants, but it is still rare and a surprise when one of our plants bloom. Most never do.

Our Amorphophallus titanum plants are nurtured in the warm tropical zone of the Nolen Greenhouses. The hot and humid conditions in the greenhouse mimic the natural conditions of its native Sumatra. The enormous corm—which can weigh 200 pounds—is potted on a thin cushion of sand and covered with 2 to 3 inches of fertile soil. The plant must be watered and fertilized copiously—corpse flowers are heavy feeders.  A young corpse flower takes about seven to ten years to store enough energy to potentially begin its first bloom cycle. Each year, the plant’s corm (a tuberous underground root structure) bears vegetation that grows up to 15 feet tall. The leaf gathers energy from the sun to store in its corm. Then suddenly one year it might send up a bud instead! The 2021 plant, for instance, was 14 years old and had been in NYBG's collection for over seven years, putting out a single leaf annually and saving the energy to bloom before it created its flower.

Flowers can go from first sign of a bud to opening in about two weeks time. In the first several days of the bloom cycle, this bud grows about four to six inches per day. Then growth slows significantly. The two bracts at the base of the spathe shrivels and falls off. Next, the spathe, which was once tightly wound around the spadix, begins to open, revealing the deep red color inside.  During bloom, the spadix self-heats for a period to approximately human body temperature, which helps disseminate odor particles. The spathe unfurls over the course of about 36 hours (full bloom) before withering and dying back.

We have numerous plants and when one blooms it has mostly been in early summer, though we have had flowers as early as April and as late as November. Once a plant shows signs of creating a bud, it takes a little time to tell whether it will have the strength to produce a full, stinky flower. At that point, we move the plant to the Conservatory so that visitors can see it. We let the press know and send an email announcing it to anyone on our mailing list. If you keep your eyes on the NYC news and add your name to our newsletter subscription list, you will know when one of the plants shows promise of flowering and is ready for view. Hopefully soon.

For more information about the Corpse flowers at NYBG, you can read our Guide.

Courtesy of NYBG Plant Information