Corpse Flower Blooms!

So last week I hit the road for a unique adventure - to go see the Corpse Flower bloom at the Denver Botanic Gardens! It was on schedule to bloom on Sunday the 16th. It didn't. And it didn't bloom on Monday either - but my daughter and I went to the Gardens anyway to take photos.

Here's me taking a picture of the Corpse Flower before it bloomed... and my new Corpse Flower tattoo on my arm...

(Click on thumbnail for full size image)



As you can see, the bloom was taller than me by a couple of inches (yes, I'm only 5 ft. tall - no short jokes!)

Well... I had to get back home so I left Denver yesterday morning and wouldn't you know, the flower started to bloom last night. So I've been watching the live feed and it is SOOO COOL!!

CLICK HERE for live feed!

For information about the Corpse Flower, click here.

Man that thing is massive! I've never heard of that before. I can't get the vid to load though. [emoji53]

VERY COOL POST!

National Geographic: What it is and what it does.

Heres one with a time lapse.

nbp said:

Man that thing is massive! I've never heard of that before. I can't get the vid to load though. [emoji53]

Click to expand...

Dude, it's youtbe.... maybe clear your chache and reboot?

That one worked. The other one I tried on two different mobile devices and neither loaded, sooo, I'm not clueless. I'll have to try on my laptop.

Anyways, pretty neat critter. Greta, did the one you saw stink or was the stink behind the glass?

nbp said:

That one worked. The other one I tried on two different mobile devices and neither loaded,sooo, I'm not clueless. I'll have to try on my laptop.

Anyways, pretty neat critter. Greta, did the one you saw stink or was the stink behind the glass?

Click to expand...

Came across wrong. Sorry.

I was switching my links around if your referring to mine.

It doesn't stink until it blooms. And then it only stinks for an hour or so. When I saw it, it hadn't bloomed yet and the glass panel in front of it had not been removed yet. I didn't smell anything.

The live feed kept going down because so many people were watching... I saw well over 5000 a few times. It's up right now. I really wish they would show the other side of it. It's amazing! I took a whole bunch of pictures while my daughter and I were at the Gardens. You can browse through them HERE if you want. There are quite a few of the Corpse Flower and lots of orchids and sunflowers and other unique looking flowers. I love that place!

Longwood Gardens in Kenneth Square PA used to have Corpse flowers, but stopped growing them 10 or so years ago. And yes, they do stink upon opening.

Longwood was a DuPont estate, one of the largest privately owned gardens in the US, 1077 acres.

When I photographed there, you couldn't use a tripod, but a monopod was OK. Looked at the list of restrictions and there are numerous ones to deal with, but tripods, monopods and flash photography is not permitted at night. Nothing mentioned about using monster handheld lights though.

If you happen to make it to the east coast, it's worth the trip.

NoNotAgain said:

...

If you happen to make it to the east coast, it's worth the trip.

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I'm from Upstate Eastern New York. Honey and I have been talking about an extended road trip back "home" to visit relatives. I will be sure to mark Longwood Gardens for a route stop. Thank you!

I am so jealous! That is awesome.

It's closed now, but what's up with the bottom of it? It looks like there is wall-socket shaped cut into it. Also it that little sign in the way when it actually blooms? It's so massive!

Edit: Never mind. I guess it doesn't open up that wide.

When you decide on a date, try reserving tickets in advance. During September they have a lot of school trips scheduled or at least they used to.

I guess one of the nicest things about getting old is the discounts offered by most merchants. Me personally, I'd like to lose around 15-20 years but still have the knowledge.

What's tonight's lucky lottery number???

martinaee said:

It's closed now, but what's up with the bottom of it? It looks like there is wall-socket shaped cut into it. Also it that little sign in the way when it actually blooms? It's so massive!

Edit: Never mind. I guess it doesn't open up that wide.

Click to expand...

It is in the process of "dying" now so it is closing back up. I was actually surprised and disappointed it didn't open up as much as I've seen others. Perhaps because this is the first bloom on this plant? :shrug: Anyway... the little "access panel" is where they removed some pollen to send off to Chicago Botanic Gardens in order to pollinate CBGSpike - another Corpse Flower that will be blooming soon too. HERE is a picture of that.

For anyone interested, there's a live feed of Spike the Corpse Flower in Chicago HERE. He's getting ready to bloom anytime now!