Climate and Growing Arisaema

[Tom and Ann Kline]

Dear Arisaema-L's,  Actually when I wrote my comments to Ray I was not
specific about my geographical terminology because Ray knows where I
live.  I have planted out of doors in my garden most of the available
arisaemas over the past sixteen years.  I do not grow arisaemas in pots
because I have neither the place nor the time to grow them like that.  I
had cold frames for the plants I myself raised from seeds but I don't
even have them now, .
I live in Northern Virginia just inside the infamous 'Beltway, and that
is the area I write about, Area 7, it is not quite as warm in winter as
The District and five mile outside the beltway it is ten degrees colder
in winter. Our winters here are usually quite dry with a very limited
amount of snow cover,  I lived two years in Yokohama, Japan and found
their winters were very similar to ours just a little warmer and that a
rainy season did start in February making the whole area burst into
rapid growth.  Of course, I have lost oodles of arisaemas, but now have
about 20 species that grow wonderfully for me and most of them increase
by offsets or liberally set seeds.  If I allow the seeds to ripen I find
that plants may not bloom the next year or have a very small bloom which
probably is all male, therefore I remove the seed pods because I am
growing plants for their beauty, not plants per se, and all my arisaemas
are truly magnificent.
Our terrible summer heat keeps me from growing many plants not coming
from a very similar environment from mine, though I have experimented
with many when I was able enough to do it.