New York Times article

[Bonaventure W Magrys]

I found this one on-line:

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May 30, 2004
CUTTINGS
Jack-in-the-Pulpits: Sensual and Yet Sinister
By BARBARA PAUL ROBINSON







(Embedded image moved to file: pic28015.gif)HERE is something sensual, yet
slightly sinister, about the exotic Asian Arisaemas, or
jack-in-the-pulpits, which makes our American versions seem refreshingly
wholesome. I have a collection thriving in the shade of my woodland walk
and couldn't help but notice that large, blooming jack-in-the pulpits were
on almost every table at a recent garden trade show in Connecticut. I
swear a gorgeous Arisaema sikokianum followed me home. One enthusiastic
admirer, ogling the dark purple hoods of Arisaema ringens, noted, "They're
very sexy, don't you think?"


That's putting it mildly. At another plant show, a plantsman told me, he
saw people absent-mindedly stroking the plant's stem.


All Arisaemas share the same fascinating structure, a hooded shape called
a spathe, or the "pulpit," which houses an inner upright protuberance
called a spadix, or "jack." Although the entire package looks like a
flower, the spathe is technically a leaf extension, while the spadix is
the true flower, or inflorescence.


I counted at least 29 Asian species of Arisaemas for sale in one catalog,
from the Asiatica Nursery, almost as many in a catalog from Plant Delights
Nursery, and more than 20 in Heronswood's. I want them all, even though
some are too tender for my Zone 5 garden in northwest Connecticut. Almost
all of these showy species hail from Japan and China. They include
Arisaemas candidissimum, with stripy white veins and a pink interior, and
fargesii, which has a large wine-colored pulpit and bold white stripes.


Barry Yinger, owner of the Asiatica Nursery, pointed out that Chinese
Arisaemas bloom a bit later than the Japanese, and thus they do well
planted together. He advised planting Arisaemas among ground covers like
creeping phlox or sweet woodruff. They will draw moisture away from the
Arisaemas in late summer, just when their underground corms need to dry
out and begin to go dormant. And there is nothing better than Arisaemas
"popping up among other perennials to stop people in their tracks," he
said.


Some Asian Arisaemas exhibit a long spadix that looks like the tongue of a
venomous snake spitting out from under the hood. No wonder they are called
Cobra Lilies. Others have perky little clublike affairs. In some, the tip
of the hood extends in an elongated curve, rather like the beak of a
hummingbird.


The tongue of one entrancing oddity, Arisaema heterophyllum, called the
Dancing Crane Cobra Lily, sticks out from under the hood and straight up
in the air. Eventually, it flops down to the ground where it is thought to
act as a gangplank for small insects to crawl up to pollinate the flowers
inside.


Tony Avent, owner of the Plant Delights Nursery, calls Arisaemas "a
sexually explicit and deviant group." Technically classified as
monoecious, an Arisaema begins life as a male, but when robust and mature
becomes female. If weakened, it can revert and become male again. In order
to produce fall berries, you need pollination, which means distinct males
and females growing together.


Arisaemas come in different sizes, from the six-inch-high charmer Arisaema
ternatipartitum to Arisaema serratum, which can soar to five feet. I have
one Arisaema that delights me each spring, when it emerges as a sharp,
pointed shaft, speckled with purple along its green-beige skin. It grows
about a foot tall, taking on a tamer look when leaves appear, topped by a
pleasant green hood. Like many Arisaemas, this one goes dormant in late
summer; I have to be careful not to spear its corm when I plant my fall
bulbs.


Once established, Asian Arisaemas aren't fussy, thriving in light to full
shade and in moist, humus-rich soil with good drainage, which is essential
or the corms will rot. But with the exception of Arisaemas saxotile
candidissimum and fargesii, most don't proliferate like wild
jack-in-the-pulpits, which volunteer all over my garden.


I used to rip them out, but now I am happy to see my natives co-habiting
with their glamorous foreign cousins. I am hoping my Arisaemas live up to
their erotic appearance and begin to cross-pollinate.


For potted jack-in-the-pulpits: the Asiatica Nursery,
www.asiaticanursery.com or (717) 938-8677; the Plant Delights Nursery,
www.plantdelights.com or (919) 772-4794; and Heronswood,
www.heronswood.com or (360) 297-4172.




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