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From: Russell Coker <cokerra at BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: this year's arisaemas
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Hi Everyone,

I hope you are having a great summer.  Seems like the list was rather qui=et
this past spring.  Anyway, I thought I'd take a minute and report on my
progress from the Gulf Coast.

The first thing I've learned is that the quickest way for me to kill an
Arisaema is to plant it in a pot.  I've spent hundreds of dollars on tube=rs,
tried plastic vs terra-cotta, drenched with fungicide, sprayed with
Messenger and have tried various different soil mixes.  The results are a=ll
the same - a pot full of stinky mush.  The tuber may even sprout and flow=er,
but by mid summer its gone.  If by some miracle anything was left, it was=a
tuber a third the size of what I had originally potted.  Remembering the
discussions about siting difficult species under evergreens as a way of
shielding them from wet summers and rot, I decided to give it a shot.  Th=is
is actually how I planted my ringens years ago and its always been happy.
The few that were still in pots plus any new ones I got went into the
ground.  Everyone came up stronger and healthier this year than ever befo=re,
so hopefully by next year I've have undone the pot damage and see some
flowers.

My greatest success has been my tortuosum.  This is actually my third yea=r
with it.  The first year it never broke dormancy.  I assumed it had rotte=d
like everything else and was surprised to find it looking good when I dum=ped
it out of the pot that fall.  I planted it in the ground near the base of=an
old sasanqua and it came up last year with a respectable leaf but no flow=er.
This past winter I dug it again and planted in a new area of the garden w=ith
old, rich, fast draining composty soil.  This year it stood over 3 feet t=all
and was topped with a really nice flower.  It has just now, in the last
couple of weeks, gone dormant again.  In contrast, my ehimense comes up,
blooms and is dormant again before the tortuosum even thinks about
sprouting.  Kiushianum has proved easy for me, but not so much luck with
urashima.  These are small tubers that are recovering from the pots so
hopefully next year will be better.  Jinshajiangense has bloomed two year=s
in a row now in the ground, but my first tubers never sprouted in the pot=s.
Maximowiczii made a poor first showing last year but was better this year.
I'm hoping for a flower next spring.  Sikokianum has proved to be difficu=lt
from a tuber but my seedlings looked good.  Saxatile has been pitiful for
two years in a row, I'll be surprised if its back next spring.  I bought
speciosum and concinnum (or was it costatum?) from an ebay seller and bot=h
looked great but neither sprouted.  For the second year in a row, my
consanguineum has just now sprouted.  It is twice the size it was last ye=ar
which is great considering I had given up on it!

Last fall I planted fimbriatum and sukotaiense in the ground.  They looke=d
so bad in the pots I figured there wasn't much to lose.  Well, this sprin=g
they came up and still look great.  I know they're tropical, but they fol=low
our seasons and started going dormant in the fall so I thought 'why not?'.
My soil stays warm even in the winter so I planted them deeply and they
came through just fine. Hopefully they'll bloom next year too.

I potted my old rhizomatus A-112 that I think is victoriae in a mixture o=f
orchid bark mix and sphagnum last fall.  This time last year it was almos=t
dead after trying different soils to make it happy for the last few years.
It put up one small leaf in a friend's greenhouse over the winter and
now stands almost 2 ft. tall!  I did the same with the rhizomes an ebay
seller from Thailand was selling as triphyllum (of all things), and they
have one leaf each about 9 inches tall.  None of these have bloomed so I
have no idea what they are.  I still have the old A-145 that C.Y. was
selling as an unknown Arisaema.  It turned out to be Amorphophallus
coaetaneus.  I managed to keep one from rotting and now have a couple
of nice plants that I will probably put on ebay.  As much as I love
Arisaemas, I just can't get excited Amorphophallus.  I wonder if a shrink
would blame my parents...

Okay, that's my news - let's hear yours.

Russell Coker
Mobile, Alabama  zn 8b

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