To get perspective on this story you need to first understand a little bit about my life. I grew up on a little dirt road in Bancroft, that's a village of 500 or so people almost exactly equidistant between Flint and Lansing off of I-69. The road I lived on was outside of town and entertainment for me and my two brothers and our neighbor Justin usually consisted of building forts in the woods or digging holes. I suppose it was meant to be the day Justin came next door and asked me if I wanted to ride my bike down the street to a small local plant nursery.
I wasn't real intrigued but there wasn't anything else to do so I laced up my tennis shoes and jumped on my two wheeler. Needless to say our afternoon trip turned into a 4 year employment and my journey into the exciting and diverse world of botany began (and so did a competition between Justin and I over who could have the cooler gardens and greenhouse...which was definitely me by the way).
Surprisingly I'm sure, there is a point to this saga and that is: don't be afraid to take risks in your garden. Just last week a friend of mine and fellow co-worker here at 7&4 News, Dave Williams (a member of our creative services team), was asking for my help in identifying an aroid plant growing at his home. He had thought it was a species of Arisaema until the flower opened exposing a velvet purple spathe* more than a foot in length and a dark purple spadix protruding at least 8 inches from the spathe. That's when he thought it might be an Amorphophallus, one such species is known as the "Voodoo Lily".
When I went to take a look at it I was amazed. It's tropical looking bloom can't be justified in a picture. At first I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but I was almost sure it wasn't an Amorphophallus because it flowers either from the ground or off the stalk but before the leaves come out. The leaves on this plant were already open and the leaf pattern was not the same as the more common species of Amorphaphallus that would be readily available locally.
I stopped by the station to talk to Dave and were searching on the internet for possible matches when lightening just struck my brain...Dracunculus vulgaris. We had our match. If you haven't seen it look it up. Now my point is this, Dracunculus is not always a consistantly hardy species in Northern Michigan. Some claim it to be a zone 5, but I have tried it before and failed. The point is, KEEP TRYING because when you succeed the results are awesome. I know now that I will be ordering a new plant for myself this year. With the right spot and a little luck you could really suprise yourself, and others.
*To put in perspective these terms you might be familiar with the native Arisaema triphyllum, the Jack in the Pulpit. The "Jack" in the picture is the spadix and the "Pulpit" he is in is the spathe.
