All the Dirt on Gardening

Years ago when the end-of-season-sale-box from  Brent and Becky's bulbs arrived, Dragon Arums made it into the box instead of the Arum Italicum I thought I bought. Actually, what I must have wanted was these outrageous Dragon Arums. Of the original 6 bulbs, two are thriving but this one blooms reliably year after year and gives us a reason to go out to the shade bed every day, twice a day, to watch its progress. Here's the column I wrote about Arums last year when we were enthralled with the flowering event- http://allthedirtongardening.blogspot.com/2012/05/dragon-arum-green-dragon-arum-italicum.html These photos are this morning's views.

Jack in the Pulpit looks way too exotic to be cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9 but it is! Give it dappled shade, moist, peat-moss enhanced soil and a place it can grow undisturbed. Native to the Midwest and East regions of North America they grow to 1-3 feet tall and 1 foot wide, with 2-large, green leaves comprised of 2 leaflets each. A member of the Araceae, Arum, plant family, my little guy is planted in the same area with other Arums though Jack is one-of-a-kind in our garden so far. From what I've read, we would have to plant several to get male/female sex-change, pollination, seedheads, etc. Its many other names includ Indian Turnip, Indian Almond, Pepper Turnip, Marsh Pepper, Bog Onion, Priest's Pentle, Wood Pulpit, Little Pulpit, Cuckoo Flower, Starchwort, Memory Root, Devil's Ear, Dragonroot, and Brown Dragon according to Phagat's Garden . Wildwood Web says that the cylindar that we think of as the flower is not the flower "Jack-in the-pulpi...