The Continued Chronicles of a Voodoo Lily and It’s Growth, Year 3 – (Amorphophallus konjac)

In December 2019, I purchased my first Amorphophallus konjac – also known as the Voodoo Lily or Corpse Flower. When I bought the tuber (also called a corm), it was already 2-3 years old and was the size of a grapefruit. I named the plant ‘Audrey’.

Audrey didn’t flower the first year, but produced the most spectacular leafy plant I have ever seen – that’s her over in the photo to the right. The leaves are so incredibly different than any other plant. She grew really fast that first year, and it was fun to document her progress – sometimes growing over an inch a day. Last year (2021) was my second year growing this plant – and she flowered!!!

I chronicled her growth last year at “The Chronicles of a Voodoo Lily and It’s Growth, Year 2“. Life got busy and I stopped when she flowered. I decided to chronicle her growth again this year from start to finish. I hope you’ll read along and watch Audrey change from day-to-day. I’ll post updates here as I chronicle her growth. Click any photo below to enlarge for a better view. 😉

You can read more about this plant at House Plant – Voodoo Lily.

Latest Update: August 9, 2022 (scroll down for the latest entry)

The Third Year

Last year, after Audrey gave us an amazing stinky flower (that we had to move from our dining room to the basement because of the rotten meat smell) and then after the flower died, she gave us an amazing leafy plant (which I moved back to the dining room to enjoy). We enjoyed the plant right up until Fall, when it started to die off. Once the plant started to dry out, I moved the plant back to the basement and stopped the frequent waterings until it was completely dry, and then I stopped watering completely.

Last week, I pulled the dead, dried plant out of the pot and noticed the inch-long nub of a plant starting again in the hole the plant left behind. I brought Audrey back up to the dining room and have been watering her every other day. This is where her third year journey begins…

2/9/22 (1″) – Audrey has now grown to 1-inch above the soil. That’s 2-inches of growth since this time last week! She is sitting in front of a south-facing window and gets full sun (when the sun is shining). I’ve been watering her about 27 ounces a day. This might sound like a lot of water, but with the very dry Winter air, the soil drys out quickly. The plant is in a 12″ square planter, so there’s quite a bit of soil. I haven’t dug out the corm since I planted it in 2020 (it was the size of a grapefruit at the time), so I am hoping the corm hasn’t gotten too large for this planter. In the Fall this year, I will likely take the corm out of the planter and move it to a larger pot. I looked back at my previous article about this plant (link above) and noticed that the nub looked different the first year (when it only leafed out) than it did last year (when it flowered). This new growth looks more like last year’s growth, so I am guessing Audrey is going to flower again this year! Only time will tell – stay tuned!

2/13/22 (1-3/4″) – Audrey is now 1-3/4 inches above the soil – that’s a growth of 3/4-inch in the last 4 days. I’m not surprised by the lack of growth the last several days as it has been very cloudy (NO sunshine) and the temperatures have been sub-zero outside for the past week. I continue to water this plant daily – about 16 ounces a day – and with the sun shining once again today, I’m hoping this will help warm the plant up more and they’ll be another growth spurt soon. The coloring has changed very slightly, with a bit more maroon color showing through now, along with more of the spots that will be on the stem. I added a wood skewer next to Audrey to help visualize her growth. I marked the soil level with a Sharpie, and then the height of the growth when I added the skewer. The second mark on the skewer is the growth as of this afternoon. The mark is level with the top of the plant, it’s just hard to see that perspective in this photo. Grow, Audrey, grow!

2/15/22 (2-1/4″) – We finally had a day of sunshine yesterday after all these dark and dreary days, and it made a huge difference to the growth of this plant! Audrey grew another 1/2-inch in two days! The tip of the plant has taken on its more pointed form, and you can now see the protective covering (petal? leaf?) a lot better. The diameter of the plant hasn’t changed much – just the height has changed. Today is another very cloudy, overcast day so the plant won’t get much extra heat and light today. Hopefully we’ll have more sunshine later this week to help Audrey grow!

2/18/22 (3-1/4″) – With a bright sunny day yesterday, Audrey has grown 1-inch in three days! The top of the plant is now sticking out quite a bit more than it was and the protective leaf around this spike is much more apparent. I’m still watering the plant around a quart of water each day. I wish I could see how large the corm is – I’m guessing it’s about the size of two grapefruits. My family is taking guesses on whether a plant or the flower will emerge first this year – what’s your guess?

2/27/22 (16″) – Audrey has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 9 days. Wow! She’s 16-inches tall right now – that’s a growth of 13-1/4-inches in 9 days (for an average of about 1-1/2-inches a day). From the shape of the stem, I can tell this is going to be a flower again this year. I’m thrilled! My family? Not so much. The flower will likely open sometime next month. March is still WAY too cold to put this plant outside, so it will have to go in the basement during its ‘stinky’ phase. This is unfortunate because it’s fun to watch the daily progress of this plant among my other plants, but that smell is just not something we want in the dining room. When you look at the photos of the tip of this plant, you can really see what will become the flower. The overall stem also shows the more protruded ‘bulge’ of what will be the flower versus the stem. I’m going to have to start using the yardstick to measure her growth! So much fun to watch this progress – stay tuned!

3/8/22 (31″) – Wow! A lot has happened in the past 9 days. Audrey has doubled in height – that’s over an inch and a half of growth per day! And… her flower has opened! I think this flower looks prehistoric, it’s really cool! The smell? Not so cool. While the scent is fairly mild as of this moment, it’s getting stronger and stronger each day. This plant is going to have to go downstairs to the plant room for a while, as she won’t be welcome in our dining room much longer. Watching this plant grow is really pretty amazing. The speed that it grows and the overall alien look, makes it a plant we look forward to every Spring.

3/19/22 – The past 11 days have been enjoyable… but stinky! With Audrey’s flower in full bloom, she had to get moved to a closed-off room to keep the rest of our house from smelling like rotting flesh. On the 9th day of this flower opening, the odor finally went away. And as of today, the flower is fading fast. There isn’t a lot of change to the stem yet, and the flower color is still sort of vibrant, but the flower has folded over and has begun to dry out. Soon the flower will be gone and the leafy portion of this plant will begin. Stay tuned!

3/24/22 – The voodoo lily flower has dried out a lot over the past 5 days! The stem is also shrinking in diameter as it dries out. There is no odor from this plant at this time. Now we just sit and wait for the flower to completely fade away and for the leaves to start to emerge. The leaves on this plant are some of the most exotic, unusual-looking leaves I’ve ever seen on a plant! I am really looking forward to this stage! Oh! And Audrey got her ‘official’ name tag. We designed and 3D printed it just for her. 😉

4/16/22 – Over the past three weeks, Audrey has dried out and shriveled almost completely. The stem that was about the size of an adult finger is now about the size of a BBQ skewer. The flower has completely dried but is still attached to the stem – the remaining umbilical cord to the corm buried in the pot. I tugged ever so gently at the base of the stem to see if it was close to falling off, but it held fast. I tapered off on watering in order to allow the flower to dry out, but have just now begun watering again. The pot is still sitting in a window that gets full southern sun all day. Hopefully, the warmth of the sun will help that corm realize it’s time to start the leaf portion of its life. I watch daily for signs of green, but so far, not a hint. I’ll keep you posted!

6/6/22 – It’s the strangest thing. I have seen NO new growth on this Voodoo Lily since it flowered in March – so haven’t posted anything here over the past month. I have the pot sitting in pretty much the same place I always have it – a huge south-facing window. Our weather has been cooler than average here, and we have had lots of cloudy, rainy days. I’m guessing the cool weather and lack of sunshine have contributed to this plant taking its time in growing the leaf portion of its life. I keep the corm watered on a regular basis, though not quite as much water as when its flowering or growing the plant. The weather outside has finally gotten to be closer to our average temperatures and after tonight, the outdoor overnight temperatures should be in the 50s (finally). I’m planning on putting this plant outside in a greenhouse to see if the heat and humidity will help boost its growth. In prior years, this plant started growing the leaf portion soon after it flowered. So the delay this year is somewhat puzzling. The ‘hole’ in the soil where the flower came out looks pretty empty still, but it appears there is a tip of something showing deep in that hole. Hopefully it’s new growth! I’ll keep you posted. Here are some photos from today.

8/9/22 – Huh. I’m not sure what to think. Audrey flowered early this year and then…. Nothing. I expected her to grow the leaf portion of her life soon after her flower faded, but she had other plans I guess. I have been watering this plant, but I’m wondering if it was enough water. I have the pot in the same location I always have it, so it’s in the same environment as far as temperature and light goes. I’m just really wondering what happened her. Did the flowering of this plant two years in a row cause it to go dormant early? Hard to say. I’m definitely not giving up on Audrey! I’ll continue watering her and have my fingers crossed that something happens soon. Stay tuned!

I’ll be chronicling the growth of this plant all the way until the leafy plant dies off this Fall. Bookmark this page and stay tuned to follow along on this adventure!