Rachel's Journal

maybe the name dracunculus comes from the word 'dracula' VERY unusual. Worth looking out for.

i love that lilly never saw it before very unusual i second jacinta on that it is worth looking out for did you get it in an ordinary garden centre. lidl are having different colour calla lilys on thursday.

rachel a quick question for you or anyone on garden.ie. when i was back at mums this eve she showed me a strawberry plant that she thought was a flower which was sold as a flower but it has pink flowers instead of white like a strawberry but has strawberrys on some of the plants and runners

Yes, there are strawberries with pink flowers, sold primarily as an ornamental plant. I think they are called 'wild strawberries'. We planted them all over the side of our ditch about 8 years ago, thinking they would keep down the weeds. They are hopeless at keeping down the weeds but we still have them on the Ditch. They are my Joshua's favourite strawberry.

Got the Voodoo Lily by mail order from Bakker - quite a few years ago.

that is one dramatic looking plant rachel...speaking of Bakker, has anyone ever won anything from them. i nearly bankrupt myself buying stuff from them in the hope of claiming the €50000 they said i'd won....needless to say i never got the whiff of any prize money

Had no luck either, Steno, but I did get little presents for 2nd & 3rd orders.

Rachel Dracunculus Vulgaris looks stunning was'nt aware it also had the common name of Voodoo Lily as I also have one but it is a Sauromatum venosum (also called Monarch of the East)

I think it's called Voodoo lily - that's the problem with common names though! Found a picture of your Sauromatum venosum in my encyclopedia. Very nice. Did you get it by mail order and is it planted outdoors?

I have dracunculus vulgaris growing in my front garden - thanks for the name, Rachel. It smells absolutely rotten. I think some of my neigbhours must break it coming home from the pub on Saturday nights because every year, it has got broken on a Saturday night, just at the height of its smell. Once broken, the smell goes. It hasn't flowered yet - maybe it is sulking because it has been struck down every time. I think I got it from Bakker's a number of years ago too.

Poor plant! Maybe I have a bad sense of smell but no one in the family gets any scent out of our one...