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Flowering Dracaena
One morning in January I made the astounding discovery that Dracaenas can bloom. This large houseplant which has been sadly abused for a number of years had suddenly decided to show a new side of itself and throw a flower stalk into the air. This prompted me to jump around a bit, take a bunch of pictures, harass the good folks at Rec.Gardens, and start researching Dracaenas.Strangely enough I found extremely little information regarding their blooms. Only comments saying that it can bloom, but it is such a rare occassion that it shouldn't be expected. There were a small number of mentions of Dracaena fragrans in bloom, but if I recall those were not houseplants.
I am tentatively identifying the plant as a Dracaena demerensis, but I have not been able to match the leaf closely enough to be sure. It's pattern is closest to D.demerensis rhoersii, but the colouring is more akin to D. demerensis waneckii. If anyone can tell by the following photos which variety this plant is I'd love to hear about it. Please include a resource reference so that I can get some definite info about the plant into my little journal.
Some Pictures:
This is the entire plant. So what do the white lines to the left of it mean? Well, I'm going to tell you.Bottom section: the old growth region. For as long as I can recall the plant was this big. No bigger - no smaller - began its existence at this size.
Middle section: the new growth region. This area is a much lighter, fresher green than the rest of the plant. It has just grown in since the summer of 2000, so the foliage here is all new. Why the sudden burst of growth? I have no idea! About June (2000) I started a goldfish aquarium and have been giving all the plants a monthly application of the water I take from the tank. It is a mild fertilizer, but I can't say whether it was actually a trigger for this plant or just a coincidence. Whatever the cause it shot up like a bat, and this is how it looks now.
Top section: marks the height of the flower stalk. We'll see closer shots of this in a moment, but I thought it would be handy to see it in relation to the entire plant. It is fairly long, and branched in a couple places.
This is a close-up of the flower stalk. The buds are grouped in clusters, are each about 1 inch long, and are white with a pink tip. This pink is not easy to find after the flowers open. The buds popped out of small pods (said with great hesitation). A small, nearly closed leaf formed on the stalk, from which the buds rolled out. The remnants of this pod are easily seen under the cluster in the middle of the photo, and some of the buds with their lower tips still inside the pod is evident at the bottom. This unfolding (unrolling) of the buds took several days for each cluster and none of the buds opened to flower until the entire cluster was free of the pod.
There was aso the appearance of a single drop of a colourless, sticky fluid under each pod near the stalk. This can be very clearly seen under the middle cluster. They didn't do anything - didn't get bigger, didn't run down the stalk , didn't dry out, didn't attract any nasty little gnats - just hung there from the time the buds started to roll out until the blooms all dropped. What it is, or what it's for, is beyond me. I'm simply assuming it is something similar to the nectar found around Peony buds during their opening.
After a couple of days of watching the buds darken and drop, I finally realized that the bloody thing was blooming at night after the house lights were turned off. We generally darken the house around 8-9pm when the kids go to bed, and the buds were opening by 9:30-10pm. Anyhow, I must have only missed one or two nights, and not many buds opened over that time. The plant went into full swing the night after I found the open flowers.These photos are not as clear as I'd like, but you may be able to see that the flowers are white, one inch wide, six petaled, with long yellow stamins.
Only a few flowers from each cluster were opening each night. They would only be open for the one night, closing up in the morning, and beginning the fade immediately. They would darken and wither for a few days before they finally dropped. But this way there were a few flowers open each night for about a week and a half. I would not describe this as an attractive flower once the buds begin to open. During the day (when most people are seeing it) it looks half-rotten.
Then there is the scent. I cannot accurately describe the amazing aroma that flooded the main floor of the house each night. It was thick enough to be tasted, and (close to the plant especially) could almost be felt on the skin. You could smell it on people's clothes if they just walked through, and visitors were impacted with it as soon as the door was opened. Strangely though, it was a very pleasant smell, reminiscent of the first spring trip to the local garden centre, when all of the annuals are in bloom and under one roof. When walking into it a person's first reaction was to inhale deeply, as opposed to wrinkling up their face and saying, "Ewwwww, stinky!"Brett