Stink Blooms of Stapelia Gigantea

It's been a ridiculously long time since I last posted.  Briefly, over the past few months, my husband and I purchased and renovated a home for my mother and father-in-law, and it was kinda crazy.  My lack of posting was also at least partially due to the crappy summer of 2011.  Mostly it was the house.  I will be sharing pictures later on of the process, but in the meantime I thought I'd share a couple pictures of my Stapelia gigantea that bloomed a few months ago.

The bloom was certainly impressive and surprising.  It opened early in the morning to reveal gorgeous hairy, spider-veined blooms that smelled a bit like roadkill run through a sewer, so I was careful not to touch it just in case the fragrance penetrated all 7 layers of skin.

Obviously the flies adored it.

They immediately set up shop, and before the day was done, there were maggots crawling inside.

Precious.



Ok, so obviously this is a fun plant.  The smell really isn't super strong unless you get quite close to it, and the blooms only last a day.  The green succulent stems are very attractive, but honestly, the bloom is killer.  Very pretty and very surprising.  I'd say it was a wonderful conversation piece except guests would have to be there on a day it was blooming.  Or maybe you could go door-to-door with the pot and fool your neighbors into taking a big whiff of it.  Good times.