How to Plant Arisaema
Arisaema are diverse perennials with fun nicknames like "Jack in the pulpit" and "cobra lily." These distinctive plants grow from seeds and from tubers, and require specific care and attention during dormancy in order to survive. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Planting Arisaema from Seed
-
1
Order seeds from a breeder, or gather your own. For most species, you will need to have both a male and female plant in order to get seeds. Some varieties are unisex, while others change sexes during their lifetime.
-
2
Clean the seeds. Place ripe, seeded fruit into a plastic sandwich bag. (The fruit is toxic and can cause numbness or severe pain.) Squish the fruit several times, then pour the mush into a cup. Add water, rinse and strain a few times until the seeds are clean.
-
-
3
Immediately bury one cleaned seed in a 1/4-inch depression in clean potting soil, and water thoroughly. The seed will sprout in four to six weeks, and grow for two to four months before going dormant. Dormant plants appear dead, but they're not. Expect flowers in two to four years.
Planting Arisaema from Tubers
-
4
Order tubers well in advance, as breeders often sell out of the rarest varieties. Otherwise, snap off a bulb from a variety of arisaema that multiplies by offsets; plant the bulb at the end of the growing season, in the fall.
-
5
Store your arisaema in peat moss until it's time to plant. The timetable recommended by the grower will let you know when to expect your arisaema to come out of dormancy.
-
6
Bury each tuber in a deep pot, about 6 inches down. The pot should be twice as wide as your tuber. Keep in mind that the main plant's tuber will grow each year; to avoid repotting, start with a pot that's about 10 inches in width.
-
7
Keep tubers fairly dry. Water about every two weeks while they're dormant, and two to three times a week once they begin to sprout.
-
8
Fertilize your arisaema weekly with a liquid fertilizer.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Squeeze an extra growing season from your arisaema by storing the tubers in the fridge for a few weeks at the end of summer. When they emerge, they'll think it's time to grow again.
