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flowers and plants of the deserts,blooms,flowers,plants.arizona deserts
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Dieffenbachia
amoena
Dumb Cane - Araceae
Sap burns mouth and may paralyze vocal cords.
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Including the one I have just mentioned I believe there are7 varieties of this plant.
Bausei - 3 foot tall or more with 12 inch leaves, greenish yellow leaves.
Exotica - compact with small leaves that have dull green edges, midrib is creamy white.
Maculata & Picta - 6 foot or taller. Wide oval green leaves 10 inches or more in length with greenish white dots and patches.
Rudolph Roehrs - 6 foot or taller. Leaves of pale chartreuse, blotched with ivory and edged with green.
Suberba - Foliage thicker and slightly more durable than that of species more creamy white dots and patches.
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This is probably one of the most common house, patio, office plants that I know of, so,
why bother to show or talk about it?
The mane reason is; I am going to show you a part of this plant that I doubt if any one growing it has ever seen.
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In the front window of a shop [ St. Anne's Catholic Book & Gift Shoppe ] in Youngtown, Arizona
there is a Dieffenbachia 7 1/2 feet tall, approx. 4 feet wide, with many stems of 2 inches plus in dia. coming out of its pot.
At first I was mesmerized just by its size. It looks like it belongs in a prehistoric tropical forest some where.
Now, I have probably seen hundreds of these plants in my life time, but never one like this one. After looking at it for quite some time I notice a most remarkable thing, it was blooming. At first I did not believe what I was seeing. I thought some one had just put these blooms on the plant. Who ever herd of a Dieffenbachia blooming? I got a 4 foot step ladder, and I climbed up so I could be within 12 inches of the bloom. Sure enough, it was a real Dieffenbachia bloom growing right out of the top of the largest stem, in fact there two blooms growing out together or side by side. As I was about to clime down off the ladder, I noticed one other very tall stem had a bloom growing out of the top of it. Just in case you don't believe me, here are a few digital images that I took.
The red yarn is holding the stems up and is tied to the several wood & metal stakes in the pot.
You can actually see the blooms from this image, but I will show much closer views than this one.
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First, close up view of the two blooms.
I have put arrows, numbered 1 & 2 pointing to the blooms just in case you don't see them.
In the next view I show this image without the arrows in the way.
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Same view, just a bit more detailed.
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This is a view of the third"?" bloom I found on this plant.
Is it possible there is still another bloom here I did not see?
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Upon a much closer investigation I did find another bloom.
It is an unopened bloom pod behind the front one.
The plant is so dense I dare not try to move stems and leaves around to see it just now.
The blooms are approx. 8 to 10 inches tall, and 3 to 5 inches across. Since they don't look as if they are all of way out, they may become much larger as they grow.
I might also mention this plant is 5 to 6 years old and is in a south window for all of that time never having been moved. It gets watered once a week, 2 gallons per each time. Fertilized once a month with one teaspoon of fertilizer in the water.
They sort of look like Calla Lily blooms.
Right below this plant are two Peace plants blooming
and except for the size you can't tell the blooms apart.
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