#Corn plant with green stem full

Sometimes, however, maybe 25% of the time, the “branch” is very stubby, and the flowers appear to be constrained by small leaves which encase them. (The plant has always been indoors, and I guess has never been pollinated, so we never had the berries form, and for the few times that I tried to pollinate it – as if I knew precisely how – nothing ever came of it.)Īfter 12 years of this, I’ve noticed interestingly that there seem to be two general types of flowering stems: one is as depicted in the article, with a long, branch-like growth from the crown of the plant, and many nodes of sappy flowers connected to it. We have to put newspaper under it quite often so it won’t stain the carpet since often there is a sticky sap which drips off the stems. I’m also not sure what I’m doing, but unlike some of the posters here, the plant WON’T STOP flowering – every three months or so a new bud appears and shortly thereafter the flowers develop and bloom. Not that I’ve tried to, but when other people here say “The plant is nearly impossible to kill!”, they’re pretty much right – it will tolerate a lot of neglect and still come back strong.

I’ve had one of these plants since college when we found one doing just fine in our senior apartment, left over the summer, likely unattended for the duration. The chances yours will bloom are much, much better, though, if you place it in good light rather than the “dark corner” to which this plant is usually relegated. If you want to experience the corn plant’s extraordinary fragrance, buy one… and wait patiently! No one knows what causes this plant to bloom and it can take place in any season, but almost inevitably it occurs only after several to many years. Imagine, blooms so intensely fragrant that they can fill an entire 5-story building with their scent!

#Corn plant with green stem full

What was it? I set off in search of the source of the incredible fragrance, finally to find discover it 3 floors below, in the building’s lobby: a corn plant in full bloom. One evening I stayed on a bit later than usual, then, shortly after 6 pm, an extraordinary perfume began wafting into my office. It is so intense that it sometimes becomes intolerable and the owner feels obliged to cut the flower stem off or to stick the plant in a spare bedroom and close the door at night.īack in 1984, I was working in a 5-story office building in the Old Port. They only open in the evening and at night, but then, what a perfume they give off! Intense, heady, sweet, the fragrance invades the whole house. Yes, from time to time, perhaps only after decades of cultivation, it flowers, producing arching terminal panicle of pinkish buds that open into masses of white flowers. Corn plant ( Dracaena fragrans ‘Massangeana’) in bud.

On the other hand, the corn plant is universally considered a foliage plant, cultivated solely for its attractive leaves. It is, in fact, nearly unkillable! That’s why it’s not unusual to see specimens that are 10, 20 or even 40 years old: a very rare situation indeed for a houseplant! The corn plant is a “survivor”, able to tolerate the worst kind of neglect. fragrans ‘Massangeana’ – and its surprising ability to resist almost any combination of indoor growing conditions, from full sun to shade. cornstalk plant and false palm, is a popular houseplant, cultivated for its beautiful growth habit – an erect trunk with arching lanceolate leaves, each a with broad yellow to pale green band in center in the case of the most popular cultivar, D. The corn plant ( Dracaena fragrans), also called corn palm. Corn plant ( Dracaena fragrans ‘Massangeana’).