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Arum italicum 'Pictum' - Page 2

© Marge Talt

If you want to try growing them from seed, harvest the berries when they are bright red. They seem to take forever to get to this point. If the stem is damaged and the stalk falls over, or birds start to get after them, go ahead and harvest, but it is best to leave them on the stem until they start to fall off by themselves. This means the seed is ripe. It should be a light tan color.

Clean the seeds from the pulp by squeezing the seeds out and rinsing off any pulp that adheres to them. It's best to wear those thin surgical rubber gloves when you do this, to protect your hands from the calcium oxalate crystals in the pulp. You don't want to get the pulp on your lips or in your eyes as it is an irritant.

Plant the seeds immediately. I've made the mistake of letting the berries dry out and had zero germination. If immediate planting is impossible, put them on a barely damp paper towel, fold the towel over them and place them in a plastic zip lock bag. Put the bag in the refrigerator until you can plant them. Either put your pots in a cold frame or leave them outside, covered with screening to keep out debris and critters. They should germinate in the fall, but may take a full twelve months, so don't throw out the pots too quickly.

The seedlings don't look anything like the mature plants. The leaves are small -- about the size of a teaspoon -- and plain green in color on short stalks. The next year they will look much the same, but a little bigger. The following year they will start to have the arum shape and show faint marbling. Each year they will get larger, more numerous and more strongly marked. It will take about five years for them to reach blooming size.

You can also increase your stand by separating the baby tubers, but they, too, will take several years to reach blooming size. The pea-sized babies are attached to the mother tuber. Do this in summer while the plants are dormant.

Allan Galloway's Arum Page leads to his detailed photos of many of the genus Arum, listed by species.

A. italicum is only one species in the large and diverse Araceae family which includes Arisaema, Lysichitum americanum (Skunk-cabbage), as well other hardy plants and many non-hardy tropical plants like philodendrons and caladiums. Some plants, like the Arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) are water plants. It is such a varied family that there are plants belonging to it that should suite just about everyone's taste. Most of the hardy ones are very suitable for shady gardens because they generally prefer some protection from the blazing sun, particularly in warmer climates. Since I'm fascinated with them, I'll be talking about more of them as time passes.

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