Gran....have to let you know, since you’ve advised me, with my houseplants, before....my corn plant is blooming!
It’s the most heavenly scent and beautiful sight!
I looked it up....one article said that no one knows what causes a corn plant to bloom...but, they sometimes can take up to 40 years to bloom (mine is a rescue...I’ve only had it about 5 years)...and, that they sometimes bloom, as a ‘gift’, around Christmastime. (That’s when I started noticing the buds.)
The blooms typically last about 3 weeks.
Just amazing! The entire living/dining/family areas are heavenly scented 💕
Have you seen this, before?
I have never had a corn plant, so I had to do a little research......
When a Corn Plant Blooms
The corn plant (Dracaena fragrans), also called corn palm. 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. fragrans ‘Massangeana’ – and its surprising ability to resist almost any combination of indoor growing conditions, from full sun to shade.
The corn plant is a “survivor”, able to tolerate the worst kind of neglect. 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!
On the other hand, the corn plant is universally considered a foliage plant, cultivated solely for its attractive leaves. But sometimes it offers you a surprise.
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. 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. 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.
A Personal Anecdote
Back in 1984, I was working in a 5-story office building in the Old Port. One evening I stayed on a bit later than usual, then, shortly after 6 pm, an extraordinary perfume began wafting into my office. 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. Imagine, blooms so intensely fragrant that they can fill an entire 5-story building with their scent!
Patience Will Be Rewarded
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. 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.
Best of luck!
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2017/01/11/when-a-corn-plant-blooms/
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
I faithfully tended a corn plant for over 10 years in my living room and told my DH to toss it last week because it was getting too tall.
IT BLOOMS?????