First Summer's Growth

At the end of April, 2003, I transplanted two of the five plants I'd started from seed into patio containers, having found loving homes for the other three. Both of my transplants continued to produce floating leaves through the cool, wet spring, but didn't take off until temperatures finally reached the 80's in June.

About the middle of June, the first aerial leaves appeared, much to my delight!

At this point, I added five fertilizer tablets to the wooden tub, and four to the black trough.

Toward the end of June, I noticed a particularly stout aerial leaf emerging. It looked different from the others, and I kept checking it every day. So imagine my excitement when a flower bud appeared a few days later, alongside this leaf!

Common wisdom states that it takes two years for seed-started plants to flower, but here is a bud on this plant, from a seed started eleven months ago.  It's possible that the advantage of overwintering the plants in a greenhouse explains my good luck.

And here's the gorgeous plant at the very end of June. It now has two flower buds, and the largest leaf measures 16 inches across.

The smaller plant on the right, in the black trough, has also sent up a particularly heavy leaf, and I expect (and hope) that it too may produce a flower or two.

Because these seeds came from a hybrid (Perry's Giant Sunburst), I'm particularly anxious to see what kind of flowers these plants of mine will produce . . . .  So, stay tuned!