a sunday date with the world's tallest flower.

about a week ago, i got an email from paulie that started off "you're gonna love this you huge nerd", and with that, i was in love with it and i didn't even know what the hell it was. attached was this article, explaining that the floral showhouse (a greenhouse in niagara falls), was nursing two of the 'world's tallest flower', the titan arum, and one of them was on the cusp of blooming for the first time in canada. i followed the updates on the greenhouse's blog for a few days, and we made a plan to go see it yesterday.

even though i was slightly incredibly hungover, we got our asses  in gear and drove to the falls. it was a beautiful day, and we made it there early enough that there wasn't too long of a line to get in. the grounds surrounding the greenhouse itself are just as incredible as what's inside, a collection of japanese maples, crab apples in full bloom and the style of the greenhouse itself, i was loving everything. it reminded me of our first date, which was also in may, when we were babies. we started off at the butterfly conservatory, which is also on the parkway, and went for a walk on the grounds of the always lovely school of horticulture. afterwards, he took me to a diner for ice cream sundaes, it was so sweet, and so perfectly high school. until i spilled a giant spoonful of chocolate ice cream directly onto my hammers. while wearing a white tank top. i'm pretty sure that was the moment he knew i was the one. yes, the floral showhouse yesterday reminded me a lot of that day, sans the ice cream tits of course.

the flower was in the main entrance of the building, and you could smell a definite funk as soon as you stepped through the doors. it hadn't been in bloom for over 24 hours, yet the smell was very much there. the nickname for the titan arum is "corpse flower" because when it blooms, the scent resembles the smell of rotting meat. how romantic. it wasn't enough to keep us away, and i couldn't believe the sheer size of it when it was finally my turn to get up close and personal with it. the plant grew at a rate of 7" per day, but while blooming, the flower moves around 8cm every half-hour, so you can actually watch it happening. luckily, someone was smart and time lapse photographed (my fave) the flower blooming. i asked one of the employees why it had only lasted 36 hours in bloom, when they were expecting it to stick around for at least four days, and she explained that the bloom was getting too much sun, and as a result flopped prematurely and began to close. they have high hopes for the second bloom, and expect it to last longer than the first, blooming in about a week. if you live in the area, it's worth it to make the trip out to see this beast. once they update the blog that the flower has bloomed, i plan on going back to see her in all her pride and glory. fingers crossed this happens on sunday, nothing says 'happy mother's day' 
like taking my ma to see a giant flower that smells like death.

the spent bloom in front, and the second in the back. moi. adorable boy in plaid. 

malaysian orchid. the greenhouse that i want added as an extension to the back of my house.