Dormancy becomes her
She's back! Corpse flower Lois set to take a final public repotting bow
Corpse flower Lois in her heyday.
Forget this sign. It's never over, until Lois says it's over.Photo by Steven Thomson
The last time the corpse flower was seen in public ...
Just when you thought the curtain had fallen on Act III of The Life and Times of Lois the Corpse Flower, she's taking the stage once more for her final encore.
This Thursday at 10 a.m., Lois will get one more appearance in the public eye and move into her next phase at the Houston Museum of Natural Science greenhouse: Repotting and dormancy.
Dark days are ahead for Lois.
We confirmed the twilight of the corpse flower's public life with celebrity horticulturist Zac Stayton, who said, "Her tuber is underground, so we'll be excavating her — taking her out of the soil, weighing her, measuring her, and dusting her off."
Which we're pretty sure means upgrading her from teeny bungalow to giant manse.
The corpse flower was moved out of that hot hallway at the Cockrell Butterfly Center and into the museum's greenhouse on Aug. 2, but now Lois is ready to be repotted. And there'll be an audience for the event (it's Lois, what did you expect?) HMNS held a lottery to select 25 witnesses from the general public who'd be allowed in the normally staff-only greenhouse to see the big moment.
Although it sounds like a theatric future is in store for Lois, Stayton assured us that Houston's most dramatic diva is in for a relaxing staycation. Stayton said, "We'll be keeping her in new soil, in a nice, dark place. Once she shows signs of putting up a new leaf, we will water her again."
How long will Lois be in dormant dehydration? Stayton said it's hard to say. "We'll know more after she's weighed. Average dormancy is three to six months after the leaf comes up."
And then it starts all over again — though many corpse flowers only bloom once or twice in their entire lives and take years to do it.
Take a bow, Lois. We'll be anxiously awaiting the sequel.
