Crowds line up to smell corpse flower in bloom

This might be the only exhibit at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens that has visitors scrunching their noses. 

Seymour the corpse flower bloomed early over the weekend, giving visitors and members a reason to rush to the conservatory. The stench reached as far as the parking lot for the gardens located across Palm Avenue. 

“It’s their facial expressions that are priceless,” said Angel Lara, assistant director of horticulture at Selby Gardens.“I stuck my head into the bloom because I wanted to see if the middle flowers were doing anything and when I came out the smell was on me.”

Lara said a visitor who works for the coroner’s office stopped by because she wanted to see if it really smells like a corpse. He describes the aroma as that of a dead animal that has been rotting in the sun. 

To have two corpse flowers blooming together is rare according to Director of Horticulture Mike McLaughlin. They tend to bloom every three to seven years. The last bloom for Seymour was in 2014. 

Seymour’s bloom marked the first for Selby Gardens President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki. 

“I am madly in love with Seymour,” Rominiecki said. “I think people are impressed with the size of the plant and the unique smell.”

Seymour and Audrey are named for the main characters in the musical and film adaptations of “Little Shop of Horrors.” As the plants grow, in some cases more than 5-feet-tall, they resemble the carnivorous man-eating plant from “Little Shop of Horrors.”

The gardens will have extended viewing hours for the conservatory while each flower goes through its own bloom cycle.