The Norfolk Botanical Garden is getting a corpse flower.
First announced a few weeks ago on social media, the enormous, flowering plant will be a part of the garden’s upcoming Garden of Tomorrow expansion opening next year, CEO Peter Schmidt confirmed at a Norfolk tourism event Friday.
The plants, which can grow up to eight feet tall in cultivation, are know for their pungent odor and blooms that last only two to three days, according to the U.S. Botanical Garden website.
The bloom events can draw thousands of people to botanical gardens, according to an article in the Norfolk Botanical Garden’s seasonal newsletter.
Norfolk Botanical Garden staff picked up a huge 54-inch-wide corpse flower root ball from the U.S. Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago. Norfolk’s corpse flower is seven years old, and plants typically bloom around seven to 10 years old, according to the Chicago Botanical Garden.
The Garden of Tomorrow expansion, first announced in 2023, also includes a 26,000-square-foot conservatory, a new parking lot and entry pavilion. The corpse flower will be located in the conservatory’s desert section and will be on display beginning in 2026.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com