Giant corpse flower 'Pete' set to bloom in regional Victoria

At 1.5 metres tall, 'Pete' the corpse flower lives behind glass in a climate-controlled Geelong Botanic Gardens greenhouse and is just about ready to bloom.

And if the gardens' last corpse plant flowering in 2024 was anything to go by, hundreds of people could come to see and smell him.

"It's really quite a beautiful flower, and it has a horrific smell when it does bloom," Lucy Griffiths from the Geelong Botanic Gardens said.

A blooming corpse flower has been described as smelling like a dead possum, rotting cheese or fermenting cabbage.

The Amorphophallus titanum, Titan Arum, or corpse flower, stores most of its energy underground in a corm: a short, swollen, vertical plant stem full of starches and nutrients.

Weighing the root of the plant earlier this year, Ms Griffiths said she was confident it would flower soon.

"When we weighed Pete in 2024, the corm was just under 10 kilos," she said. 

"And then when I weighed it again in May of this year, it weighed 17.7 kilograms. 

"So that was a good indication for us that the amount of energy in the corn could potentially produce a flower."

As predicted, the plant emerged from dormancy last month and has been growing about five centimetres a day.

'A truly special event'

But Pete is not the only star in this greenhouse. 

The garden has four corpse flower plants. 

Two are in leaf and displayed near Pete; the other is dormant after flowering two years ago.

Ms Griffiths says they could have the plants blooming more often but said it takes a lot of work.

Two of the plants were donated to the Geelong Botanic Gardens in 2021, propagated by staff at South Australia's Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium.

Senior horticulture curator Matt Coulter from the Herbarium is a world expert on Amorphophallus titanium and said it takes years for the plants to be ready for a bloom.

"The Titan Arum takes years to build enough energy to produce its spectacular bloom, making every flowering a truly special event,"

Mr Coulter said.

A stinky smell

Why does the species unleash such a sickly smell? 

Well, it is all to attract pollinators like flies and beetles that would usually lay their eggs on rotting flesh. 

It also produces deep red flowers to mimic the colour of blood.

The City of Greater Geelong hopes for an event like 2024 when the flowering drew over 20,000 visitors and clocked up more than 350,000 live-stream views.

Geelong local Marie Jenner dropped into the greenhouse on Thursday to check on Pete's progress. 

She missed the 2024 flowering and said she was keen to come back when it flowers.

"I think it's going to be worth seeing because it only happens once in seven years,"

she said.

Trudy Mason saw the 2024 flowering and was not planning to come back for this one.

"Oh, it's too much. I wouldn't do it again," she said. 

"It was worth it for the first time, but now I've seen it, I don't think I'd do it again."

David Tytherleigh, from East Geelong, said he was undecided if he would return when the plant is in flower.

"I don't really want to line up again for three or four hours," he said. 

"I may, I don't know, it depends. 

"Last time around, I lined up several times, but I came back when it was falling over, and I found it so much nicer because it was so sculptural."

While joking that visitors could bring a peg for their nose, Ms Griffiths said it was a good idea to bring mosquito repellent and sunscreen because there could again be considerable delays in getting into the greenhouse.