The big Monstera is flowering in Tropical House 7

Brad announced it on the radio so Chris Carley and I went over to see. I love this plant; it's a large cut-leafed aroid that climbs trees, appressing its leaves as it goes. We saw a large one in Hawaii several years back with fruit and flowers. The flowers were fragrant and the fruit is supposed to be delicious but I respected the rules of the garden and didn't eat any.

I remember Elliot Norman telling me stories of his infatuation with large leafed philodendron type aroids. He recounted that at the time he lived in an apartment and he had it filled with huge puts of various species and selections. I never saw the space but imagine it took a good amount of patience on the part of his wife to live in a jungle. I'm thinking he kept them for a number of years because one of the topics we discussed was the transition from juvenile (mostly uncut and clumping) foliage to the mature stage where the plant climbs and the leaves are dissected in various degrees. Brad told Chris and I that this plant, the one in the picture, began producing mature foliage very soon after propagation.