A towering, foul-smelling bloom is about to unfurl inside Smith College's Botanic Garden, and staff say it could happen any day now. The plant in question is a Titan Arum, better known as a corpse flower, and it's poised to put on one of the rarest shows in the plant world right in Northampton.
According to Western Mass News, the Titan Arum is set to bloom soon, with the garden saying it should be happening in the near future. When it does, the flower won't stick around for long: its bloom lasts only about three days, even though the flower stalk itself can stretch up to nine feet tall. The plant earns its ghoulish nickname honestly, giving off a putrid odor specifically designed to attract flies, which serve as its pollinators in the wild.
A Flowering Timeline Years in the Making
Smith's Titan Arum has a history that stretches back two decades. The college's own announcement from last year noted that the plant first bloomed in 2005 and again in 2008, with last year's event marking its third flowering inside the Lyman Conservatory, according to Smith College. At the time, the college reported that the plant's corm, the underground storage structure that fuels the eventual bloom, weighed 54 pounds when staff checked it in mid-August.
Predicting exactly when a corpse flower will open is notoriously tricky. Last year's Smith announcement said blooming was expected very soon within the coming week, while cautioning that pinpointing the exact moment of full bloom was difficult. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported that this specific plant had last flowered in 2022, and that during a Friday visit around 10:30 a.m. in June 2025, the flower was only partly open, underscoring just how unpredictable the process can be.
How Often Does It Actually Bloom?
Sources differ on how frequently Titan Arums flower. Western Mass News reported the bloom cycle happens once every two to three years, while Smith College's own material describes flowering as occurring usually every three to five years once the corm reaches a critical size, adding that the timing remains unpredictable overall. The Gazette offered yet another data point, noting that corpse flowers can take seven to 10 years to bloom fully from the start of their growth cycle.
Smith isn't the only Western Massachusetts campus with a stinking celebrity on its hands. Mount Holyoke's own corpse flower drew attention earlier this year, with MassLive reporting that bloom was expected to happen on a Sunday or Monday, typically overnight. That plant measured close to 64 inches tall and weighed around 35 pounds, considerably smaller than Smith's specimen. MassLive also noted that Smith's own corpse flower had bloomed the previous year.
Planning a Visit
For those hoping to catch the spectacle in person, the Gazette reported that Smith's Botanic Garden is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with free admission, while the college's own announcement listed the Lyman Conservatory's hours as 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, noting the space is wheelchair-accessible. The garden said it plans to share updates on its social media page as the bloom progresses, giving visitors a chance to time their trip to catch the flower at its brief, three-day peak before it closes up again.
