The Denver Botanic Garden's corpse flower reached its full bloom Wednesday morning and people are lining up to catch its legendary and fleeting odor.
Erin Bird, the garden's communications director says it's like "a mix of a dirty diaper, rotten cheese, and kinda like a mildew-y aquarium." And you've only got 24 to 36 hours to catch the bloom, which is the culmination of eight to 20 years of growth.
So that everyone can have a chance to smell it, the garden will be open until midnight Wednesday, and from 6 a.m. to midnight Thursday. Early reports say that the wait to see the flower is about three hours.
Yes, you read that right. 3 hour wait to get up close and personal with #StinkyDBG. Some folks turning back. pic.twitter.com/Ki3Y2IPQAG
For those that make it through the line, barf bags await. But some say that the flower doesn't smell as bad as they expected.
If you could only smell a photo! #corpseflower @Botanic @denverpost @DenverPostPicks #photography #florists pic.twitter.com/m241ppUVmL
This just in from staffers who saw the #CorpseFlower in bloom @Botanic: not as stinky as expected! #gratuitousgasmask pic.twitter.com/R1l0kglukt
Regardless of the stink level, the garden will harvest some of the corpse flower's pollen tomorrow and send it to Chicago Botanic Garden, where they happen to have a corpse flower that's blooming soon as well.
