Eerie plants’ season didn’t end with Halloween

If you’re missing Halloween, there are some eerie indoor and outdoor plants that carry the spooky season into winter and beyond.

Let’s start with bat plant (Tacca integrifolia), which blooms yearround. The blossoms are neither bright, cheery nor attractive, except in a curiously ominous way. Atop 2-foot-high stalks, the flowers hover with foot-long, thin, dark “whiskers” drooping from the dusky, maroon-black “wings.”

Growing bat plants isn’t easy. Seeds germinate best if fresh and soaked first in warm water for 24 hours, but even then might take up to nine months to get started. Good air circulation and careful watering are needed to avert the constant threat of damping-off disease. The mature plants demand a well-drained soil (so add extra perlite) and annual repotting. This native of southeast Asia also must have high humidity and, like vampires, shies away from bright light.