Overwintering Colocasia Gigantea
If you read this blog over the summer you'd know that I was very happy with my purchase of a Colocasia Gigantea Thailand Strain (Giant Elephant Ear). Watching it grow from a little stick into a behemoth with five foot leaves was a lot of fun and very interesting for me.
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it once the cold weather came but I had ideas of letting it dry out and storing the bulb in my garage. Well that didn't happen at all because I smashed it.
While trying to move the plant and it's 100 plus pounds of planter and soil over to my pool (hey I wanted a more tropical look) I dropped it down some concrete steps. Ooops! Most of the leaves snapped off and I thought that was the end of it. It was really sad looking.
But with less leaves, it became a much smaller plant. So into the house it went. There was no way that a 7 foot tall potted plant could have fit in my living room but my accidental alterations changed that. My living room has very little natural light in it but I figured that since the Elephant Ear does well in the shade, that it would be okay.
And it did better than okay. A few new leaves shot up and it even flowered. The flowers look a lot like peace lily flowers although they're a lot bigger.
I keep cutting off leaves so that it fits in my house. It really doesn't look great as a house plant but I'm just happy that it survived the fall and it's making it through the winter.
This summer my elephant ear is getting a prime location by the pool. I just may need some help moving it there.
2/01/2007 05:18:00 PM
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Colocasia Gigantea,
overwinter
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This entry was posted on 2/01/2007 05:18:00 PM
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Although with the size of this plant, I probably needed a pot with a built in air bag.
I might try a colocasia this year, actually. I have a ton of shade in my yard.
And, if someone invents a pot with a built-in airbag, THEN they'll be rich :-)
Annie at the Transplantable Rose