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Aug 27, 2010 9:21 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Taylor
Ohio, zone 5
I love Araceae
Share your EEs here!
Colocasia, Alocasia, Xanthosoma, and Caladium!



Colocasia gigantea

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Colocasia esculenta NoID

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Colocasia esculenta Var. 'Illustris'


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Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic' (leaf underside)

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Colocasia esculenta

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Xanthosoma atrovirens 'Dwarf Green'
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Sep 4, 2010 8:18 AM CST
Name: Susan
Zone 10a (Zone 10a)

Birds Butterflies Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Dog Lover Region: Florida
Hibiscus Hummingbirder Tropicals
My experience with growing EE's in the Midwest is this.

Once they are a growing plant with lots of foliage they require lots of water and can take water ponds, bogs, wet areas of your yard. I plant some in the ground that remains soggy in spring from our spring rains but must be watered frequently if that dries up. The remainder I plant in containers. If it is a colocasia=bulb I dig it, clean it, let it dry then store in brown paper bags filled with saw dust of non treated wood and store in a cool dark location in the basement.

The Alocasia are simply too large for me to get inside so I plant them in a one gallon pot and plant that in a very large decorative container or sink it into the ground. In fall I cut back the foliage to 6", wrestle the one gallon container out of the ground or big pot (not always easy), hose off the one gallon containers and I have shelving in a sunny office. On the shelving I lay trays with no holes and put the pots of EE on the trays and water weekly. It is a mess and the EE sometimes grow, sometimes die back. Looks awful and is a big mess.

Once it is consistently 60 degrees at night they can all go outside. (I have started the bulbs in the house in February and the mess and disadvantages outway any advantage I get from this method unless you are using a greenhouse which I don't). You will still find most of the EE's are very slow and some look dead like they will not return. Probably your ground temperatures are still not warm enough. Once it gets hot, hot, hot (my first 3 days of 100 degrees) suddenly gorgeous EE's appear.

For me it various considerably but this year it was late June. My guess is gardeners are getting very anxious by the end of May and when they don't see a plant they think it's dead...really just needs more time. Your patience will reward you.

Here is a link to the research I have done on tropical gardening
http://gardenersdetective.web....

Sorry Taylor, guess this looks more like an article than a post.
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Sep 4, 2010 1:19 PM CST
Name: Susan
Zone 10a (Zone 10a)

Birds Butterflies Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Dog Lover Region: Florida
Hibiscus Hummingbirder Tropicals
Taylor I luv EE's and am so excited about your new cubit. Just getting started and look forward to reading all your threads. I somehow get the feeling I will be visiting often thanks for making this cubit.

Ok, took some EE pix this morning, hope you enjoy.

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Sep 4, 2010 7:29 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Taylor
Ohio, zone 5
I love Araceae
Susan...I think you might be able to help me expand my collection of EEs..... Whistling

I love your plants all are so beautiful!!
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Sep 4, 2010 8:03 PM CST
Name: Ric
Cincinnati, Oh
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Cat Lover Dog Lover Garden Art Region: Ohio
Tropicals Lover of wildlife (Black bear badge) Enjoys or suffers cold winters
The larger Alocasia, Odora, Macro, etc we winter quite brutally.
Dig them up, knock off most the dirt, throw them on the GH floor.
Maybe once a month we spray the roots/stem.
They go dormant and look like green baseball bats.
Come Spring, pot and go on.... it's that simple.
Most of our Colocasia e's we let go dormant in the pot.
Just quit watering.
But the ones we Summer in the ponds, Blacks, Illustris, etc, need to be weaned back from the water.
In mid/late Sept we haul them out of the pond or water containers/gardens.
Let them gradually get used to less water.
We have wintered them as houseplants but generally it's more trouble than it's worth.
But some Alocasia, Hilo, Stingray, Sarian are very hard to get out of dormancy.
Those we do winter as guests..... lol!

C. 'Diamond Head'


C. 'Gigantea'

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As yet Unknown C.


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Sep 4, 2010 8:59 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Taylor
Ohio, zone 5
I love Araceae
Ric, when you say 'We'.... are you a nursery or something??
Whistling
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Sep 4, 2010 9:37 PM CST
Name: Ric
Cincinnati, Oh
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Cat Lover Dog Lover Garden Art Region: Ohio
Tropicals Lover of wildlife (Black bear badge) Enjoys or suffers cold winters
No but at times it feels like it. LOL!

My partner Robyn and I both garden heavily, hinse the 'We'.
I'm more into Tropicals. She's more into Hosta and Ferns.
I do though grow plants for a wholesale nursery run by a friend of ours.
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Sep 5, 2010 6:34 AM CST
Name: Susan
Zone 10a (Zone 10a)

Birds Butterflies Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Dog Lover Region: Florida
Hibiscus Hummingbirder Tropicals
Ric, I'm into the tropicals, hosta's and ferns but I have very few ferns. I joined my local Hosta Society and for $7 received about $200 worth materials, garden tours, speakers. That gives me and idea, haven't looked for other EE collectors in my area, there's gotta be some.

For my 2011 garden just gotta have lady fern 'dre's dagger'. I would definately buy another teacup next year if mine doesn't winter over and I'm also going to add mohito.

What do you grow for the wholesaler?
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Sep 5, 2010 9:50 PM CST
Name: Ric
Cincinnati, Oh
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Cat Lover Dog Lover Garden Art Region: Ohio
Tropicals Lover of wildlife (Black bear badge) Enjoys or suffers cold winters
Whatever I have and they need....lol!
Seriously that's about the deal.
I have say 25 'Big Dipper'.
She checks w/ buyers and if there's an interest and the price is right I sell them.
She does the shipping (price is added on) and takes a commission.
We tested the waters this year.
Next Spring I will go full bore.
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Sep 6, 2010 3:02 AM CST
Name: Susan
Zone 10a (Zone 10a)

Birds Butterflies Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Dog Lover Region: Florida
Hibiscus Hummingbirder Tropicals
Thumbs up Congrats Ric sounds like a winner business. Don't get too busy to visit us on cubits though. Whistling Do you have lots of greenhouses?
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Sep 6, 2010 8:31 AM CST
Name: Ric
Cincinnati, Oh
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Cat Lover Dog Lover Garden Art Region: Ohio
Tropicals Lover of wildlife (Black bear badge) Enjoys or suffers cold winters
lady fern 'dre's dagger' is fairly common around here.
I think my wholesaler will be carrying it next year.
Well at least we talked about it...lol!

We have two 'wintering' GH's.
One is 10' x 12' and basically for dormant storage.
The other, slightly smaller, is for the taller tender tropicals and water plants.

Ric
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Sep 6, 2010 8:49 AM CST
Name: Susan
Zone 10a (Zone 10a)

Birds Butterflies Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Dog Lover Region: Florida
Hibiscus Hummingbirder Tropicals
Drooling greenhouse envy. I have a postage stamp yard sectioned into garden rooms which makes my garden appear larger...but that doesn't mean I still don't want one of everything Big Grin When space is so limited gardeners must be very particular as to what stays and what goes and if it's not gorgeous it's out!
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Sep 6, 2010 9:01 AM CST
Name: Ric
Cincinnati, Oh
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Cat Lover Dog Lover Garden Art Region: Ohio
Tropicals Lover of wildlife (Black bear badge) Enjoys or suffers cold winters
We're on 1/8th acre.
I feel your pain! LOL!
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Jan 14, 2011 7:34 PM CST
Name: Susan
Zone 10a (Zone 10a)

Birds Butterflies Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Dog Lover Region: Florida
Hibiscus Hummingbirder Tropicals
Happy New Year Taylor...What's new with you? I just received an email from one of my local nurseries about a new plant they will be carrying this year but didn't list a price, hmm. It's not winter hardy here but looks like it just may be worth digging up

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Jan 22, 2011 9:30 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Taylor
Ohio, zone 5
I love Araceae
gardenersdetective said:Happy New Year Taylor...What's new with you? I just received an email from one of my local nurseries about a new plant they will be carrying this year but didn't list a price, hmm. It's not winter hardy here but looks like it just may be worth digging up

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I have one of those Thumbs up
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Jan 22, 2011 2:15 PM CST
Name: Susan
Zone 10a (Zone 10a)

Birds Butterflies Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Dog Lover Region: Florida
Hibiscus Hummingbirder Tropicals
How does it perform in zone 5 (my zone also)? I don't have a green house and dig up my EE's and store in the basement. Some of my containers I just bring in and let them go dormant. This one would be way to huge for a pot. Might need an ax to get it out of the ground and chopped down. Rolling on the floor laughing Rolling on the floor laughing Rolling on the floor laughing Rolling on the floor laughing Rolling on the floor laughing
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Jan 22, 2011 7:48 PM CST
Name: Susan B
East Tennessee (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member
That photo was taken in Asia (Thailand, I think), I doubt it would grow that big in your zone or anywhere other than 9/10.

We can dream though! Wouldn't it be awesome!
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Jan 23, 2011 7:04 AM CST
Name: Anna Z.
Monroe, WI
Charter ATP Member Greenhouse Cat Lover Raises cows Region: Wisconsin
I think I got that one last spring from Brian's botanicals. Hmmm..............not *quite* that big yet, tho. Glad I found this cubit. Now, if I can find the correct photo, I'll post some of mine.

Love my EE's................repotted some and divided an un-named alo in the g'house in the last couple weeks.

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Jan 23, 2011 7:14 AM CST
Name: Anna Z.
Monroe, WI
Charter ATP Member Greenhouse Cat Lover Raises cows Region: Wisconsin
And here is another of the behemoths in nice weather........lol
I call them my "man eaters" that will discourage any unwanted salesmen from coming to my kitchen door.
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Big Grin
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Jan 23, 2011 7:24 AM CST
Name: Susan B
East Tennessee (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member
Beautiful! Congratulations growing them that big and keeping them going in your zone!

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