One of my all time favorites, Alocasia Hilo Beauty, which might be a Caladium, according to some people.

More shots of Colocasia gageana, which might also be 'Okinawa Silver' @eclayne this one has never gotten big like we thought it would. Sure has pretty leaves anyway.

dyzzypyxxy said:I'm looking at having to divide this baby this year. Sure is pretty though.

Love, Love, Love! I really want to know the name of this one ... how tall does it get ... and is it the type that one would have to continually be digging so that it didn't take over the garden?

crawgarden said:Colocasia esculenta Black Coral

Wow, really beautiful!!

Oh my, love those with green and white variegations!

Lin, that variegated one of mine has only ever gotten to about 30in. tall. I've had it in a pot, so I don't know about its spreading habits but it has filled up this 16in. pot in now its 3rd year.

Let me know next time you'll be over this way, and I'll be glad to share a division with you. Mail is getting too expensive these days, sadly.

My C. gageana is just not thriving. I got it last summer and it was a gorgeous plant but it has declined steadily. It does not die, it is just putting out smaller than normal leaves and darn few of them. I brought it inside for the winter and it struggled but never went into dormancy. Perhaps it needs a rest? I think I will leave it in a protected and dry spot outside this coming winter, maybe it needs a period of dormancy.

My Black Coral is a new plant, it was a baby tissue culture plant in a 3" pot in May but it's growing like gangbusters now.


C. Greeen Eyed Gecko was also a new baby in May and it too has grown nicely but it is not the most exciting plant. The color is sort of dull.


Duh, this is supposed to be Red Eyed Gecko not green.

dyzzypyxxy said: Let me know next time you'll be over this way, and I'll be glad to share a division with you. Mail is getting too expensive these days, sadly.

Elaine, that is so sweet of you! Yeah, it's amazing what the cost of postage is these days ... whether the postal service, UPS, FEDEX etc. it's all getting quite expensive! I went to the local P.O. to mail a package to our niece's little boy last month and was shocked when I was told it would cost $56.86 for Priority Mail. We said it didn't need to go priority and hubby asked what the next amount down would be and we were quoted $53.00 and change! The box was going to California but it wasn't very large, containing a toy and a couple of small childrens books. I told the clerk, no thanks, I'll go to UPS and he laughed and said good luck, it will be much more expensive shipping with them. My husband dropped it off at UPS the next day and it was still a bit expensive but $12 cheaper than the lowest quoted postal fee!

Alice, your Black Coral is gorgeous and I usually don't care for lime green leaf color but I really like Green Eyed Gecko, very nice!

Here is my pitiful C. gageana.


Looking a bit healthier are Alocasia sarian


and my C. Jack's Giant which after 3 years is still not much of a giant.

I really want one of those with the upright leaves.

Yikes, Alice, your little gageana really does look unhappy. May I suggest, if it were mine I'd be removing it from that pot for a look-see, and putting it in some fresh soil. I also give mine a cup of alfalfa pellets along with some new potting soil on top each spring, which it seems to really love.

I know, it is truly the saddest looking plant and it was so great when I got it. I did recently re-pot it with fresh soil and some good compost. Tony Avant says EE's like compost and water - lots and lots of both.

dyzzypyxxy said:One of my all time favorites, Alocasia Hilo Beauty, which might be a Caladium, according to some people.

More shots of Colocasia gageana, which might also be 'Okinawa Silver' @eclayne this one has never gotten big like we thought it would. Sure has pretty leaves anyway.

• Elephant's Ear (Alocasia gageana 'Albo-variegata')
• Uploaded by dyzzypyxxy

• Elephant's Ear (Alocasia gageana 'Albo-variegata')
• Uploaded by dyzzypyxxy

These look fantastic Elaine. Please add these pics to our database. The Hilo Beauty over-wintered just fine. They’ve broken dormancy and are just getting going up here. Stunning plants. I goofed with the variegated A. gageana, I wanted to give it a little extra sun for a day or two and poof, leaf burn. It’s recovering and has a good sized offset.

What we have is Elephant's Ear (Alocasia gageana 'Albo-variegata'). It has the compact growth habit of A. gageana and the offsets grow directly from the parent tuber. A. odora ‘Okinawa Silver’ gets larger and the offsets are attached by short stolons to the parent, like regular A. odora. NSE Tropicals, who I bought this from, changed there listings from A. odora 'Okinawa Silver' to A. gageana 'Albo-variegata'.

I’m not sure why folks still call Elephant Ears (Caladium praetermissum 'Hilo Beauty') an Alocasia.
Per Wilbert Hettersheid, from the description of C. praetermissum (Hilo Beauty).

Taxonomic Notes:
Note 1: It is not clear why this plant is identified in cultivation as an Alocasia because all species of that genus possess a sterile appendix which is easily observable. Furthermore the leaves of the genus Alocasia are usually coriaceous but membranous in Caladium.

Note 3: When all plants in cultivation are derived vegetatively from one clone, the latter may then be regarded as a cultivar, which should carry the name C. praetermissum 'Hilo Beauty' or C. 'Hilo Beauty' (the cultivar epithet established by Graf, 1982 as part of the name Aloeasia 'Hilo Beauty').

From eMonocot Team Araceae CATE Araceae http://araceae.e-monocot.org/t...

Ah ha! Thanks Evan. 'Hilo Beauty' was an Alocasia when I bought it years ago, but even then I thought the tubers/bulbs looked exactly like caladium bulbs. We had a really mild winter here, and they kept their leaves right through.

Thanks for clarifying the name on A. gageana. I'll put the pics in the database. For some reason I had it in mind that 'Okinawa Silver' was the one that stayed small, and gageana would be bigger.

Alice, your Jacks Giant is actually an Alocasia and a really happy one. The upright leaves are a dead giveaway. I'm not sure which but compare it to
Your variegated A. gageana is evergreen so doesn't need a rest. I'm embarrassed to say how many Alocasia and other EEars I've put in pots that were too large for there roots only to see them get root rot.

That whole plant pic of your variegated gageana would make a great main thumbnail.

Thanks Even, sadly that plant was nice and large when I put it in that pot. Initially it was full and making offsets. When if failed to thrive after I put it back outside this spring I changed the soil for something that would drain more freely but it still just keeps those 3 leaves. As soon as one dies it gets another and so on. I will repot it again in a smaller pot and hope for the best.

Also, thanks for the reminder about the Jack's Giant being an Alocasia. It seems I was mixing up everything yesterday, honestly, I am old but not that old yet.

Great info on the HIlo Beauty too.

OK, here are the gageana roots. They don't look too bad, I didn't have to trim anything off as there was no visible rot but there are darn few of them for a plant that had been a good size once. Maybe the smaller pot will help. Maybe not - you never know.

Alice, I'd highly recommend adding some alfalfa pellets to the new potting mix. If you just want to try a small amount, pet stores have it as rabbit food. Otherwise, I get a 50lb. bag of horse food from the feed store.

Everything I've given it to (and I now give it to everything I plant or re-pot except orchids) has jumped up beautifully.

I've use'd a lot of alfalfa over the years, usually as an amendment/mulch and do find it helps. It really creates a lot of good microbial activity in the soil. I'll try a bit in the pot after it get established again. I watered it with fish pond water, everything seems to like that.