{{gwi:584843}}
Just wanted to share one more. The dark on is colocasia 'Maui Magic' and The yellow is Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger'

wow! Those leaves would make for some great cement birdbaths! Do you know what kind the biggest one is? Very cool- thanks for sharing!

Mike it looks like a scene from "Little Shop of Horrors" with Audrey II singing "feeeeeed meeeeeee!"

The biggest ones were just plain green colocasia esculenta. They had no special name. Next year she is going to try some of the giant varieties. I'm afraid to see how big they'll get. John, they may be part carnivorus. It was after she fed them blood meal when they really took off.

My parents grow an edible variety from india. Are all of the different varieties edible? The leaves on ours are quite small.

I think I read somewhere that most of the edible versions are varieties of Colocasia escuelenta (which is the easiest to find and grow around here). There are varieties with extra special flavor so the common garden varieties may not taste all that great - but heck, most of the recipes require you to cook them into a glue-like mush anyway. Keep in mind that all parts of the plant are poisonous unless cooked.

That is impressive!

Are they growing in a particularly wet area? Mine used to do so much better when I gardened in a bog rather than on top of a sand hill. Come to think of it...those were in part shade, too.

Could you enlighten about soil type there, amount of water, light exposure, etc.

They were planted last October in soil that stays on the moist side, but not wet. They only got extra water about 6 times this year from the sprinkler. The were covered with about 4 inches of leaf mulch from the city of Raleigh at planting time. Fertilized with blood meal once in June and are in full sun.

Thanks for sharing the particulars. So, even the lime zinger and black ones were planted outside before winter? That's amazing! I knew esculenta was hardy no problem, but i figured with tropicals it was always better to plant early so they had plenty of time to get their roots down and build bulk and sugars for cold tolerance. I know i have lost ones i've planted late in the season that should have been hardy. Did she somehow cover the soil in winter so it would be dryer? I have also heard that winter/cold wet will kill them faster than anything. At any rate, those are mighty impressive!

I just asked her and the Lime zinger was put out in the spring. Esculenta, Black Magic, Black Ruffles, Ilustris, Red stem, Fontenesii, Maui Magic and Elepaio were all put in last fall with nothing but the leaf mulch to cover them. She said over the winter the soil was very wet. I always have a few small plants from runners over winter just floating in my pond. I'm going to try submerging a large potted plant in the pond this winter just to see what happens. One of my problems is some type of worm that goes in the stem then eats it way down to hollow out a good portion of the "bulb".

hmm- ok, that so totally shatters more than several of the things i've been told about ee's and winter hardiness. Thanks for getting the scoop for us!