I planted some black EE's in the drainage ditch in front of my house and now they are half way down the block! Also the green ones (dont know how they got started) have taken over the ditch, are invading the yard and have almost ruined the garden. Have pulled all last summer and sprayed this spring, they are amazingly resistant to Round Up. No more EE's for me!

My neighbor had the same problem with her elephant ears, as the soil was prepared in a hurry and not properly. Elephant ears grow wild in Costa Rica, as I learned a few weeks ago when visiting the rainforest. Consider the environment of the rain forest. There is lots of organic matter breaking down (composting) in the soil all the time and there is mulch on top of the rainforest beds, which will continue to break down.

Elephant ears like lots of organic matter in the soil that is at almost all stages of decomposition. I read about this three years before going to Costa Rica. When trying to help my neighbor's elephant ear rhizome, which was huge (even though the plant was tiny), a little piece broke off.

The piece was about 1.25 inches in diameter. Now listen, because this is amazing. I put the little tidbit of an elephant ear in a pot filled with decomposed yard and vegetable wastes, including spent coffee grounds, some bone meal, and composted manure. All had decomposed so the soil was friable. It spent all spring, summer, and fall outside (I live in zone 8B). When the temperature dropped below 50 deg.,I mulched the elephant ears. I brought the pot into the garage and took it out when it warmed to 55 deg. nights. By summer of 2003, the pot broke open and I re-planted the now, large elephant ear rhizome in the finished compost pile, in an area nearest to a leaky water spigot. The spigot had leaked every time the water was turned on or the hose was set to go off elsewhere in the garden; plus, the area did not drain well, which led to a blooming mosquito problem. To me it seemed to be a perfect place for the elephant ears. After all, for several years, vegetable and yard wastes were decomposing there, plus there was a water source. Elephant ears like rich soil with decomposed cow manure, and lots of water. The area only received early morning sun because it was on the east side of the house. But last year, just months after planting the elephant ear, it grew 7 feet tall, to my husband's disgust --he likes small plantings.

Also, the winter of 2003, was chilly but we did not have a hard freeze that normally would kill back my huge split leaf philadendron (which I also much with leaves). And to make certain that the elephant ears did not die, when the temps plummented to the upper 30's, I covered the elephant ears with a cotton sheet clothes pinned together, so as not to blow off.

Hence, it is now March of 2004, and I imagine it will do well. Already several leaves are reaching for the sky because I added more spent coffee grounds (a good source of nitrogen) and vegetable wastes to the compost area, along with yard wastes. When the compost is ready, the earth worms come. And, they are returning.

By the way, my neighbor thinks she can cheat and grow the elephant ears better with chemical fertilizers and peat. It is my understanding that peat is nutritionless, and to prove it, her plant is still sickly and...

My this thread has been going a long time! Just to add a few things I've learned, mostly since I found the aroid forum here about a year ago--There are elephant ears and elephant ears. Some are hardy at least to z7 and maybe farther. Some of them are truly tropical and will probably not be safe north of z10. (If you're afraid they'll spread, try some of those!) The Mickey Mouse elephant ears are not reliably hardy here in z9 (tho'maybe in the right place?) and their botanical name I learned on the aroid forum is--take a deep breath here--Xanthosoma atrovirens variagata, and some sources add monstrosa, which is for the extra ruffling and pleating. It is not a cuphea! I know cuphea too. There is a poster on the aroid forum who sells her surplus locally, and she says they almost all like full sun (z8). I have a few that don't, but I followed the advise to plant 'Black Magic' in part sun/part shade, and it was dark green with a purple tinge. In full sun it is gorgeous. It's one that's hardy to z7 they say. It is also a clumper, and this is an important point. Some spread by runners--I have one I knew did this and planted it in a big pot. It sneaks its little runners around other plants and out the back side of the pot and comes up ten or fifteen feet away. The clumpers, like 'Black Magic', make pups up tight against the plant and are actually kind of hard to get off without damaging the plant. They are getting very popular so new varieties are being hunted in the wild, in vegetable patches in SEAsia, and in hybridizers' benches, and there are LOTS more than there were only a few years ago, or at least available in the general trade. HTH

What is eating the emerging tips of my EE's and how do I treat it??

Desperate for any help.

Thanks,
vhunter

I got my current supply of elephant ears from one my Dad dug out of a drainage ditch in front of his house in Charleston, SC. It was transplanted by Hurricaine Hugo.

The side of my house is over run with EE. I hate them. I tried to thin them out by pulling them up by the root with no avail. HELP. Dont want EEs growing rampid. My EEs are at least 7 feet tall.

I live just off the Cape Fear River just north of Fayetteville, North Carolina, so I have combination soil. Red clay, the kind a shovel won't penetrate clay, and sand. I moved some elephant ears from where we used to live and just dug a hole to plant them. They didn't seem to do well, so I moved them again, or so I thought. Now I have several plants, but only one doing well, it is planted in loose sand. The problem is that it is planted in a place that gets rain runoff from our roof. And it is planted in front of my power meter. The power company sends meter readers out, and he has indicated that its like fighting the jungle to read our meter. I was going to move it, but didn't have the heart to do it this year, because when I started digging I saw new shoots. When would be the best time to move an elephant ear?

Now would be a good time, just got done moving and dividing a bunch of them last week. They'll be fine. Just water them in well after transplanting.

Which end up-- Do these shoots go down or up when planting? Seems like the little hairs are growing towards the shoots.
This is supposed to be a giant ee w/4ft leaves. If I were to plant this in a pot---how big of a pot would you recommend?
Thanks for your help-I'm gonna need it this year!

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of EE with shoots

My goodness this IS a long string! I'm kind of new to GardenWeb so just now thought about looking for some info on my EEs. Here in Central Texas they have to be planted in the shade of the house, under trees, etc. I planted one 4 years ago and it has always had large leaves, until this year. There are a bunch of them, but pretty small. I've never grown them before, but I assume they are like irises, cannas, etc. and need to be divided. When is the best time to do that and do I do it like I would any other tuber?

I would also like to ask about some Easter Lilies I planted 3 years ago. At our church we can purchase lilies for Easter in memory of family members, etc. so these were plants I put into the ground after they stopped blooming in the house. They are blooming this year again but not quie as many blooms as in the past. They are in a sunny spot. This was my first experience with lilies also. Do you divide them as well?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Myra

My pride and joy is my elephant ears. I'm in Atlanta and my house faces west. I found all my bulbs in the yard of a condemed house that was scheduled to be demolished. I dug them up 3 years ago in May when they had about a foot of growth and took the 16 largest bulbs (grapefruit size) and planted them down the northside of my house. This Georgia clay is really hard here and I tilled in about 3 forty pound bags of cow manure for a 30' foot bed. I mulched them with pine straw and kept the ground moist. They thrived the first year with very little bulb division. When it started getting cold, I gave them a really thick mulching to get through the winter. The second year, I added more manure and they divided like crazy. This is the third year and as soon as the shoots started coming up at the begining of last month, I started thinning them out (to what I thought was the original 16 bulbs) and added more manure and pine straw. These are a little over 2' feet high now and I am finding that I could have taken a lot more than the 20 or so bulbs I thinned out that are already about a foot high. So far I have had no problems establishing this new bed this year. I think what has really made the difference here in Georgia is the combination of the manure, mulching, lots of water and getting the original bulbs established. Also, since the mulch breaks down and adding the manure, it elevated the beds slightly and they have good drainage.

Myra, I would suggest you try adding some manure to your 4 year old EE since it may have taken all the nutrients from your soil and keep the ground mulched and moist. It should do it wonders. I have divided Easter lillies when they slowed down blooming and they did quite well the next year.

Please send me all your EEs that you do not want!! :)
Mine from Walmart did nothing at all this year. I love them and am working on an area in my yard that will include many many EES.. I planted 24 this year!! They get a bit expensive after awhile..and here you all are talking about killing them..just goes to show that one mans trash is another's treasure!!
Merriss
merrissandjack@hotmail.com

I just bought 3 EE bulbs (taro) at a local grocer. My ground is mostly the hard red dirt that NC is known for. Any suggestions as to how I should go about planting my EE's for the best results?

Elephant ears require 3 things to grow well:

1. Heat. Southern US supplies that in abundance.

2. Water. The more water, the bigger the elephant ear. They'll grow fine in a pond, but constantly wet soil works as well. If your soil is only moist not wet, try tilling up more ground so their roots can spread further in search of water.

3. Fertilizer. The more nitrogen, the bigger the elephant ear. Cheap, 90 cent-per-40lb-bag Wal-mart cow manure works wonders.

Shade is optional. Given enough water, elephant ears grow great in full, all-day sun. If your ears aren't growing well, they're missing one of these things.

I just dug up what I thought was ALL the elephant ears in my yard only to see that not only didn't I dig in all the places there were bulbs, but also there were "roots" left behind that have delivered more ears. Would you like some of them this fall for free? I have green and a pretty purplish black.

I forgot to mention I don't even water them and they are huge.

OOPS!!! wrong info I gave you about mine from "Wallymart"..they have all survived, even with my ignorance, and they are tall as me...growing like cats and dogs!!! I have no clue what was the matter, soil temp., etc?, but they look great and you can almost see them growing day by day..I never gave up and gave them their 2xweek dose of manure tea. I think I had better give that one up, before they grow and tower over the house.
"so sorry wallymart:( ..:)..

Vallari,

I would love to have some of those that are dark purplish...I have been searching around my area and have had no luck finding any of the black or dark purple variety!!! I can send you some of mine as well...I have colocasia gigantia that are already at a 3' leaf size. :)

Question - I planted a large bulb (from Wal-Mart) 2 months ago - I'm now seeing little sprouts. Did not know about the water requirements, so it looks dry and has heaved out of its planter. Can this be saved??? We had heavy downpours last night, and I have bought some manure and mulch today. I want this plant to make it (it will be living in a large planter so I can bring it in easily in the Fall)

Boy! Walmart must sell a lot of elephant ears. I bought mine in a local nursery. They did great with Miracle Grow once a week. They grew to an unbelieveable size. I bought 3 bulbs and planted them in March. They began to emerge the middle of June. The ones I have in part shade grew bigger leaves however, fewer leaves than the ones I grew in mostly sun. I am in zone 6B (zones are weird on Long Island because of the ocean)but I am going to dig them up since we can dip below zero sometimes. I am not concerned about them taking over my garden.

Mine were small the first year, with a good amount of water and well mulched lots of rich organic matter, this is how they are now about three years later.

These look like my Alocasia 'Robusta'. Last year mine reached 15' tall with 8' leaves! Was the talk of our friends and even the delivery men wanted to know what they were so they could buy some.

Why do some of my elephant ears have bulbs to dig at the end of the season and some have nothing there, even to the plant grew large? I bought them from Walmart

Just wondering if it was safe to plant EEs's in the beginning of April, live in coastal NC 8a.
good idea to plant in pots and bring in if too cold (below 45 degrees) and then place in ground, or will that be too much of a shock?
thanks!

I bought 2 black ee 2 mos.ago they are doing great. I even had to divide and repot. I found starting them potted in the shade gets them very large mine are 4' already. Once you get the size plant you want move them into a sunny locaton and water well. This increases the black color.

Oh my, has this thread really been going from Oct 2000 until now, June 2005 -wow- I'm new to this site and that is i-m-p-r-e-s-s-i-v-e! And now I'm scared, I put in EE's this around my inground pool because I thought they'd look tropical and cute...but now it sounds like I planted a monster..guess maybe they'll be swimming with me next year instead of next to me! Oh well.

I am new to this forum so forgive me if I do something dumb. This is my first EE plant, and it was growing gang-busters - then one by one the leaves are becoming discolored, then yellow looking like they are dying. I can't see any obvious bug. It's growing in full sun and getting lots of water and has been fed. Anybody got any suggestions to help me?

If they are lower leaves, this is natural . I just spent the day trimming off the bottom yellow /brown leaves from my thousands of EE . They are just the common green ones but are very tropical looking and provide wonderful shade in the summer .

New to EE's. Mine are doing great. The largest is about 5' tall with 3.5' leaves. They are planted around our AC unit. All of the sudden, I came around to check on them and three of the four plants had fallen over. The stalks are fine. They fell right at ground level. I have staked them with panty hose for now, but I can tell they do NOT like that at all.

I'm thinking I need to add some manure to perhaps strengthen the root system? Any thoughts?

Just planted some EE bulbs that I got for 65 cents each at a local garden center! (I know they were marked down because it is a bit late to plant them but I thought at that price I'd give it a try!) I planted them the last week of May, we've gotten plenty of rain, and 2 out of 3 are coming up fast!

My question is, while I was careful to plant the right side up (maybe I wasn't successful on that third one!), is it possible that I planted one backwards? Is there a front and back to the bulb? It looks like the first leaf one of the plants is putting out is going to face the wall behind it, and not the sidewalk. Oops!

Houston!

I'd bet they are getting enough water!

I have large elephant ears growing for the first time in front of my house and I noticed tonight they have what look like what is going to be a bloom almost like a lily? Is this normal? Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Mystie

Hey, I just got an EE plant from someone on craigslist. They gave it to me in a plastic bag, and I was unable to get it into a pot for 2-3 days. I put some water in the plastic bag, but admit I didn't really take care of it for those first few days. Once I had the pot, I gave the plant plenty of water, but it took me another day to get it any soil. Now it is dying :( Is there anything I can do to help it live? If I cut off the stem, will a new one grow or something? I am completely new to plants. I would like to save the poor thing, but don't know how! Thanks!

Putting water in a plastic bag with a bulb does nothing but induce rot, shame on you! Anyway, I've had very good luck with my elephant ears, here's a picture of one of my plants. It was planted in the spring just after frost, watered twice a day and fertilized, (I make my own fertilizer mixtures) This plant when I dug it up had many flower buds on it, and the plant probably weighed a good 80- 90 pounds before I cut the leaves up and brought the bulb in. I had to water it every time I went outside, the leaves could have been used as blinds for the window in the pic below..... I love these plants.

{{gwi:1316848}}

We have been growing an elephant ear for 3 years now and winter it indoors (we are in zone 6). It is a beautiful plant with large leaves, about 5' tall. Last year the plant produced flowers and one was fertilized. We now have 10 baby elephant ears. We noticed last year that when the seed pods were forming, the leaves were much smaller. Once the one flower was fertilized, the leaves grew larger again. This year, we have had 5 flowers and the leaves are getting smaller and smaller. We don't know if any of the flowers actually fertilized yet, but we really want the larger leaves, not the flowers and seed pods. Should we just cut the flowers off? Any suggestions?

Well, I put three ee bulbs in the ground last week and I am anxiously awaiting some spouts to come out of the ground. I live in Niceville, Florida just like the poster who had the photo of beautiful ee's so I'm hoping that mine will be impressive also. I have planted them before and nothing ever came up so I'm a little sceptical. We'll see!

JD, they really appreciate a lot of fertilizer. I usually add some manure once they have a little growth going on, with those that are already established. New ones I work it into the soil when I plant them, then feed often once they start growing.

I bought two Elephant Ear bulbs that were labeled 'Elephant Ear Mammoth' from Wal-Mart. The bulbs are round and about 3 to 4 inches wide. Does anybody know the exact scientific name of this? I think it might be Colocasia esculenta but I'm not sure. I'm in zone 7a but many winters here are only 7b temperatures.

Can I leave the bulbs in the ground all year here??? What is the best way to plant this Elephant Ear Plant having a heavy silty clay soil at my location? Thanks.

I have many, many large elephant ears around my place and thru the years, I keep digging up new bulbs and makeing new gardens all the time with them. Recently, I heard rumor that either the root or bloom could be harvested and cooked and was really healthy. I would like to know if anyone has heard of this and if so, what are the conditions of the bulb or bloom being eaten.?

I have a question I think I already know the answer to! My husband dug up my large elephant ears and I told him to leave them where they were and I would get them later to cut out the bulbs. Well, we had our first frost plus some snow. Is it still worth trying to save the bulbs that were pulled already out of the ground. I'm a little sick about loosing them. lol Just got busy with kids and their activities. Thanks!

You have nothing to lose whatsoever. Go pull them out of the snow and give them a good inspection. If they're not soft and mushy (roots, not stems), they are probably okay. Snow does insulate against cold to some degree. If the roots are in good shape, lay them on a tarp in your garage or basement (not freezing, though) and let them dry for about a week. Cut the stems off, and save them for next spring. If they're mushy, give them the old heave ho.

Yikes! I mis-read your post, shawnee. I thought you were referring to cannas. I'd still follow the advice, except, you might should pot up the roots if they're still in good shape. They're winter-hardy for me (too winter hardy, actually. they're invasive here), and I never have to dig them up. If this isn't enough help to give you confidence, I can understand that. You might want to start a brand new post with your question (if the roots are still in good shape). There are so many answers on this thread, it will be hard for some to get it to open, and a fresh question might get more attention. Sorry for the goof.

Hi all, I am interested in buying some EE's for my ever-growing garden. All my plants are in pots with the exception of my giant hosta. I would love to buy some EE's but dont know what kind to get that would be okay in a large pot and also suitable for my zone in MASS. Please help if you can. Thanks.

There are a lot of sources. Plant Delights (already mentioned) and Brent and Becky's are two of them. You can get smaller varieties that might do better in planters.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brent and Becky's

Moved into rental house last summer- elephant ears were huge. Owner's said to just cut them back and leave the bulbs in the gound. It is now late March and they aren't doing anything and appear to be rotting when poked - white, mushy, smell like elmer's glue. Are they dead? Any hope?

I bought a softball size root at Walmart more than 2 months ago and planted it immediately in a large pot in my family room. Kept it moist. When nothing grew I unearthed it to find about 50% of the root soft & mushy with no sign of life. I threw it in a baggie to take back to Walmart & left it in a corner. 1 week later I noticed a growth on the firm side. Should I cut away the soft spots & replant it? If so do I need to add a fungicide although I don't see any sign of fungus? Thanks for any help.

How long does it take for the Jacks giants to get giant?? Also, planted a upright in the spring and I got what looks like a bloom of some sort but it is dying, just the bloom not the ears, should I plant that or what.

Hello everyone. I am desperately looking for a colocasia gigantea thailand giant strain
If anyone has one that they are willing to swop or sell I will be forever gratefull. I have been wanting one of these for ages. PLEASE email me at beeoliv@yahoo.co.uk Thanks
Belinda

If there is anyone that does not like or want their EE plants...please by all means send them my way. Email me for Addy. Charlesdarden76md @gmail.com I promise a loving home for them in my yard

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