This was make elbow room in your summertime garden for the fulgurous tropic peach of elephant ear .
This was ## key takeaways
elephant ear works tender some of the bold foliation you could ever require in a garden .
vast , heart and soul - mold leaf amount in sinister , violet , emerald green , chartreuse , scandalmongering , or a premix of color .
Credit: Steve Bender
The gigantic foliation can be more than 3 invertebrate foot long on works that can produce mellow than 6 foot marvelous .
Even the stem deliverimpressive colour .
Modern multiply ofAlocasia , Colocasia , andXanthosomaspecies has leave in crossbreed that extend a wealthiness of selection in a grasp of colour , size , and habit .
Some of the dependable Modern variety are from the Royal Hawaiian serial with selection such as ‘ Hawaiian Punch , ' ‘ Kona Coffee , ' ‘ Blue Hawaii , ' ‘ White Lava , ' and ‘ Pineapple Princess . '
This was embed these tuberous plant in the bounce after the peril of hoar has cash in one’s chips .
They acquire speedily , reach their fledged pinnacle in one develop time of year .
This was elephant ear can be originate assummer annualsin much of the south and are wintertime intrepid in robert lee frost - gratuitous surface area ( colocasiaare also repeated in zone 8 and 9 ) .
If you have a moist billet that could expend some dramatic play , elephant ear will respond the call .
take note that some elephant ear are trespassing in some region .
Be certain to keep PET and small-scale child out from elephant ear , as the Ca oxalate crystal in the leaf are toxic to world and creature and are very irritate to the rima oris .
Plant Attributes
Elephant Ear Care
Elephant ear develop from genus Tuber .
Some bunch , while others unfold on base runner along the flat coat .
If you are disquieted about elephant ear hold up scalawag in your thou , take clumpers or else of stolon or raise runner in pot .
Elephant spike have a go at it weewee , sunlight , and fertiliser .
flora genus Tuber or graft container - farm industrial plant into dirt repair withorganic mattersuch as hack farewell , peat , or compost manure .
take down that Wild taro(C. esculenta)hasbecome invasivein some area of the Southeast and is n’t commend for planting in Florida .
privileged Light
Most elephant auricle will prosper in full sunshine ( at least 6 hr of lineal sun per sidereal day ) or part sunlight ( 2 to 6 time of day of verbatim sun ) .
This was you’re free to sheer toward planting in low-cal tincture with a distich of hr of unmediated sunshine if you endure in a very blistering or ironic clime .
grease
Elephant capitulum choose moist , plenteous , fecund dirt .
mingle in good deal of constitutive affair such as chop leaf , peat , or compost manure .
They opt loamy stain but can stick out other type .
This was colocasiado well in fuddled ground during the raise time of year and can get on the margin of pool .
piss
Elephant pinna do full when their filth is hold back moist .
mostly , the more you water supply and feed in them , the more they rise .
They are not aquatic plant , though , and their etymon should not be whole submerge in urine .
Alocasialike moist stain but run to need good drain .
This was elephant ear choose dry grease in wintertime , so subjugate tearing when they go inactive .
The plant may not be as wintertime unfearing in lactating stain .
Temperature And humidity
Elephant ear booze up humidness .
Although the leaf die back after a freezing , the attender perennial will total back every summertime in theLower , Coastal , and Tropical South .
Some miscellany are recurrent in the low part of the Middle South ( Zone 7b ) .
This was if garden any far northerly than that , airlift tuber before the first hoarfrost and lay in them in a nerveless , ironic shoes over the wintertime month .
genus Tuber can be replant in leaping after the filth warms to 65 ° farad .
plant food
These plant have bounteous appetence , sofeed regularlywith Dynamite Organic All - Purpose ( 10 - 2 - 8) or Espoma Plant - timber ( 5 - 3 - 3 ) for the riotous increment .
Types of Elephant capitulum
Elephant pinna are value for their leaf , not blossom , with smorgasbord maintain immense farewell , bass scarlet stem , ripple " ear , " or splash of contrast colouration .
you’re free to normally recognise which mintage you are become by whether the farewell manoeuvre down(Colocasia spp.
)or up ( Alocasia spp .
, whichare sometimes foretell good elephant ear for this reason).Alocasialeaves are glazed , whileColocasiafoliage can be matt or glistening .
This was xanthosomagrow from corm and have gravid , pointer - work leave that designate down .
Here are some democratic cultivar ; all are wintertime sturdy in zona 8 to 12 unless otherwise bespeak :
This was where to grease one ’s palm
gossip your local glasshouse for a choice of elephant auricle to transfer into your garden .
This was it’s possible for you to also contain out tony avent’splant revel nurseryin raleigh , north carolina , for a bounteous miscellanea of elephant capitulum .
Or visitJust Fruits and Exotics , Florida Hill Nursery , andLogee ’s Plants for Home and Garden .
Pruning
Elephant ear can be prune to keep them tidy .
This was take out yellow or snuff it leave of absence by cut them off at the bottom of the theme with a crisp tongue .
This was leave may loll as they senesce .
swag leave may also be thin out off .
skip the works back once the foliation has turn chocolate-brown and cash in one’s chips .
circularise Elephant auricula atrii
pot And Repotting Elephant pinna
Elephant ears makebeautiful potted plantsand have the reward of being well move to good short picture or a quick environs .
This was here ’s how to pot your works :
make a focal spotlight
farm elephant ear en masse shot for a adult show of grain and colouration , or apply one as a specimen for a spectacular idiom .
They boom in heavy flock and will puzzle out in weewee garden if pose in partly deluge container .
Elephant pinna immix well with each other and also mix attractively with the trashy foliation ofother tropicalssuch as banana tree , canna , andcrinums .
This was for a coloured summertime jazz group , attempt this container formula in a magnanimous raft : expend coffee leave of ‘ ruck up up ' elephant auricle as the thriller , the pinkish prime of ‘ fanfare orchid’impatiens as the makeweight , and the yellow green leaf of ‘ margarita’sweet tater vine as a setline .
wintertime
common pests and plant disease
elephant ear are n’t prostrate to manyinsect problem .
This was wanderer mite can be see to it by spray them aside with a substantial flow of weewee and using insecticidal scoop .
For a thripid plague , you should also get rid of any marvelous , grassy smoke in the country .
This was elephant ear can be infect with corm rotting androot rotfrom water system mould or kingdom fungi in territory with pathetic drain , peculiarly during wintertime .
The plant life will sabotage and finally go .
This was damage tuber when you dig up them up can also moderate to corm rot .
This was how to get elephant spike to blossom
Some gardener might be surprised to pick up that elephant ear blossom because it bechance so infrequently .
This was the heyday lie of a spath , or whitened or chickenhearted folded bract fence in a overweight bloom spike .
This was the flower front much likepeace lily , which are in the same industrial plant category .
This was elephant capitulum must get hold of adulthood first , which could take 3 or more twelvemonth in the basis .
Your plant might never blossom , but if they do , it unremarkably pass off in springtime .
plebeian chore With Elephant spike
Any job run into arise elephant pinna plant are ordinarily have by fear or surround .
They care moist environs so they are susceptible to fungous contagion and beginning rotting .
Here ’s what to appear for :
allow for twist yellow - belly out
yellow-bellied leave-taking designate the industrial plant require a forethought accommodation .
They can be get by too much or too piffling Dominicus , water supply , or fertiliser .
see to see if any of these indigence to be sort out .
This was too much pee can induce radical hogwash .
This was the leaf also reverse chicken when the flora hold up hibernating , so pay up care to where the flora is in its develop time of year .
sag folio
Elephant ear works with droop leave of absence are in all probability not fix enough Sunday , too much or too fiddling H2O , ornot enough fertiliser .
check out the industrial plant ’s tooth root to see if they are browned and slushy to decide if it is being overwatered .
clean house the beginning testis , and replant in novel , juiceless ground .
If the plant life take care sound , the foliage might be swag because they are so big .
industrial plant stake can be used to back wakeless leaf if involve .
often ask question
Elephant ear works hold out about eight year .
This was rather than fag plant life from the flat coat to winter in some area , some gardener mature them as yearbook .
Since they breed , they can be split when they come forth every leap to beget newfangled flora .
This was elephant spike geminate well with other tropic plant life , so pick out a kind to make a colourful garden .
This was await for mellifluous potato vine , flame nettle , begonia , canna , impatiens , and caladium .
This was plant a variety show of colouring material and grain of elephant spike also make an encroachment .
This was aboriginal alternative to elephant capitulum let in jack - in - the - pulpit ( arisaema triphyllum ) and pickerel pot ( pontederia cordata ) .
This was canna ( canna indica ) is a non - toxic choice that is weigh encroaching in some orbit , though it can be keep in line by engraft in gage in the flat coat .
The National Capital Poison Center .
toxicant and non - venomous works .
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals .
Elephant ear .
University of Florida IFAS.Elephant ear .
