Let's start a thread just for the amazing Alocasia! Post your Alocasia photos here, and also post your CULTURE information. What have you had success with? Failure with? I'd put this on the Aroid page, but no one ever goes there. RULE: ONE plant per post. No groups of plants in a single post.

ALOCASIA are NATIVE to Asia and Australia. There are roughly 100 species in the genus. But there are many many hydrids and cultivars all over the globe.

I'll start. Alocasia macrorhizza 'albo-variegata'. The variegated version of the species Alocasia macrorhizza. I grow this both in the ground (inside my greenhouse) and in containers. I trialed it out when we were considered to be in zone 8B (prior to 2010) and it had a poor rate of return. The cold seemed to rot the rhizomes. We are now in 9A and have been since 2010 when the climate maps for FL were redrawn. I have trialed out the all green offsets that I sometimes get from these plants, and they have survived and returned, leading me to plant out a few low variegation offsets this season that I feel I can spare as an experiment. These require very bright light but not exactly direct burning sun. The white areas of the leaf of course do not photosynthesize, so they can burn easily. Even if they do not burn, large areas of sectional white will eventually melt, just like the variegated Monsteras do. These require even regular water, like a LOT of food, and frequently go dormant in the winter when the daylength shortens. They should be kept on the drier side then, to avoid rotting the corms. I stuck the pots in an out of the way place in the GH and just wait til spring. This plant produces offsets like MAD. If you have one plant, you will eventually have 100. Which is why I cannot fathom why this plant is expensive. It shouldn't be.

Beautiful!

So beautiful, good information too. I only have a few Alocasia plants, they only grow in pots since my soil is so sandy and dry, they stay outside and do go dormant every winter. I'd love a variegated plant, if they ever go down in price I would like to try one, my garden has the right lighting for them. What do you feed yours? Mine don't ever seem to get much larger or put off lots of offsets, but then I don't really fee them anything, just enrich the soil each year.

I use Miracle Grow on stuff like this, and supplement it monthly with a Cal-Mag that has trace and micros.

My only one - Hilo Beauty

How often do you use Miracle Gro and what strength?

Loretta Hilo Beauty was reclassified as a Caladium years ago. I use FS MG with a hose end sprayer weekly for heavy feeders like ALocasias, colocasias, heliconias, gingers etc

Ah! I thought it went the other way as I used to see it as a caladium and now only see it as an alocasia. For me, it behaves somewhere in between.
I would have been afraid to do full strength Miracle Gro on these plants, expecting the leaves to burn.

It got reclassified as a caladium when it finally bloomed. It had not been known to bloom for years then one finally did and they were like...hmmm...this is a caladium LOL

Haha! Then I guess I don't have any alocasias.

I think it is a good looking Hilo. I see them in stores as a Alocasia a lot.
I don't have anything fancy,
Alocasia Boa


Frydek


I'll have to get pictures of others later it's raining out there

Frydek is pretty fancy IMO LOL. Yeah, Hilo B started out as an ALocasia, got renamed for a while as a colocasia before it finally became a caladium. I think it was Broan Williams who finally discovered it was a caladium. But the alocasia tag still stuck

It has been given species name as Caladium praetersimum, and garden.org also already used this name Elephant Ears (Caladium praetermissum 'Hilo Beauty')

I love Alocasias, but most of them prefer lowland, with few grow well on highland

Alocasia beccarii is a small species with unique peltate lanceolate leaves, the posterior lobe has two curled tiny tips.
Few time in the past, variegated form appear for sale, but since the green form struggled to live in my garden, I have no interest getting a variegated one. Most surely it will just die on me. I will be just happy with normal form

I am really loving that one Tofi!

Alocasia macrorhizza 'Sting Ray'. Yes, Xanthosoma has its Mickey Mouse, and Alocasia has its Sting Ray. Thrives in full sun, loves water, heavy feeder, prolific offsetter. Large growing. There is a version called 'Baby Ray'....this is not it LOL. 4-5 ft tall. Really does look like a stingray

Alocasia heterophylla 'Corazon'. A Phillipine native. Its name sake was President Corazon Aquino. It has a kind of unique blue metallic coloration. This is one that will almost always go dormant on me in the winter, I am not brave enough to plant it outside so I keep it in my greenhouse. I had it planted out for I think a season before I took it up and took it in. Doing that saved it from the Deep freeze of 2010. But its one of my nicest Alocasias when its up and growing.

Oh Gina that is a nice one, love the silvery sheen look to the leaves.

That is a pretty one.

C'mon you guys have to have some ALOS