I've had this argument too many times, with too many folks to ever believe the excuse, " oh I don't have room for it"

With these plants, if there's a will, there's a way, or rather if there's a will, there's room...

Sorry to be argumentative today, I'm honestly trying to help, but you could literally use EE bulbs to top dress the plumeria pots, just chucked right on the dirt... They would be fine...

I hate losing and rebuying plants, you never know when something's going off the market!
I've been struggling to locate a C. Black marble for a friend, we both have owner this plant, I killed mine, he sold his, now it's pretty hard to find.

One day I'll post pics of my backyard. I don't just like aroids. I like nearly everything that has leaves. I just have too many of everything. It's a sickness, I believe.

You're definitely a carrier Sandi, I wonder how many you've infected?

12 step sickness

I think I was first exposed to "it" when I took the Master Gardener classes years ago. It laid dormant for a while. Then I dragged DH to Houston for a TX swap weekend of trading plants, eating great food, and wine tasting. It was downhill from there. I met some of the Louisiana bunch on DG and we were off to Baton Rouge for another swap the next spring. The garden was filling up quickly.

I had to really whine to get DH to go back to LA the next year for another spring swap and nursery tour. We were all to meet in Forrest Hills, LA for the first day. I neglected to mention to DH that some of the wholesale nurseries would sell to Master Gardeners. The first one we went to was Doug Young's. All my plants for the swap were in the back of our truck, so DH asked if he could park under a tree while I shopped. The girl said we'd better take our truck 'cause the nursery was 150 acres!

DH would stop and I'd run from one end of a greenhouse to the other where he's pick me up for the drive to the next one. They gave us a price list and a another sheet to write down what we were buying. 'Said to just throw it in our truck. I was like a kid in a candy store and couldn't make any decisions. I bought some things, but knew we still had to go to the swap the next day. The truck would only hold so much. I guess I figured I'd always get back there one day (untethered by Mr. "Where are you going to put it?"). There are miles of nurseries along that highway. If you ever get the chance to drive that way, it's worth just looking.

http://www.dougyoungnursery.co... Be sure to check out the price list.

Now, I go on nursery hops to other towns with fellow enablers here. Wow, it really is a sickness, isn't it? Don't tell anyone.

Bubbles said:I think I was first exposed to "it" when I took the Master Gardener classes years ago. It laid dormant for a while. Then I dragged DH to Houston for a TX swap weekend of trading plants, eating great food, and wine tasting. It was downhill from there. I met some of the Louisiana bunch on DG and we were off to Baton Rouge for another swap the next spring. The garden was filling up quickly.

I had to really whine to get DH to go back to LA the next year for another spring swap and nursery tour. We were all to meet in Forrest Hills, LA for the first day. I neglected to mention to DH that some of the wholesale nurseries would sell to Master Gardeners. The first one we went to was Doug Young's. All my plants for the swap were in the back of our truck, so DH asked if he could park under a tree while I shopped. The girl said we'd better take our truck 'cause the nursery was 150 acres!

DH would stop and I'd run from one end of a greenhouse to the other where he's pick me up for the drive to the next one. They gave us a price list and a another sheet to write down what we were buying. 'Said to just throw it in our truck. I was like a kid in a candy store and couldn't make any decisions. I bought some things, but knew we still had to go to the swap the next day. The truck would only hold so much. I guess I figured I'd always get back there one day (untethered by Mr. "Where are you going to put it?"). There are miles of nurseries along that highway. If you ever get the chance to drive that way, it's worth just looking.

http://www.dougyoungnursery.co... Be sure to check out the price list.

Now, I go on nursery hops to other towns with fellow enablers here. Wow, it really is a sickness, isn't it? Don't tell anyone.

SSSHHHHHH!

Drew, I appreciate your discretion.

Bubbles said:Drew, I appreciate your discretion.

Swayback said:I was lookin thru all the pics and was just thinkin...
Bubbles...ya been holdin out on us!
Then I saw the date...

Sad you've lost so many of those gems, several of those are pretty rare...

I'm thinking that a nice something that could benefit several people around here would be an indepth guide on storing EE over the winter, there's lots if ways that work, several that don't!
Please, PLEASE do not dig your elephant ears and store them in buckets if water, that's the worst one going around that I hear, it can work but it doesn't work well! Sorry, rambling.

Generally speaking, a large robust growing type alocasia can simply be stored in a shelf dry, that way you can keep a real good eye on it, if it's shriveling fast, mist it good, get it in dry peat, cover it and mist the top of the peat occasionally, and pop the tuber out atleast once a month to examine it.
Left in pot has the best realists for me, but who has the room for all that, only a choice few get that treatment around here!

Sway I think the idea of a guide for storing EE's over the winter is an excellent idea.

I ran across this photo of some of the plants I receive in an EE co-op in May of 2008. The photo is in mid-August of that year. Notice how big the Hilo Beauty leaf is on the right side of the Nigra. That would sure be a large caladium for just 3 months growth from liner to pot.
Maybe it's not Hilo Beauty?

Very large Sandi; great growing!

Sure looks HB and what a great arrangement of Ears. For what it's worth the at the Smith College greenhouse is in a 3 gal. pot submerged to within an inch or two of the rim. Same with X. violaceum.

eclayne said:Sure looks HB and what a great arrangement of Ears. For what it's worth the at the Smith College greenhouse is in a 3 gal. pot submerged to within an inch or two of the rim. Same with X. violaceum.

I have some Colocasia illustris growing in a 5 gallon pail of water just as an experiment... just saying.

Thanks, but mine have shrunken or disappeared since then. The drought has really taken a toll. We can only water once a day with sprinklers from midnight to 10 AM. Hand watering is legal anytime.

I might try a Mickey submerged. I have lots of mosquito dunks.

I agree, it's Hilo beauty, aside from the drought, which is no doubt taking a serious toll, but also, it's very clear that your HB has multipled, I meant to ask how many plants of are in that clump in another thread.
Clearly a few, they are likely restricting( constricting!) one another, I'd wager if you divide while it's dormant and split them out, several would take right back off next year!

Rapidly growing aroids can really put a hurtin on soil, even ones that seem less aggressive and small growing can deplete regular soil in no time!

My experiments with submerging have shown me that, counterintuitively, it will cause most Colocasia to become even that much more hungry, and if submerged in a bucket, the end result will be much more numerous, smaller, plants, that tend to hold their petiole straight up, and point the leaf tip straight down.

Most any colo will tolerate thus treatment, some much better than others, C. illistris does well, C violica will only do well if given alot of foot space and alot of fert, not always easy when submerged, but plant C. Violica in the margin of a boggy pond, and look out! If you sit still you can heard them grow...

Chiming in a bit late on the plant addiction topic, a nice lady on another forum put it perfectly, I think. There are two types of gardeners, landscapers and collectors. Landscapers have beautiful tidy yards with lots of one kind of plant, like lawn (groan).

Collectors (that's us!) want to grow one of everything. Or in my case, I used to buy three of everything, because 'three makes a nice clump' . .. . now there REALLY is no room! If it weren't for the gravel pathways, you'd need a machete to navigate most of my yard in the summer. In winter when the gardeners speed up and the plants slow down, it is more like a garden than a jungle out there. But right now, even though I have a (sporadic) helper that I pay once a week to help prune and weed, we really are losing the battle again. All that rain the last 6 weeks and we are already overwhelmed.

Sandi, I agree with Sway, Hilo Beauty gets leaves that big for me from the ground up. Mine is nearly 4ft. tall and has 15in. leaves now. It was barely above ground in May. Once it started to rain, the thing took off. Also it seems that it never flowers, so it keeps putting up leaves all summer as long as it's warm and I keep feeding and watering it. There are at least 5 plants in this one pot, maybe more. I am definitely going to divide/separate them this winter.

Maybe you need another trip back to Baton Rouge!!! What do you think? Love all the pictures!!!

That 's a beautiful pot!

I spent my quiet Sunday morning covered in fish emulsion and Hasta-gro, plus some ammonia and epsom salts, all stirred into a watery slurry (out of molasses). I was going to spray it, but decided to pour it on everything but the hibiscus. It's really humid and hot here. I don't know what to do with myself, not having to water for a week. The rain has pretty much gone away now, but I'm sure it will be back......in October, maybe.

My SIL is a commercial landscape architect and he suggested I plant in threes. It worked great the first year. After that the salvias and other perennials were too big and took up so much space in my small front yard.

Jeri! Are you lurking??? I still remember who "swapped" me which plants when I see them in my garden, and I found the trade list of all the stuff I took down to LA the other night. I would love to get back there again. I haven't been home to the Coast in years. Are you still having swaps at your place?