If you like 'Sarian' check this out: The thread "A huge Alocasia "Stingray"" in Philodendrons, Elephant Ears, and Other Aroids forum
Nice stingray too.

Temps last week 104...this week 50-78 degrees. EE's aren't happy about the lower temps.

A little walk around the garden produced these pics today. It's raining off and on all day every day and these guys love it

I look forward to your yard photos Fred. Sort of sub-tropical cottage garden. That's the naturalized appearance I strive for. Still not there and even if I eventually get it right it will only be for a couple of months. Is that a Xanth in the last pic?

Evan, I've been told it's a Colocasia gigantea but I really dodn't know. They are wild in my jungle area.

Next to it is a Holly Ilex cassine (Dahoon Holly) I think.
Fred

Hi all, been reading for awhile and finally decided to post because I have a question, how bad is that?

Is your BOP in full sun? It doesn't look like it because of the EEs around it but I can't get mine to bloom and thought maybe it was not enough sun. Mine are in sun for about 4 or 5 hours a day but while they are growing and look healthy, no blooms.

Took me a while to figure out what a BOP is but I'm slow. No, mine are in partial shade but do get some direct sun light too. I think they like full sun but need water.

Mine is in a 20 inch pot on the east side of a building..........and it has a bud. I water quite a bit, every day when hot, every other in this kind of weather. And copious use of Miracle Grow. LOL

That's a thought, hard to imagine they aren't getting enough water here in the rainy season but it's possible. I will keep an eye on the soil around them and make sure they are getting enough water. I also don't think I've fertilized them in quite a while, my bad. I'll give them some food too I was thinking of pulling them out and putting some monstera deliciosa in their place. I'll give them some more time and see if fertilizer makes a difference. They are in a planter bed under a fish tail palm.

eclayne,

I have been under the impression that this plant is a Xanthosoma sagittifolium for the past 10 yrs. I have recently found it to be called; Xanthosoma robustum also. I have seen pictures of "Sagittifolium" on ''Exotic Rainforest.com" , which leads me to believe that's what it is. Steve Lucas was a stickler for obtaining facts about plants before placing on his site(consulting with Dr.Croat and other professionals). The Sinus is "open" ~ 2-1/2'' on a mature Saggitifolium. With a forest green Adaxial leaf surface and a powder like substance on a bluegreen / silverish Petiole. The Sagittifolium is what "appears" to me, to be in the photo above.

Of course, you can go to most any other tropical plant website and find opposing views!

I may be wrong as I have been before, and will be again!

Andrew "Drew" Leonard

extranjera said:That's a thought, hard to imagine they aren't getting enough water here in the rainy season but it's possible. I will keep an eye on the soil around them and make sure they are getting enough water. I also don't think I've fertilized them in quite a while, my bad. I'll give them some food too I was thinking of pulling them out and putting some monstera deliciosa in their place. I'll give them some more time and see if fertilizer makes a difference. They are in a planter bed under a fish tail palm.

Jonna, the BOP is more of a mediterranian climate plant, it comes from South Africa. They will grow here but not flower because of the hot tropical climate. The nurseries will tell you that from here (where I live) you need to be about 1000 kms further south for them to do well. The related Travellers Palms do better.

That makes a lot of sense, they grow and bloom profusely where I grew up in southern California which is a Mediterranean climate. I see some blooming here but even among a group of plants, one will bloom and the others won't. I think mine are going to find a new home. They also do well in the dryer highlands of Mexico, I'm probably too tropical for them.

Here's a pic of some of my malanga (Xanthosoma), it's in full sun most of the day.

Oh, gads, yours are MUCH nicer than mine. I suppose it would help if I repotted them since they seem to be doing well. I bought the tuber at a Mexican market. LOL Cheap plant.

Now, this probably isn't the right forum to ask this question, but I will anyway. I bought a celery root at a large grocery store...........will it grow (if it grows) into a celery plant??

I've never acquired a taste for the malanga root but they are very easy to propagate. I've moved pieces around all over to fill in gaps.

Not sure up there but here they seem to snap off the roots of the celery in the market, will they grow new ones?

Do you mean celery or celeriac?

Said "celery root" on the bin at the groc. store.

An employee in a supermarket once argued with me that a cos lettuce was a chinese cabbage. If they can mistake a lettuce for a cabbage then I wouldn't be surprised at a celeriac being mistaken for celery

Finished bringing in the Tropicals for the Winter.

Here's a Colocasia e. 'Big Dipper' showing it's stuff.
Started as a 12" tall pup 4 months ago.
We have hundreds of them and I've been experimenting w/ getting some size to them.
This was 'raised' w/o soil in one of our pond Skippy Filters.
So it was basically bathed in running fish gunk the whole time.

Cool! I used to raise colocasia and even hibiscus in the skippy filter of my pond in Calif. It got to be kind of a pain though since I didn't have to clean it out for winter the roots took over the whole filter. The worst were the Canna, I didn't put those back in after I finally got it cleaned out.

I wish I could grow them in the filter here but the sun is too hot. I have some mangrove growing in the filter here, they aren't really that invasive since the roots are larger. I had a volunteer papyrus establish itself in the filter and that was a major pain to remove, lots of tiny, tiny strings of roots.