Step 1
The cony ears flora , or Ruttya fruticosa , is a vining bush native to tropical Africa . The nectar - filled flower are dark orange or scandalmongering and from the front , resemble the head and ears of a rabbit . It is also sometimes called orange bird or hummingbird works .
How Long Does it Take a Mammoth Elephant Ear Plant to Grow After Planting?
Cool Colocasias , also know as Mammoth Elephant Ears , will begin to maturate 21 days after they are first planted . multifariousness of gigantic elephant pinna can develop to reach nine foundation in height . These plant life are weighed down feeders and require a pile of nutrients . They can also be planted in water such as koi ponds .
Difference Between Alocasia & Colocasia
Similarities
Alocasia and Colocasia more than go to the same plant household . gardener cite to them by a nickname " elephant ears . " This is in tribute to the heavy , flappy heart shapes of their leaf .
Alocasia Characteristics
Alocasia plants hold their leaves horizontally , with the point sort of pointed upward . Also , Alocasias lean to prefer some ghost and well - drain dirt .
Colocasia Characteristics
By contrast , Colocasia plants nurse their foliage downward . Moreover , Colocasia prefer full sunlight and lots of water .
Xanthosoma
Another fellow member of the Araceae family , Xanthosoma is interchangeable to Colocasia in how it defend its leaves and how flaccid they are compared with Alocasia . But Xanthosoma parting are more arrow - shaped than heart - work .
Edible or Not?
Some leaves from these plants are edible , while some are not . The good way to notice out – or rather , to avoid the nonedible ones – is to stick to the leaves sold at your local market computer memory .
Can Elephant Ears Be Brought Indoors for the Winter?
Caladium , also known as " elephant ear , " is grow from a bulbous tuber that can be stab up and stored indoors in a cool place like a basement through the winter months and replant in the spring . Caladium can overwinter outdoors in warmer develop climates .
How to Plant Elephant Ear Bulbs
bribe turgid , firm bulbs or tubers from a reliable source . Keep the bulb in a cool , teetotal place until you are ready to plant them .
Step 2
Plant the bulbs after the last frost of the twelvemonth , when temperatures at nighttime arrive at 50 arcdegree or above .
Step 3
opt a site with moist to boggy organic grease in partial shade or shade that is protect from the wind .
Step 4
Use a trowel to labour a mess deeply enough so that the top of the medulla oblongata is two in below the surface of the dirt . Set the incandescent lamp in the cakehole with the blunt end down and encompass with dirt . quad the bulbs 24 inch apart .
Step 5
expend a liquid fertilizer with a high atomic number 7 content at the rate recommend by the manufacturer . Continue give fertilizer on a hebdomadary basis during growing season .
Warning
Wild Taro ( Colocasia esculenta ) is invasive in quick climates . train with your local County Extension Office for more information . All parts of Elephant Ears can cause belly distress if eaten naked as a jaybird , and the sap can irritate your hide .
Things Needed
How to Winter Over Elephant Ears
find out the elephant ears around the first light icing . When the foliage turns light brown , this is an indication the plant is going dormant .
Cut the works back to 2 to 4 inches from the earth with pruning shears a few days after this hoarfrost . Carefully fag up the tubers with a potato forking or spade .
dampen the soil off the tuber with water . Set them out to dry out out of the sun until they are teetotal to the touch .
Store the elephant ears tubers in a Milk River crateful surrounded by sawdust or peat moss . This will bring home the bacon the genus Tuber with enough wet to last through the winter . Place them in a cool domain , such as a cellar or crawl blank space .
Re - kitty the tubers indoors in a pot filled with one-half peat and half perlite , six to eight weeks before the last frost date . Keep the plant moist . This will give the elephant ear a head start for the develop season .
When to Plant Elephant Ears in Pennsylvania
Caladium , also known as " elephant ear , " are tropical annuals that grow best in grease temperatures between 70 to 80 degree . Plant genus Tuber or seedling in late May after the opportunity of Robert Frost has passed . Check the USDA Hardiness Map to determine when frost has fall out for your special growing zone .
How to Kill Elephant Ears
Stop watering the elephant ears . In the wilderness , they often grow in wetland and require consistent filth moisture . Drying out the planting website dehydrates the plant and will obliterate it over the course of several calendar week .
Dig out the industrial plant as an choice to drying it . This method acting is libertine than dehydration . Use a coon to remove the entire industrial plant , let in its underground corm . Avoid break its corm or leave behind pieces of it , as these can sprout into new plants .
Spray the elephant ear works with a systemic glyphosate herbicide for a grim - labor method acting of shoot down the plant . Mist the weedkiller onto all reveal portions of the elephant ear . The industrial plant will absorb the chemical and die within two weeks .
Do n’t ingest any portion of the elephant ear ’s foliation , as it can cause severe oral fissure and pharynx irritations .
Elephant Ear Plant Facts
Botanical Name
Members of the Araceae family , elephant ear or taro are known by the Latin name Colocasia esculenta .
Habit
Elephant ear plants can attain a height of 4 to 6 foot . One kind of elephant ear , the Borneo Giant , can grow to 15 feet ; it is the second - largest undivided leafed plant in the globe .
Color
Grown for their dramatic foliage , elephant ears range from greenish - black to pale green .
Hardiness and Range
Elephant ears are recurrent below zone 7 . They can be grown in colder climate but must be dig up and brought indoors in winter .
Requirements
Grow elephant ears in rich , damp filth . They arise best in partial nuance .
Use
bombastic and sculptural elephant ear are used in the back of the border as a background for other plant .
How to Preserve Elephant Ear Leaves
contract off the leaves during the middle of the solar day when the leave contain less water system and nutrients . Keep the leaves that look respectable and are not shrink or discolored on the front or back .
dwell the elephant foliage in a shallow baking pan , a biscuit pan with raised sides or a great cardboard box lid . Because elephant leave can be quite large , a bombastic plastic container project to go under a bed may be the consummate selection .
Cover the leaf with a ½-to-1 - inch mix of one part borax ( a laundry agent ) and one part Indian meal . white , salt - innocent fine sand also is satisfactory as a leaf cover .
Brush away the dry agent gently after 10 to 14 days . The leafage should be juiceless .
Spray the leaf with a clean varnish or lacquer to give it a shiny lasting close .
Which Side is Up When Planting Elephant Ear Bulbs?
Plant elephant ear bulbs with the blunt terminate down in moist land . This end should be unsmooth and may have tooth root bud , while the top of the bulb is rounded or bumpy .
Are Elephant Ear Plants Dangerous to Cats?
The elephant ear plant life ( Caladium hortulanum ) , also known as calidium or taro root , is toxic to cats . sign that a cat has ingested the leaves of the elephant ear are unwritten soreness , drooling , trouble in swallowing and vomiting .
How to Plant & Care for a Giant Elephant Ear Bulb
Information on Elephant Ear Plant
Size
An Elephant Ear Plant can grow to 3 to 5 ft in acme when in full mature . ( See Reference 1 )
General Care
Plant the Elephant Ear Plant in an area that receive partial shade with nutrient - fat soil . Keep the plant life well watered . Cold temperature are not well put up . ( See Reference 2 )
Propagation
get the picture up an existing plant to propagate by dividing the bulbs and root in to three disjoined sections . Replant all division and care for them as normal . ( See Reference 3 )
Geography
The Elephant Ear Plant is aboriginal to parts of Asia . As a perennial , it grow best in USDA zones 8 to 11 ( quick climate regions load from Florida to Texas ) , but can be grown as an yearbook in other areas by digging up the bulb to replant the following year .
Fun Facts
The bulb of the Elephant Ear Plant can be ready and eat on when ripe by laugh at or sauteing . Young parting are also cooked and feed in some areas . The industrial plant mislay its toxicity when cooked .
One variety , the Wetland taro , is the rootage of the Polynesian nutrient poi .
Warnings
All theatrical role of the Elephant Ear Plant can cause stomach ache if have without cooking . Contact with the sap can irritate sensitive skin .
Colocasia esculenta , wild taro , is an invasive exotic in much of peninsular Florida . It is lean by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council as a Category I Species , know to be interrupt aboriginal plant communities and fire native industrial plant species .
Elephant Ear Sponge Facts
Description
Most sponges live in the ocean , although a few last in freshwater . Among the marine sponger is the elephant pinna parasite ( Agelas clathrodes ) . When survive , this parazoan is a brilliant orange shade on the outside and light orange within . Its monolithic , compress mannequin rise from a narrow alkali . This sponge ’s outer hide is fleshy and approximate to the touch modality . It can originate to widths of 13 inches .
Range
The elephant ear sponge populate coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Ocean . specimen have been observed in Barbados , Belize , the Cayman Islands , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Haiti , Jamaica , Mexico , Panama and Venezuela .
Uses
Elephant ear sponges are utilise for decorative purposes in saltwater aquariums . They are also harvested and dried for exercise by painters and other artisans , who prize them for their grain .
Types of Elephant Ears
Elephant Ear Plants with Color
Not all elephant capitulum industrial plant have completely fleeceable leaf . Alocasia boa draw out a true tropical ambiance with its captivating blue tones and leaves that grow in an arrow - corresponding cast . majestic taro can be raise as an yearbook . Its plushy leaves are a purpleness to blacken in hue with green vein . It is an ideal , wintertime - sturdy specimen for planting zone 7 . Alocasia micholitziana ' Frydek ' produces striking clean venous blood vessel on its emerald fleeceable leaves , which typically reach up to 18 inches in distance . It is large-minded of many growing circumstance .
Extreme of Sizes for Elephant Ear Plants
Alocasia robusta is the largest elephant spike flora , turn up to 30 feet tall . To grow right , it requires high humidness and shining , indirect light . On the smaller end , Alocasia Silver Okinawa Variegata typically get hold of 2 to 3 feet in pinnacle . It is also one of the well-situated elephant ear plants to originate . It can resist a reach of growing conditions from drouth to extensive pic to rain – without the risk of becoming morbid .
Elephant Ear Plants for Containers
Black Magic and Green Giant make excellent specimens for containers within a garden . Both plants farm to be about 3 to 5 feet tall . The leave of the Black Magic plant are a burgundy to black colouration , while Green Giant industrial plant develop green foliage , as the name implies .
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