Alocasia or Colocasia ?

[Darold Petty]

Recently, I was sorely tempted by  colorful plants, Colocasia 'Redemption' and C. 'Pharoah's Mask'.  However, my garden is the very most cold microclimate to be classified as USDA zone 10.  People have no idea about the lack of daytime warmth my garden suffers.  The daily summer high temperature often ranges from 56 to 64 F.  At this moment the early morning temperature is 48F.

  I do grow Alocasia 'Yucatan Princess' well.   So, based on my success with the Alocasia... can I also grow the two mentioned Colocasia plants ?  Thanks ! 

 

[Chester B]

They grow them in the UK so they should be fine for you.  The ones in the UK remain pretty small and grow slowly but they get the freezes that knock them back to the roots.  I would expect that you get no frost so albeit slow growing, they should size up over time provided they get enough water.

[Darold Petty]

Thanks very much, yes my garden is cold, but frost free.

[PlantMorePalms]

I haven't tried any Colocasia, but Alocasia 'Regal Shield' and 'Calidora' do well. Regal shield has purple undersides but Calidora is completely green. That Pharoah's mask is pretty attractive if it will work here.

Xanthosoma sagittifolia is easy and has really huge leaves, but again not colorful. The top leaf in the photo below is around 3.5' long and they're still getting bigger. It's a bit weedy, new plants pop up in the area all around the original one pretty frequently.

 

[JohnAndSancho]

I'm germinating some Redemption bulbs right now and I haven't been this excited about a new plant in a looooong time. Are you going to start from bulbs or starter plants? I can dig and see where I got my bulbs from, I got them for 50% off, but I can tell you to avoid Garden State Bulbs at all costs. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I got the bulbs from Holland. They're sprouting not on the heat mat, I've saved the heat mats for the Thai Giants. I paid $51.50 shipped for 2 bulbs. Good sized bulbs, too. 

[Chester B]

11 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I got the bulbs from Holland. They're sprouting not on the heat mat, I've saved the heat mats for the Thai Giants. I paid $51.50 shipped for 2 bulbs. Good sized bulbs, too. 

Yikes that's expensive. 7 gallon Redemptions are $35 here which is a pretty big plant, with many offsets.  I bought mine for $15 although it was a smaller one.  Why don't you buy from the large Greenhouses out of Florida for colocasias on Etsy?  They're usually $10 or less for a starter plant.  One season in the ground and you can usually get 10+ plants out of it.

[JohnAndSancho]

4 hours ago, Chester B said:

Yikes that's expensive. 7 gallon Redemptions are $35 here which is a pretty big plant, with many offsets.  I bought mine for $15 although it was a smaller one.  Why don't you buy from the large Greenhouses out of Florida for colocasias on Etsy?  They're usually $10 or less for a starter plant.  One season in the ground and you can usually get 10+ plants out of it.

Well, there's a lot of stuff you can get in Houston that I just can't get here. And purely anecdotally, the stuff I'm growing from bulbs looks much stronger already than the $10 tissue cultures I've bought. And my luck with the USPS hasn't been great lately. I mean I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just now trying to rationalize it. I bought a tissue culture Jurassic Jellyfish around the same time and it's still wobbly in a solo cup, but these bulbs are already firm in 1g pots. 

[happypalms]

Two varieties of plants I just gave up one to cold and wet for me in winter. 

[JohnAndSancho]

13 hours ago, happypalms said:

Two varieties of plants I just gave up one to cold and wet for me in winter. 

Just cut them down and mulch over them. Or dig the bulbs up. They come back. Or grow them in a greenhouse.