Alocasia, anyone?
 

Got 2 Alocasia hypnosa over the weekend, love the leaves! Anybody growing these? What's your experience with 'em? From my research, seems like the best conditions for them is well drained soil, moist, and in partial sun or shade. I have some semi shade spots outside the house, but I'm afraid the wind gusts will just tear 'em apart.

Thanks,

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

I love Alocasia/Colocasia and when I have more space, I plan to try a lot more species. Currently, I have:

Colocasia Jack's Giant (this pic is very old now)

Alocasia Portei


and Alocasia 'Stingray'



Love the pic of your hypnosa...looks very healthy! I really want to try A. amazonica, A. teacup, A. batwing, A. portadora, A. boa and C. black ruffles.

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

I just repotted one of 'em and decided to leave it my living room, no worry about winds. The taro plants I saw in Hawaii look very much like an Alocasia, wonder if these bulbs are edible. :ha: I've been looking for "elephant ears" for a while now, the Home Depot in Anaheim, Ca just received 10 of these, I got 2, another guy bought 3. They look so good, couldn't pass 'em up. Thanks for posting your photos.

Tony: are you gonna sell those?

LilRaverBoi: how big is your biggest one?

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Possibly

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Here's a pic I took this afternoon (just repotted it today):

Leaves are just over a foot long so it's still pretty tiny in the scheme of things....cause this is what it will look like eventually:

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Don't you have wind gusts in your area? You're in the midwest, so tornadoes are frequent. I used to live in Wichita, KS. Those huge fans act like boat sails when the winds kick up in my area. Amazing photo! I saw one of the Giant Borneo with a man standing underneath one of the leaves, they said the GB were around at the times of dinosaurs.

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Well, mine isn't big enough to have sail-worthy leaves yet...but I'm in a pretty sheltered area where I live here. It would probably be wise to plant such things in a sheltered place around your house to prevent leaf tear/damage.

As far as GB goes, they look kinda disgusting to me for some reason. Like the leaf margin isn't quite big enough for the actual leaf surface so it's all smashed in there and floppy. I dunno...always kinda looked distasteful to me...but I do appreciate the massive magnitude of the leaves!

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

I assume yours die back when the snow comes? How do you overwinter them? And how many months does it take to grow from nothing to leaves that big? Thanks,

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

I've always like Alacasias & Colocasias, Im hoping to expand my collection this spring. Nice looking plants guys.

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

To be honest, what you see in my first pic is how I 'overwinter' here. I have no soil to even plant in here, so it's in a pot year round, brought inside during winter. I don't believe they're hardy enough to survive winters here, but I could be wrong.

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Here is a pic of mine from this past summer! These babies are planted out in the full sun and are in the wind, here in Michigan!

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Nice! So they lose all the leaves and become dormant in the Michigan winter?

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

In the photo of you in the blue T-shirt, the leaves are pretty large, are those plants in ground or pot (what size)?

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

LMFAO...no no no...that's not me in the second picture. That was just an example of what a mature Jacks Giant looks like. I wish mine looked that nice! Maybe in a year or two. Pretty sure the ones in that picture are in the ground.

As far as I've seen, they are cold hardy to zone 8 maybe 7. Beyond that, you would probably need to either protect them somehow (not really sure if leaves would survive regardless) or dig up the bulb and overwinter it in your basement dormant like any other bulb. You could also dig up the entire plant and pot it and keep it growing inside if you had a sunny place and a lot of room.

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

I grew a Colocasia Fontanesii last year and it grew huge in its pot. Now its resting and has one leaf (not a huge on though). They bloomed like crazy though, I think I got over 10 blooms and it flowered from late july all the way to mid November! Then it got hit by a frost and I cut it back and sent it in. This year I also have an Alocasia macrorrhizos 'Borneo Giant'. Its pretty big already, but I hear they are that in the tropics they are largest elephant ears (also apparently has the largest undivided leaves of any plant also).
Jacks giant is a really nice one also. Very nice color to it and also the leaves can get huge.
Ive never heard of Alocasia hypnosa before , but I just saw some pics of them and they look like they have a very nice leaf form and also stay at a pretty good size. Your Alocasia hypnosa already looks like its a nice planting size and will probably be a very nice size once summer comes and it sees some warm weather.


Good luck everyone!

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Oh no, those babies are cut back and dug up and stored in the basement for the winter! I planted 7 bulbs in that bed, they quadruplied in size, after dividing I have around 15!

Re: Alocasia, anyone?
 

Wow these are so cool I had to get me some of these
here is a link
ALOCASIA,COLOCASIA,XANTHOSOMA

anyone ever plant these before ?