My, my grandma, What big ears you have!

I always have great luck with my alocasia in this spot, but even through the drought they are bigger and better than ever this year!

Yours appear to be planted in the ground, are they hardy for you there in Hagerstown?

O
M
G

Makes you look like The Teeny Tiny Woman!!!!!!!
thanks for showing us
8 ^)

Great Googley Moogley, you could use one of those leaves as a blanket!!

I'm curious like Greenthumb about if they're hardy for you 'cause, that's some serious WOW ya got there!! =)

Holy cow! That's some pretty remarkable foliage in the first/last pic. Do you know the species/cultivar? My next door neighbor grows elephant ears, but I've never seen hers do that.

Thanks everyone! No they are not hardy here. I take them inside in the winter. For some reason they love this particular spot. I always dig this one and separate it and take it inside. Then in the spring I plant 1 in the brick box and the rest elsewhere and as you can see from that shot of the full garden, although they are from the very same plant they don't get nearly as huge. I could replicate the photo of me standing with the large 37" leaf for the last several years and they all look alike, it just gets huge in this brick bed.
As for the black alocasia in the center of the large garden pic, they is a different species and is taken in and potted separately.
I don't do anything special with this huge one, it just always grows like a weed!
Sorry, but I don't know the particular cultivar.
These are from last year.

They look great. Just love those Big Ears. I would love to get a tree philo and see how big I could get that to grow.

Never heard of a tree philo?

Sooooo jealous...those are simply gorgeous - would make dumbo proud!!

Love that!!!!

They are so neat just huge. I saw one at Bok Tower in Fl. Will post a pic if Ric can get the lap top up and running again.

Great googley moogley! (well said)

I've got one (Black Stem Taro, I think, or something like that, from Coleup) that is taller than either of my (admittedly shorter than usual) banana plants this year.

I can't wait to get back home and see what mine have done while we were gone.

I just can't believe how big those ears are myself and they just keep gettin bigger. My banana is bigger than ever this year too.
So Holly????????? what you got???

Came home on Sat and things have really grown while I was away. My castor bean looks great as does the portadoras and I have several different bananas this year. The big Musa has several broken leaves from a storm that went thru while we were away but the pups have really grown.

What do you do with your Musa over winter Holly? I put mine in the ground this year and it is huge too, but now don't think I'll be able to repot and take inside??? I haven't noticed any pups from it?

I received mine from Coleup at the plant swap this year. Couldn't decide weather to put it in the ground or not so I potted it up. I think I will remove the pups and grow them in pots and over winter the main tree in Josh's basement. There is still a chance that we will heat the GH this winter and then it could go in there.

I tried to overwinter a big banana in ground and failed. Doesn't mean it can't be done but...
I cut off three pups and tried wrapping one in newspaper and storing- yuck. Then i dug the huge cut off base, moved and replanted it. covered with leaves etc- ended up being much more wet than I thought- rot.

Do you think I can cut the musa and then just repot the bulbous bottom and it will come back next year?
Sorry it didn't work out for you Sandy. I did manage to over winter majestic palms one year a number of years ago, but it was so much work that I never bothered again. I wrapped them in insulation, then burlap and then a lot of mulch from the base up about 3'! What a mess.

My son has a banana not sure what variety he has grown his inside for years. Last year it was too big to bring inside so we unpotted it removed the pups and wrapped it in burlap and stored it in his basement. Looked pretty good when he brought it outside this spring but it was a bit soft at the base right above the bulbous bottom. I wasn't sure if it was going to grow and then in the process of moving it we cracked it right at that spot. He ended up just potting up the bulbous bottom and it did regrow. So I have been wondering if you could cut one off and just store the bottom like I do my big Alocasia bulbs. I have never heard anyone talking about doing that to overwinter them.

Here are my Portadora Alocasia, Looking pretty good I will have 4 of these to take to Sally's Swap.

White Bird of Paradise hasn't done much but it did get off to a bad start as the Ground Hogs sampled it before they decided that they didn't want to eat it. The Caster Bean has grown very nicely considering that it was planted pretty late.

Beautiful, wish I was going to the swap to pick one up! Better that I am not, I don't have room for what I've got!

Holly, I see a pot of Fire Cracker Begonia hanging there too. Isn't that a cool plant? I love mine. Killed one over winter, but the one that survived has done well.

Haighr, mighty fine speciman you have there. Real cute picture of you too. These plants have to rate as one of my very favorites. Thanks for sharing.

Ruby

Yes Ruby I just loved that I started out with several of them but ended up giving most of them away. I will definitely get more of those next year.

We should link this thread with our "Tropicals" thread
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1267292/

I really enjoy Big leaves, too. Nice ones Haitgr. They must love all that brick stored heat relese during the night time when they do their growing! That soil must warm up earlier there to stretch our 'tropical' growing season, too.

lol Critter, that black stem taro has been itchin for almost 5 years to really take off...same with mama Musa, Holly. First daughter is almost 9 feet tall. Will post some pics over on tropicals thread linked above.

Pic is of 'firecracker' begonia. canna, and coleus 'Sedona' combo.

This message was edited Aug 18, 2012 8:59 PM

Wowzers Holly!!! Purdy, Coleup

Oh my! I wish mine had gotten that big! It's my first year growing them. How do you store your EE's for the winter?

Well the Portadora is one that will get pretty big, mine are small compared to those that live in more tropical areas where they stay in the ground all year round. In the fall I cut off the top and dig up the bulbs then I just put them in an open basket and store them in a warm room under my light table.

Hartzell,

All of my EEs are grown in containers (mostly 3 gal or above) so when weather cools , say beginning of Nov (Zone 7b pushing 8a)

Thanks everyone. I pot mine up except for the really huge one! I think I can store the big bulb. I think that is what I will do with the musa as well, just dig the huge bulbous tuber and take it inside and store in the basement where it is cool and dark.
So Holly, should I keep the EE's bulbs warm? I have never dug them and stored before, just potted up the pups and overwinter them in a sunny window.
I guess that warm brick is just what they like as my others throughout the gardens are big, but nothing close to this giant!

Yes, Keep them in a warm spot they should do well for you.
Here is something a bit different in the way of Big Ears. My Hardy Begonia has a leaf that is 16in long.

Bummer--Just wrote along Post here and went to Google a place to show you and myst have "X"'ed it out accidentally.
Sometimes it is an art ti know when to click on "back" and NOT on the "X" to close it.
This usually happens to me when I have opened a link to a place and c/p it--and them want to get back to
the post i was writing. BAM! Gone!!!

Talking about Banana Plants ----

Anyway---I was mentioning a wonderful Nursery here--just a couple of miles from my house.
Many of you may remember "Chapel Hill Nursery" as the place I face painted for them at their BIG fall
Festivals for 17 years.
Now they have gone to smaller festivals--every weekend in October. They stil do all the great things..
Pit Pork--music--petting zoos--rides--and all kinds of food booths. Need to go back and enjoy this one more time...

They are open for B-Day parties for kids and "field Trips as well. They have all kinds of animals and a few G-Houses--
and the owner (Russel) also raises Clydesdale Horses as a hobby.

Anyway--to keep some money flowing in in the dog days of summer--they have started also selling veggies
and fruits and eggs and garden supplies. It truly ids a nice place...
So--I have been dropping by there lately to p/u this and that. Went there a couple days ago--and saw these amazing
Banana plants by their HUGE Koi pond. The landscaping all around this place is beyond awesome!!!
I noticed the huge clump of Banana trees. maybe 8' tall and asked Mike--the other owner--how they winter these over?
He shrugged it off and said they do not bother with that. They just dig them up and get rid of them...

My mouth must have stayed open for 5 minutes....HUHHHHH????? I said! Don't you know how many people
would lobe to have these???? Always thinking of all of the DG'ers here....
I continued---Besides--you have a horse bard you could keep them in (He said they are not heated).
I said--You have Greenhouses and other out-buildings....NOPE!! NOPE!!! Not gonna do it! Mike said!

SOOOO--You all came to my mind.....I will try to get some pictures of these plants (with permission--of course)
and maybe some of you may want to drive over here and get these as they are digging them up--??????????????

Not sure what I am getting myself into here......maybe it would not work--but it is worth a try.
Let me know--and I will go over there and wheel and deal....

Here is a link to the Nursery. Check out all the side links to get the full impact of what they are all about.
VERY community oriented...They hold kid's B-Day parties--field trips---Petting zoos---fairs with food and music and rides, etc...

http://perryhall.patch.com/listings/chapel-hills-farm-nursery

Let me see if I can grub up some pictures from my days there-----

Well I'll just have to string a wicker basket under the shelf in my office. DG is going to have a fit when all the trops come in this year. LOL He has the entire back house as a man cave maybe I should just "borrow" some space.
I'm really glad I asked because I was going to stick these in my potting room. Which is kinda dark & not heated. Thannk you for the info!

Holy moly Holly, one huge begonia!

Not me Gita, but its awful nice of you to think of all of us.

Gita - depending when they do the digging and what price he's asking - I might be interested for my nephew...course I'd have to figure transport LOL

Yes it is and for some reason it isn't getting eaten up by the bugs and slugs. So it looks really nice.
Think I will go out and take canna leaf pictures.

Chantelle---

They are trashing all these banana plants---SO--I CANNOT IMAGINE THEM ASKING FOR A PRICE,,,

Would you REALLY, REALLY drive up here to White Marsh to get some of these????
Need to know this 100% as a commitment. Then I can go and ask when--and how....

How much effort do you want to put out to get these dug up Banana Plants?????????????????????

Gita

So most of these aren't very big this year as they were recently purchased and planted. I expect good things from them next year but they sure are pretty even if they aren't very big.
I do have some tall green leaved ones that have either red or yellow flowers and then there are the special cannas.
Australia, African Sunset, Tropicanna, Striped Beauty