Tropicals & Tender Perennials: A walk around the place 2007 worst year ever!!!, 0 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
Well with hardy tropical plants its all about the situation you have it in. This Colocasia pink china is by far one of the toughest hardy tropicals I have ever delt with. I have had it outside for over 10 years and it has survived over 7 years with out mulching. I believe the main thing is to have an clump that has had a full season to mature. This helps due to the sure numbers of survivors. The plant does best in rich organic soil this is also the best soil to over winter plants in due to it decomposing even in winter. Pink china is much different than most forms. Most forms produce tubers that grow next to each other or runners that crawl across the top of the soil. Pink china does both and also produces what seems to be runners under the ground. I have dug up a few clumps of pink china to find tubers as far as 1 to 1 1/2 feet down in the dirt. This keeps the tubers well below the frost line here. I have told many people if you grow Musa Basjoo you should also try Colocasia pink china. They will grow right next to each other and when you mulch or protect your basjoo you also protect the Colocasia. This is one of the very few other hardy tropicals that I find growing like a weed in places I did not plant it due to some small tuber exscaping. On another note I have yet to produce nice large plants in pots. It seems it never really does well in a pot for me.