Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My Alocasia Pink China, 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
I named pink china about 9 years ago when I got them out of china through a friend. It was collected high on a mountain and I was told their winters were fairly harsh. I grew the plant much like I had grown all my Colocasias and took it inside the first year. To my suprize I had a nice clump regrow from were I had dug it up the year before. I have now had it in the ground 9 year in zone6 Louisville KY. A friend of mine has grown it in zone5 Ohio for over 6 years with mulch. I have some being tested as far north as Canada. I believe it to be hardy to zone 4 to 5 if mulched well and zone 6 it can become a weed. I have grown them to around 6 to 7 feet tall with leaves around 2 to 3 feet tall. It was named pink china due to it coming out of china and having a pink stem and a pink dot in the center of the leaves. I did not plan on calling it this but it was all the information I had at the time to keep it seperated from my other forms. It has been selling well as a partner plant with the Musa Basjoos were people are leaving them both out and mulching them for winter.

Here is my mothers plants in one years time. She was able to grow them very large. I have found that taking off suckers and runners will help produce larger centerpiece plants.