Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Miss B. Havin Brugmansia, 1 by chuck7701

chuck7701 wrote:
Continuing with the Or..........for EE's

These are the Standing Elephant Ears in these pictures. I'm spoiled and won't grow many other varieties, although I was given one Dig Dipper bulb two years ago that I like and has multiplied to about 20 clumps - 3-6 feet tall, purple stalks. They spread quickly through roots and develop new tubers.....

Unless you're in an area that does not get a prolonged hard freeze, you can cut the tops off and wrap them or mulch them if they're in the ground. In pots, cut em back, quit watering and store em inside, like the garage, etc. Cut them back till you get to the point where you see the future stalks - 4-6 inches above the main bulb.

The problem I have is leaving them in the ground. We get hard freezes and the bulb portion above the ground freezes as well as several inches below the soil line. This kills off the main shoot promoting a lot of pups on the remaining mother bulb sprouting from the side. You'll have a lot more shoots next spring and summer, but they won't get as big for the most part unless the conditions are very good.

I have learned to just dig them up, break of the shoots, trim the roots, wash and store them. It does take them longer to sprout in the spring since they have to grow a new root system, however, if they are in a constantly moist area like mine were, they will do fine.

I allowed three clumps to go through that freeze cycle for two winters. They got so big, the third spring I had to separate them in the fall. Each clump was about three feet wide and weighed 50-70 pounds. Darn near needed a backhoe. I think my back is still aching and that was in 07.

Ever since that experience, before the first freeze, I cut them back, lift them and separate and replant in the spring. If you have a lot of them, definitely want to do it before the stalks and leaves freeze and turn to mush. In the picture you'll see the originals after three years in the ground. Where my fat foot is I had replanted the mother bulb minus all the pups the following spring, and this was new growth. The picture with the dozens of separated bulbs was after harvesting in fall 07, trimmed and cleaned.

The benefit of not letting the tops freeze is a large mature bulb that bloomed for me in 08. Each year they reached the eves, but that was the first time I had a bloom after 4 years even of growing them. I have given over a hundred bulbs away over the years.

And to think we started with just one bulb in 03.