Is Coffee Cups the same as Tea Cups?
I have been told both that they are the same and some have said they are two separate distinct varieties.
Can you enlighten me?
Thanks.
Pete
Colocasia Coffee Cups
I actually firmly believe that they are the same.
I bought Coffee Cups at my local nursery 2 seasons ago as a 6 ft tall plant. It produced many offsets over the season and I divided it and planted some out in the yard. Some I kept protected in the GH.
The ones I kept protected stayed large. The ones I planted out died back and came back teensy tiny and took a LONG TIME (all season!) to attain any size at all.
I think the key is not to let them go down.
I have some of those but have never known the name. They multiply rapidly and can take over ponds fairly quickly. Would be interested to know the proper scientific name.
PCS2009, while doing some searching for a Colocasia, I ran across multiple sites that list Coffee cup and Tea cup as interchangeable names and all mentioned that CC/TC are smaller and not to be confused with Big Dipper colocasia.
It would seem that the majority of growers/sellers sell them as a single variety with two names.
http://shadowscapesnursery.com/TeaCups.aspx
The plant came from Thailand as Tea Cups the plants were Tissue cultured and either the name was changed or someone put the name Coffee cups on it instead. So they are both the same plant. Big dipper I named around 10 years ago it was a mutation off of violet stem Colocasia with cupped up leaves.
Is there any significant or obvious difference between "Tea Cups" and "Big Dipper"?
Here is a comparison. The leaf on the left is Big Dipper the leaf on the right Coffee Cups. The big dipper usually has a horizontal shape to the cupped up leaf with a dark green leaf that has a slight velvet feel to it. It usually gets around 6 feet tall with a dark maroon stem and a flower with a yellow spath. The Big Dipper also produces runners. The Coffee Cups (Tea Cups) has a cupped up leaf as well usually a bit more cupped and with the leaf tip usually pointing upwards. The leaf has a sheen or shine to it and the stems are dark maroon it seems big dippers stems are darker in color. Coffee cups can get to 8 feet tall or larger and does not tend to send out runners but seems to be more of a clumper. The flowers are also have a yellow spath usually very narrow but rarely flowers and is often deformed or mutated when flowering. I will add photos of mature plants to help ID both.
Colocasia big dipper.
Colocasia Coffee cups
So mine's not likely to be the "Big Dipper". It doesn't run and the cup effect is more more pronounced than your photo shows. Where I originally got it several years ago they often go to Thailand for plants. I'm sure mine's flowered, will have to look back through my photos.
When I got rid of it from a pond it was taking over I put some in a small, shallow kids plastic paddle pool. Now as it grows up it eventually gets too top heavy and rolls over. New plants come up out of the bottom (now top) of the clump which eventually rolls over again when it gets big enough.
Your plant is Coffee cups it originated out of Thailand years a ago. Here is the original plant in Thailand this is were all of the coffee cups originated off this one plant.
That definitely looks a dead ringer for mine. They don't like the direct sun during the dry season when daytime humidity is lower, but wet season they're good again.
I found one of the "Tea Cups" flower photos. It was taken during rain. Was intended to show how high the water level got to in my turtle enclosure rather than the flower itself. It was mid February, the height of the wet season.
This is the flower of my ordinary C. esculenta. Looks the same. Photo was taken end of April, end of wet season. But they seem to flower any time during the wet season. It's the native one from this area.
Wow some of yours are HUGE.. I just got a tiny big dipper this year I would say the leaves are the size of an acorn.. just wondering do these take years to get to that size, or do they grow quickly...
jen
I bought mine last year as tea cups. Grew it in the house until time to move it outside. It really didn't do that well, but not the plants fault. Where I planted it the ground was just too hard and dry. By the time I dug it up the bulbs were all that was left. I put them out in the garage to overstore for winter along with the rest of my elephant ears. Then I decided maybe that was not a good idea, so I brought the bulbs in and planted them in a tiny pot. Finally got one to come up but I would not say its prospering yet. As gothqueen said, ITS TINY. And just as it grows one leaf, the leaf dies. The leaf on it currently is dying and it appears another one might be coming up. Very frustrating. I seem to have this problem with all my elephant ears I am overwintering indoors. A lot of them have been in my daughters room. I noticed yesterday that the heater vent, though it is closed, is blowing on the plants. I thought maybe this was part of the problem, and that because of this maybe they were drying out sooner than I knew. I have the top of the soil covered with either perlite or peat moss trying to kill the fungus gnats, so its hard to know when they are dry. I am trying to move the elephant ears out of her room and to the kitchen where they will not be blown on. Anyone got any thoughts?
It's more the climate and the length of the growing season. If you're in a cold climate but bring the plants into shelter with climate control you should be able to get the same results. It tends to be that larger leaves will produce larger tubers, larger tubers will produce larger leaves. And it's the length of the growing season that over rides all that.
But I don't get the same results. The plants do much better outside in the baking hot dry summer with me having to water all the time than they do in the climate controlled house. I give them lots of fluorescent lighting, water, watch for spider mites. Don't understand why the leaves die off.
Bubba1, you'll find that inside homes is usually pretty dry, like the air is. These plants come from humid tropical areas, at least their growing season is long with high humidity and high temperatures. They'd probably do better in a greenhouse where you can maintain higher humidity. Colocasias often grow in tropical swamps, and you can't get more humid than that.
I do run humidifiers in both bedrooms where a lot of my plants are overwintering. But probably its not as high as what they are used to. One day a couple of weeks ago I had both running on the high setting. Went into the bathroom and discovered condensation running off the toilet! So I turned them off. Now, most of the time I run them on the low setting. I have them on high right now 'cause its snowing outside and the heater is running more. I guess I should just be happy at maintaining them until time to move them outside. I am just hoping tea cups doesn't die. I am emotionally attached to each and every plant. Ha! ha!
I think most caladiums/colocasias/alocasia's like a dormant time. When I see them starting to struggle, I stop watering and let them rest til spring, but not sure if anyone else does this.
I have a bunch of them out in the garage. But these that are in the house I know are just too small to survive in the garage. When the bulbs are big enough, I dig them up, cut off the tops, and put them in a brown paper bag to store for winter. Same with most of my cannas. Plant them again in spring. It does take them a while to come up but once they are up they take off. Had some this last year that got so big people stared.
Oh, I get it now. Try to make sure it's getting enough light, indoors, even full sun isn't as bright as outside. And you're right, it will be much happier when you get it moved outside in the spring, so helping it survive is probably more realistic than having it grow huge leaves and 8 ft in the living room :).
The plants are under stress if they keep losing new leaves. You name fungus gnats, dry air, etc, so if you can discover/eliminate the stress, they should at least be able to support more than one leaf, and that means more energy back to the plant. Sometimes it may be built up salts in the soil, so I haul my plants to the sink or tub and spray them down, foliage, soil, all and then give a good second watering and let them drain. It's a good time to check for bugs and it helps keep spider mites at bay. This can happen even without the use of fertilizer, since they put crud in city water and well water has higher mineral content, so a good rinse may help.
I hate fungus gnats. I got them this year and I've sprayed neem, and safer, used mosquito dunks in my water, watered with a weak hydrogen peroxide/water solution, put up fly traps, and finally started placing sundew plants on my shelves. Of all the measures of control, feeding the sundew plants is by far the most satisfying, lol. And now I have another group of plants to enjoy..... I thought it was supposed to be sand on the surface of pots, I didn't do it because I don't want to hinder drainage, but I think that is what I read.
Yes I have read both sand and peat moss. I used perlite because I didn't have any peat moss and I was desperate. Finally found a bag of peat moss at Ace Hardware. Had to pay $7 for it!!! Was not even a large bag. Now I need some more. Tropicman told me to pour Bayer complete through the soil but I can't find any. Was really bad last winter. Had to sleep with a pillow over my face 'cause about the time I would start to sleep, one would fly up my nose! Couldn't wait to get the plants outside. I do think the perlite/peat moss is helping but I still have lots of plants that need covering so I still have fungus gnats. For the spider mites I have been washing the leaves with a little soap and water. I do think that is helping but still have mites to kill.
What's a sundew plant?
Here ya go Bubba...
http://www.sundewgrower.com/
Bubba, you can grow them indoors on a windowsill. Here is a link to care and feeding...grin
http://mycarnivore.com/sundew-care.php
Oh, once you see them all dewey and full of gnats, you'll be hooked, lol. I have Drosera adalae and it's supposed to be easy for beginners, as are some others. It looks nice, and is loaded, lol. I wish it had more leaves to get more gnats. I am still using mosquito dunks in my water, and occasionally I'll use hydrogen peroxide solution, and will continue to spray once a month with neem (or as I see a problem), but I like to see the sundew loaded with them :). Now the fly traps seem like a waste of sundew food, but I use it, too, lol.
Well. You would think that as the plants eat the adults, eventually you would run out of larvae. I have found some plants on ebay. If I understand correctly, I would plant them in peat moss? And then set the pot in a shallow tray of water? One seller explained this, that keeps them from drying out which keeps them from going dormant, and that it also provides the humidity the plant needs. Maybe I should just buy one at first to see how if I can grow them? Can you tell me the names of the easy ones? If this works I am going to put a couple in each room!
Drosera capensis, drosera adelae, drosera spathulata, drosera scorpioides (I heard)
What temperature is the room where you are growing your plants? I just discovered that a plant in my care went dormant probably because it was too cool, not for any other reason. Sorry if I gave any bad info about it. I think the caladiums insist on a dormancy, but the alocasia's, I guess I was mistaken about. And I'll see what I can find about colocasia, too.
And sorry for getting you hooked on more plants. You'll probably enjoy the carnivorous plants, but I feel bad about being the pusher, lol.
Oh honey! I don't need a push! All you have to do is put a plant in my line of vision! When I watch tv these days I notice the tropical plants, not the actors. (You think this means I am old?) Honestly. I did have some seeds for several different varieties of pitcher plants. I had intended to germinate them for eating the mosquitos last year. But I never got around to it. I traded them for an elephant ear, of course. But I had never heard of sundew plants, and it never occured to me to use them to eat fungus gnats. Ingenius! Now I can sleep at night! I do love the aroids, but I did see some I thought were kinda pretty.
Oh. I keep my heater set on 70 degrees. The guy from Wellspring Gardens stated in his listing that sundew plants go dormant above 80 degrees so I think I am safe there.
I don't think it's about age, I remember watching Charmed to see the orchid of the day, lol. Some sundew may come pretty fast from seed, but the others can take a good while to mature.
I was asking about temps because I was reading about cooler temps causing alocasia sanderiana to go into dormancy. Have no idea if any colocasia plants do that.
Wellspring has a pinguicula, too, if it's the same seller.
I buy lots of my elephant ears from him. They are starter plants, but are very reasonable priced. Thats what I have in the house right now. Lots of them. Tee hee hee. Never heard of sanderiana. Got a pic? I don't seem to have a problem with them going dormant inside the house. I have a pink stemmed aurora that has been in the house since fall of 2008. Its doing really well. It has 2 leaves on it that it has had forever. I could have sworn I saw another one popping up while I was watering, but I was digging the other day (got it covered in perlite right now) and now I can't seem to find the 3rd one.
I think when I finally buy a sundew, I will buy my first one from Wellspring. I have never been disappointed with a plant I received from him.
Nice starters, I agree. Price is right if you want to have a variety, and don't mind waiting to see them grow up. I like to see them grow up. I have some alocasias and colocasias both from him. I didn't get tea cups, probably should have. Oh well, there is always next year (or should I say tomorrow?). I am trying to propagate my sundew adalae, and if it's a success, I can share. As for gnats, I put up plain old 4 for a buck fly strips and they stick a lot of gnats. It isn't pretty but it helps, and it also isn't quite as delightful as feeding the sundews, lol.