is this normal for an Elephant Ear

My elephant ear's leaves are leaning really bad. I have one new leaf that is upright and the other 3 leaves reaching for the floor instead of the sunlight. Is this normal or is there something she's lacking?

another picture

last picture

..... starved for light.

Al

I agree with Al

What's the solution? Move it closer to the window? I have a vent that I was worried would blow too much hot air on it indirectly. Should that hurt it? It should be able to handle outside summer temperatures.

I think if it is a caladium or elephant ear (colocasia?) like you buy in the spring, you can stop watering it, let it go dormant and then start watering it again in 2 or 3 months. I know the caladiums like to be stored on the warm side (like 70), and I just read the the colocasia will take it a bit cooler. I would think an unheated closet, or an unheated (but doesn't freeze) basement would be great. If you decide to try to keep it going, you need to gradually give it more light until you have it basically in high light. They take partial sun outside so inside light is still being on a sunshine diet. I think I read (with caladiums anyway) that as the leaves die, leave them on the plant until they are pretty dry as the energy from the leaf gets absorbed into the tuber as it prepares for dormancy. Sounds good to me. Hope this helps.

Ok, that makes sense! Maybe it's going dormant. I thought these could be grown as houseplants so I was trying to keep it going inside. So you think I should store it like a canna in my garage? I would rather do that than to kill it this winter.

Yes. As long as you can keep canna plants overwintered, from what I read, it will be ok. I killed one because I tried to grow it over the winter, so now I know better :). At least that was the best I could figure when researched what went wrong. I have some caladiums now that I am playing with... They like to stay warmer even in dormancy, so yours is easier :).

This site helped me to understand the plant, and I don't know if I can link to non-Dave stuff, but here it is and please advise me if this is wrong...

http://landscaping.about.com/od/unusualplants1/p/elephant_ears.htm

Well, I read you can keep them as houseplants, too, so I have no idea... I have an alocasia that I want to know how to care for, and get mixed information on it, too. So try more light and if it still shows signs of blah, water less and let it rest?

Thanks! That sounds right on! I think I will error on the side of safety and winterize it

Ialways cut mine back and dig up the bulbs ,rap them in brown bags.
So I don't have to dig them up? Now they are not in the grown they are in pots
thank you

By the grace of God, I just spoke to a person who owns a landscaping, greenhouse and floral business. I was explaining my dilemma regarding the Elephant Ear and Banana Tree. He advised me to allow them to rest. He said I need to allow a frost to hit my E.E. (like the Cannas) and to just stop watering the B.T. He said once every 6 weeks or so would be good. He even advised me to bring them into him to to divide the babies next year. I was told to call him regarding a potting mix and ended up getting the information I needed for my unhappy babies. Whew! I think I only have 3 strands of hair left! LoL

You can also grow both Alocasia's and Colocasia's as houseplant's via the Winter month's if you choose to do so. They do not have to go dormant .

Rachel

I have a couple of Alocasia Polly: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53992/ one planted in the ground and a couple in pots on my deck. I see in PF they are listed for Zone 10 and higher and we do have some pretty cold nights here once in awhile during the winter but so far mine have survived. They always die down in winter time and I forget all about them until I see those little ears popping up in spring. When we have extremely cold nights I cover all of my plants out on the deck with old blankets which protects them for the couple of hours the temp's are low.