Aroid collector and Hybridzer New to the group

Oh My I want a Gerty...too cute!!!!

Hello Brian and welcome,
Your ears are way bigger than mine!

My husband & I are nurseryman and landscapers also. Hubby's been landscaping for 6 years, we are new to retail. We opened up in March and ready to throw in the towel. Our business is struggling and Katrina certainly didn't help us much. Can I D-mail you and pick you brain about being nurseryman? We are trying to salvage the nursery, but it is looking grim. Any help/pointers would be appreciated!

Welcome to DG!
Lisa

Yo, Uncle Carla ... you need to nudge your boy Brian to help hook me up with some people who can help answer some questions so I can compile that database I was talking to you about last month.

ask away im sure he will be willing to help out as long as the question isnt how to hybridize. thats and acent chinese secret lol few know how and maby thats a good thing for us that know how lol
Jerry

lol ... not a problem. The information is much more simplistic than that ... and it's information that I think MANY an admirer and would-be collector would appreciate. Simple stuff like: which EE plants have a "meaty" corm that can happily over-wintered as a dried "bulb." Shoot, dude, I now have almost 2 dozen species of "elephant ear" plants and far too many of them I have NO clue what to expect from this winter (needless to say, way too many of them are new to me). You guys stick with the ancient art of botanivoyeurism and let aging freaks turned geek fuss over the simple stuff. :o)

I just need to be pointed in the direction of people who would know such things so I can divvy the questions up amongst those interested in helping out. That makes it easy on anybody helping out (simple questions posed in ways to make the answers quick and easy to provide). I, obviously, want/need to know the answers to these questions for my own collection and edification ... the data would be made easily and openly accesible via sites such as this one (or aroid.org, Brian's website if he is so inclined, etc. etc. etc.) I've been a computer programmer for 20 years, and an avid gardener and collecter for a good many more years than that. I have the drive and the skills, I just need to find the people who actually know. It seems to me that there are a good number of people who love these plants as much as we do, if not more, and many of them do not (or can not) have a greenhouse.

Sheesh ... I'm rambling again.

Peace off,
Buck

well i will help with anything i can and im sure hewould be happy to help

Jerry

So you question is what are the easiest EEs to grow and strore and how to store them? I am guessing?

This is a very tough question not everyone has the same situations. I store all of my tubers and plants in the greenhouse. But for the ones that don't here is what I would suggest. Many plants enjoy a nice sleep for winter. Trying to keep them growing is not always the best idea. A plant with a large tuber made to grow all winter might use up that stored energy in its tuber to grow so at the end of winter you have a very small plant. But if the tuber was made to sleep you would have a large healthy tuber. So growing year round is not good to do with most bulb forming aroids. Many infact go dormant naturally. Thialand were many are from have a dry season and a wet season. Their wet season is our summers and the dry our winters.

So were to store the plants. The idea situation is a cool celler its humid dry and chilly. There are the things you need to find when stroing your tubers and plants. If their is no humidity and your plants dry rot you will have to add damp spaghnum moss or something similar to hold in the humidity. I have seen people do well with plastic containers with lids now if you put a tuber in their alone it will rot to death but with spaghnum it stays humid enough. The perfect temps would be between 40 and 55 f Most people use under the stairs or in the basement garage if it does not freeze or in the crawl space under the house. These plants do not need tons of heat during the winter they need to stay above freezing and no to hot or they will grow and burn up sugar.

Here is a list of what i think is easiest
Alocasia cuculata
Alocasia Macrorrhiza
Alocasia broneo giant
Colocasia esculenta common form
Colocasia chicago harliquin
Colocasia pink china will talk more about this one
Curcuma species all forms
Musa Basjoo zone 6 or 5 really tough
this is just a start. I will make a very cool list of things that are hardy to zone6 and maybe even higher.

Suggestion...You might want to start a new thread on Winter Aroid care.

On the winter hardy aroids.
What conditions outside? (sheltered by wall, open bed, etc...)
How much mulch?
Water protection?

Many/most here do not have a GH (I do) and many (myself included) don't have a heated garage or basement to let them go dormant.

I like Buck's idea of a Site for newbie and serious amateur Aroiders.
More a "how to care for" than a "what's what" .
Easy/Hard grows, etc..

From a sales standpoint it would boost sales of Aroids.

Ric

I can't thank you guys enough for this info. I was baffled last fall when I dug up 'Black Magic'l and there was no bulb; just a bunch of little roots for such a big plant. My attempt at overwintering it failed and the same with 'Illustris'. I posted questions on this topic early in the year and got some good ideas, but nothing like the light you're shining on it. Thanks, Neal.

And I like the new thread idea to!

i am in big love with your plants, your dogs, and your website! that has got to be the st.louis zoo! my sister has pugs and she wanted me to ask if you knew Mary Ann Hall from pug rescue. she lives in Kentucky, formerly of St.Louis. i have a million questions about cannas, but you are swamped at the moment, so i will just say Welcome to Dave's and i think we are pretty lucky to have you. debi ps. this is Winnifred

looks a lot like my other pug Mr Spock. Hes a bit older though I can tell. I may know Mary or I know a lady who has a lot of pugs and other pets that visits here a lot. She has a website. I will have to find it.

Jerry I would love to go out and eat and talk plants and other interest. Also I am up for any extra help I can get lugging all these plants back in. I have had people help before and as we did their are lots of extras. THANKS

Mr. Spock looks like my sister's old Lucy. she's gone now, but Winnifred and Beatrice are her new loves. don't you love it when they lie down like that? LOL debi

cool just let me know when you start digging and I might have to pay you back one day as in rock quarry dome lol who knows if we pull our money together in a year or 2 it might be doable. plus id love to live under that dome you really got me to thinking.

Jerry

Awww you know if you ever need someone to take Gerty and/or Spock off your hands...let me know. You know half the fun of visiting is the plants and the other half is those two. Gotta have my pug fix every once in awhile and they don't seem to mind either. : ) You wait. I'm gonna end up with a pug as soon as the privacy fence gets built.

Carla

What great ears you have brian......(you're not a ferengi from star treck by any chance are you???LOL) welcome to Dave's.....

Brian, I think you could easily have a band of slaves at your disposal for fall digging, all with our grubby little paws out for every little extra rhizome LOL!

Star Trek names for a whole series of hybrids would be great! Got any that would live up to 'Seven of Nine'!

LOL personally, i liked chakotay........I had a life sized cut out of him in my living room....you know, I never would have let my husband have one of 7 of 9......

Love your dogs and your plants!! Are you the big guy in the first photo??? You have some totally awesome things--just from the few photos you have posted so far!! WOW!! Wish I had land with plenty of space to fill with all kinds of things. As it is I have a good many EE and a few tropicals.

Bonnie

Thats me in the photo. My other hobby is workingout I go to the gym 4 days a week. I am weighing in about 200 and I bench 420lbs. From what they tell me at the gym 2 people out of a million can bench double their body weight. It took me years to do it but finally I have been able to.
I have been very proud that I can now do that maybe a bit to pround at times LOL.

Well--do what you like, eh?! hehehe That sort of thing is NOT for me but nothing wrong with it either if it makes you happy. The only thing is that you will have to keep it up the rest of your life. Once you stop you could end up kind of flabby!! hehehe Course you are young yet--but maybe you won't be as energetic once you hit 40?? hehehe Bonnie

Love your plants and arrangements!! WOW!! A good bit of work on that too, eh?!!

Bet it helps digging up those enormous ears and nanners!

Brian here is a picture of Eddy, he is 4.

Then here is Holly she is 5.

These are my 2pugdogs.

Linda

Nice to meet you Brian, look forward to seeing more!

Great to meet you Brian,

That's a super collection, look forward to seeing more.

welcome,
don

I saw the pictures on the site from smugmug looks more like florida not ky great nursery im going to have to do a road trip maby in the spring tho

sorry i meant carlab68 pictures

OK - I saw in another post that Brian has an eBay presence. Aroidgrower - Brian's Botanicals. I did the unthinkable, unspeakable and actually checked it out. Now I have to figure out how much I really want to spend, how much I can realistically spend and then have to decide on what to actually buy... THANKS!!! And I mean that sarcastically and sincerely.

imagine living 15 minutes away from him lol My colection has grown to around 30 different species and close to 300 plants and im still out there atleast once every week or so lol.
p.s. i also have close to 400 seeds that im germinating for the spring every thing from datura to ensete and everything in between. i cant wait till next year im hoping i wont have to cut grass lol.

D'OH!!!!!!! Dude, I totally forgot ... your seeds will be in the mail tomorrow morning. I have 'em packed, the envelope is sitting on my nightstand. (in my best Ren voice, "You eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'diot!")

Let me know what you think about the Lotus seeds when they get there. If they seem weak I can head back over to the Lotus fields across the river and clept some more! (to any of the employees of Lilypons ... please don't hate on me: 1) the cute young blonde there knows that I grabbed these, and #2) my checking account and credit cards kept your employer rather happy this year! That's gotta count for something, doesn't it? :o)

Oh, I believe some dagga seeds are in that envelope as well.

thats ok ill get youres out tommorow as well so weare both idiots lol

happy aroiding

Jerry

Is the Alocasia Borneo Giant the biggest EE you can buy?

Will you have more around next March?

Linda

Linda,
Alocasia robusta has the largest undivided leaves of any known plant in the world.
I think they rate BG second.

From what I'm reading BG is a much easier plant to grow, at least when real young.
I've not had A. robusta long but so far have had no problems w/ it.
I even have a second new leaf forming.
It needs to dry out between waterings.
BG you can just treat like a regular macro.

Ric

henry are you planning on putting your A. robusta in the ground next spring, or are you going to use a pot. I have a good place to plant one but can't decide what EE I really want. I know, I have all winter to think about it, and I also know I want one with really big leaves. This was my first summer with EE's and I have really fallen in love with them. I have about 6 different ones. I noticed you got a China Pink, I got one and it has been in the ground now for about 2 weeks, and it is really growing fast. I got one for my BIL and he received it today.
Thanks for the information.

Linda

I think I'll put all the big ones in the ground next year.
We've had a problem w/ it being very shady here.
We lost a big Maple out front so will finally have some pretty full sun to work w/.
I think the plain big A. macro and odora out there along w/ the Xanth's.
Their pups and 'Lutea', 'Borneo' and robusta in the sideyard.
We also have a small full sun backyard that we currently don't use.
The plan is a deck and hot tub.
I'll put a large growing circle or two in the deck.
That will probably be Brugs and Musa.

The China I'm thinking of putting out in the sideyard this Winter.
It's about 1/2 a zone warmer there.

We have a small bed right in front of the house.
It's covered by the roof overhang so gets very little water.
Our hardy Cactus love wintering there.
I'm going to try wintering 'Big Dipper' and some plain greens in it.
I have dozens of both so if I lose them it's no biggie.

Ric

It sounds great, and I love the ideal about the hot tub. I can't imagine sitting in a hot tub about 9:00 and relaxing and smelling Brugs. That would be something. Go for it.

Linda

Hello Brian and welcome to DG from Oklahoma! Yes, I'm always the late one....LOL, just like today. I'll be following your threads closely and enjoying every minute of your babies. You have so beautiful cannas that I have been admiring! I love aroids, but haven't ventured much farther than ears. Everything that I have here has to come in for the winter, so it's all stuck in pots. I'm hoping next year that I will get brave enough to stick some in the ground! Again.....welcome!!! :)

Brinda,
Do you have a name on that Trumpet Vine?

Ric

Hi Ric, it's just a plain ole' campsis radicans called flava. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/78853/index.html Extremely hardy and probably could NEVER be killed...LOL