I just love this plant. The foliage emerges with brownish tints that mature to slates and grays. Takes forver to break dormancy!It loves wet feet. These are growing in a plastic plant saucer.
Colocasia affinis var. jenningsii.
But even after the browns fade to grays, you can still see the brown when the light shines through. Nifty.
They're supposed to form bulbs, but all I had this spring was stringy rhizomes. I put them in water for awhile: nothing happened, maybe it was still too early. I planted them in potting mix and they eventually got going.
Mmmmmmm.
Robert.
Very cool, Im starting to develop a little collection of colocasias, Ill have to add this to the list. i have yellow splash and miranda so far and a couple I havent ID'd yet.
Robert, that is a very nice colocasia...I think I have to have one! lol
Have you thought about not letting it go dormant-keeping it in a sunny spot inside to see what it does?
tigerlily123~
Alas, this one goes to sleep regardless!
Last year, the first year I grew it, I didn't know anthing about about at all. A friend gave me a start and didn't say what it was. So when the cooler temps of fall came, I took it in and placed it by a window. Well, little by little, it went "downhill"; I thought I was killing it.
I'd dig around a bit, and see healthy "runners", so I'd just keep it only lightly moistened, on the dryish side.
So in the spring when my other Colos and Alos woke up, this one didn't. I unpotted it and discovered all the healthy spaghetti-like roots and put them in water and so on as I first posted.
So, affinis will sleep through the winter and then some, making it's return all the more welcome. I'm talking June even!
Robert.
Robert
Absolutely wonderful.........................wamt to have a start ..................thanks for the tips. This plant love wet feet.
Kaleem
Kaleem~
It is fairly hardy in the ground here, so you'd have no trouble at all with it outdoors in your zone.
Just a note: Though for me, it goes dormant, I'm not saying that in a tropical setting it would do so as well. It sounded as though I knew for a fact, that it ALWAYS goes dormant, which I don't. Maybe another DGer could add to that.
Robert.
Tigerlily123~
Maybe I was too hasty in my post about it's dormancy.......
Now that I know they really like the water, I'll keep mine quite moist when I've taken them in and see if they continue to grow. I may have forced their dormancy last year by cutting back on the water as their vigor waned, causing more waning, spurring more cutting back, etc.
I was going by what I had read on the Plant Delight's site and Tony said they go dormant just before frost, but that refers to outdoor planting, so ...........
Robert.
This message was edited Aug 19, 2006 2:28 PM
They will be ever green in a tropical climate. But should be hardy zone 7 or higher out doors. The biggest problem I have seen in once grown indoors and they do dormant the following season most people throw them away because they do not produce large tubers and some cases hardly any tuber at all. I have had hundreds come back from small runners in the soil that are very hard to find. So once you think its dead it returns.
I think I likes it!, another to my list. Your pics are great.. I really dont know where I'm going to put all these wonderful plants... mmmm looks like I'm going to have to open up a new yard for garden..
Viv
Brian~
So true about it coming back from even tiny pieces. I put a few teeny-tiny bits in humusy ground just to see, and they came up and are thriving. I must have dropped some pieces on top of the ground along the way, cause I'm finding them where I didn't plant any.
The only bulb-like formations I recall, were mere swellings along the rhizomes. reminded me of Lily of the Valley pips.
Thanks for clarifying the dormancy question. I thought you'd know. You are good!
Robert.
I know what you mean, Viv.
Joining DG has really expanded my plant collection as well as my mind. Yay, DG!!!
Robert.
ditto
viv
Those are nice. Mine are not that spread out yet. Do you dig up that whole clump before each frost?
No need to dig it, it's planted in a "Terra Pot" (I think that's the name) saucer. I'll just take the whole thing in.
But----Plant Delights Nursery gives the hardiness as 8 (I'm 7b), so I could just cover with leaves or mulch and it would be OK here, I think. This one spreads by rhizomes on top of the soil, so they would benefit from a little cover, possibly throwing some more soil on top in the fall.
Robert.
I need to do that. Thanks for the info. I never noticed the rhizome on top! I am way too busy it seems to even smell the flowers anymore.
Wow and wow again! I can't believe you got all those from a start last year! It must have been a good start, my Col Illustris is growing but only just putting on a 'little' weight.
The Aloc. Purpley has made a couple of white roots (I found out!), it has a new growth point but that's as far as it has got!
You must be doing something right!
I'm surprised too, Wallaby1. As I said at the top, there were no tubers at all, just "spaghetti roots". (Actually they were thinner, more like linguine....)
So when they got going and just flourished, I was vey happy. There's really 2" (5cm) or less soil in the saucer. The saucer had a crack across the bottom so it was recycled. I don't think I'd have put a hole in it to use for this purpose if it wasn't already broken. A friend of mine saw it and said she does the same thing and for cuttings, seeds, rhizomes that need constant moisture and not a lot of soil depth, the saucers are great.
They say that jenningsii gets up to 18" (46 cm) but mine are only about half that. They would be doing better in deeper soil.
forevereden~
If I was going to try to keep this lot over winter, I would have planted them in the ground in a very rich soil. I'll cover the few I have in the ground with a touch more soil for winter. If those do well, I'll prolly plant all of them in the ground next summer.
BTW: Plant Delights Nursery has a new plant this fall which looks an awful lot like this one. It's Colocasia heterochroma 'Dark Shadows' and is rated zone 7b. It hails from China and the text says it's 6-8" tall and spreads by short underground rhizomes.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Fall/page24.html
At the bottom of the page.
Robert.
Colocasia heterochroma is almost exact opposite of affinis just the reverse on the leaves it grows almost identical to affinis. Fallax is very similar they all different species but I would not be suprized if they were later put in the same group.
Raydio is that as big as the plant gets?
I want one of Toneys huge leaf one. Hope he has it at open house Sept. 8th.
Lavina
LavinaMae~
Both are on the small size as far as Colos go. Tony has some that will grow HUGE, but not with the same leaf coloration.
Wish I could go to the open house. Take your camera!
Robert.