Bringing in the beast

I tried to personally grow some Amorphophallus Paeonifolius as large as possible. A friend in Florida had one around 10 ft tall with two giant trunks a foot thick. Mine are not that big in the peak of summer they were around 7 feet but as they prepare for winter I find they usually shrink as the tuber tires to get as much out of the stem and leaf as possible before going dormant. I am currently growing 5 huge tubes of this and tons of small ones. The larger tubers are about half the size of a basket ball if you were to cut it down the middle. I have at least two flower every year.

Here is a odd Xanthosoma I got this from a friend in Ecuador who said it was a natural hybrid he called palmafer. I asked a few experts it seems no one has ever heard of this name or seen this plant before. It looks like a bit like volaceum in that it has some purple in the stems but it also produces a light orange to yellow color in the stems. The leaves also tend to cup and get huge. I hope to have a friend grow it out and see how large it can get.

My workers were wanting to show off the leaves. They seem to like the front of the camera a bit to much.

Here are my seedlings from my Alocasia Macrorrhiza X Amazonica. I have released two plants out of this batch Alocasia Brian Williams and Alocasia posidens spear. I have a few others that I may release in small quantities in the future a few forms are being tested if they can handle the heat better than the original BW. Many look similar but if you look in the photos you will see some leaves are longer and some have no maroon under the leaves. All of them are in some way different.

We brought in three carts of these hybrids.

This is one of my newer hybrids it should also be a large grower with a sheen to the leaves and some white veins. All of the seedlings have stripped stems and some sheen to the leaves some look very like they may make very interesting plants in the future.

I am truly impressed by your green thumb and georgious pictures. I am new to this forum, and have been blessed by your pictures. They are truly georgious Brian.

Have you got a greenhouse big enough for everything, I"ve seen pics of your yard, and seems you have to dig up quite a bit don'tyou?

kathy_ann

Just gorgeous, Brian. Helpers, not bad either. Looks like they were having fun....

We have 6 greenhouses one is not heated and stays about zone7. One other is heated to about 34 and the rest stay from 50 to 70f. One part of the larger greenhouse is kept very dry for Amorphophallus Caladiums and many gingers. Two of the newer greenhouses have constant misting and stay fairly warm. This is more for Anthuriums Philodendrons and many of the aroids. I am building some shorter frame houses for the cannas which will stay a little above freezing this is manly for my new hybrid cannas that I hope to be releasing next season.

Awesome, God those paeonifolius got Huge!

What a job, beautiful plants.

Well done Brian and friends
I guess you'll be kept busy all winter too. What's the oldest plant that you have that's been overwintered every year. Does the over wintering eventually take a toll on the plant or do they have the same results as one that's left in the ground in a suitable climate.

I have over wintered Colocasia pink china for 9 year with and with out mulch it gets to 4 to 6 feet tall each year and multiplies like mad. I have also had Musa Basjoo out 7 to 8 years and it does well here if mulched. Colocasia big dipper Colocasia gigantea have both been out 4 years with mulching. I have a few other that have made it out for a few winters protected.

I just love these giant plants! They are amazing!

Wonderful inspiring tubers on that paeoniifolius!

We tried overwinter Musa basjoo here in PA (zone 6b) using styrofoam coolers filled with mulch bark but lost them both. Luckily, I kept the 3rd one in the greenhouse. Where did I go wrong? Thanks so much. I would love to try growing some of the hardier aroids in PA. Any suggestions would be really appreciated. Judy Showers (Buttoneer)

In our area we winter basjoo two ways.
I cut mine off at about 18" pile on about 12" of maple and oak leaves then throw the basjoo leaves on top of that.
My neighbor cuts them off at slightly above ground level and just throws the basjoo leaves on top.
We're both in our 3 year w/ them now.

Ric

I think some people kill the basjoo by over doing some things. The problem is using styrofoam might catch a lot more water than if you just used leaves or hard wood mulch. Here is how I do mine. I get black bags of leaves and make a circle around the plant and sometime go up about 2 or 3 bags or so. Then fill in the whole circle with leaves as high as I can go covering up as much as the trunks as possible. If your plant is fairly large you still may have some life to it under the ground tubers could still be fine.

Ok, great, I will try that this summer. My remaining basjoo in the greenhouse is making "pups" hooray. I guess the same goes for hardy aroids too, huh? Thanks for the info. BTW, how do you keep the wind from blowing the leaves all over kingdom come?

This message was edited Feb 11, 2007 9:46 PM

Hi, do you have a website? Also if you have a nursery, where is it located? I don't post much on Tropical but I do enjoy all the pics and reading about them. I am planning a trip to Louisville in April.
Thanks,
Teresa

Go to Brian's Homepage which you can access by clicking on his name Teresa.

Ric

Teresa if your in Louisville do stop in. I have a lot of plants and I try to have things no one else does. My breeding of cannas colocasia and many other plants produce some very odd and new things. Their is not much that we dont grow.

Thanks, hopefully I can Mapquest your place and find it. My sister lived in Louisville years ago and she may be with us.