Colocasia Antiquorum

Picked up some tubers at Costco today.
What is the best way to plant it as a marginal in the pond?
Kittly litter? I bought some and I'm dying to try it because my DH is so skeptical! lol

Not a single reply? No help for a newbie ponder? sniff...

Have never heard of the plant you are describing. If you want to plant it in kitty litter get the kind in the red bag only found at walmart. I have not tried it yet, but have heard that it will indeed hold up in the water. All of the other ones will turn to mush and/or put undesirable chemicals into the pond. What kind of stuff do you have in your pond now?

Sorry, I'm trying to get in the habit of using scientific names for plants - it's an elephant ear. I've read it can be planted in shallow water, but I was wondering about specifics (how deep, etc.), as there are only three in the bag.

I did purchase that special walmart brand of kitty litter.

Thanks for the reply!

You need a stong healthy plant first, so whatever you do with it in the pond, you need to grow it out first.

Now, see - I haven't read that anywhere! Thanks azreno. So once we have it at a good size, we can put it in shallow water? Under water or just sitting in a pot in the water?

I haven't grown it in a pond, but since it isn't an actual pond plant I would say shallow water. That's why you need to grow it out first, too, because it's not actually a pond plant, but rather something that can have wet feet.

edited to add......same thing with cannas, which are so often labeled as a bog plant (except for true aquatic cannas), they need to be actively growing first with foliage and roots before going bog

This message was edited Apr 6, 2007 6:45 PM

And does the same apply to irises? We bought two LA Black Gamecock irises at WalMart, put them in the water as the package said, they started to grow, then poof! Nothing left now. All the water lilies did fine, so we were puzzled. The pond is doing fine now that it's recovered from our cold weather in January. We have lots of polliwogs, some snails, dragonflies, goldfish (no koi, it's a wildlife pond and we're not into making our herons gourmets!), rushes, watercress, hyacinths. Any wise words on trying again with the irises?

Thanks for your help, azreno.

Hmmmmm, I would have thought the irises would have been fine :(

OK, we'll try some more. We tried both slightly under water and in the bog - both failed. I'll try some from another source and see if they do better.

Hi Kaperc,
How are your water plants doing now? I have some tall bearded iris that I planted on the edge of the pond, it grew great last yr. also I have some yellow pond iris, it just gzrows and grows!! I also have some in containers!Also parrot feather, also some huge pots of Lotus in the pond, and after the canna has grown up a bit, I planted them in large pots of soil and clay in the pond :) I plan to make a few pond plant containers that float around on the top of the water!! Should be interesting.

Hi tootsie,
They are not doing great, but hanging in there. The pond is going through a rather green cycle right now, perhaps that is the reason. We've purchased more oxygenators and a lotus - they should arrive this week. The EE bulbs haven't shown any growth yet, and something is chewing on our lily pads! We only have small gold fish, could they be doing this damage? I need to post pictures.

However, the monkeyflowers are blooming and look very pretty, the pickerel has perked up some, and the papyrus is starting to grow. Oh, and the juncus and bulrush looks good. We had two LA irises, but they both seemed to have died (there was a small sign of growth, then poof!).

My husband wants a floating plant island, too. Sounds like you have a great pond there.

Kaperc do you still have the recipet for the iris. If you do bring them back to wal mart. All wal mart plants (and Lowe's) have a 1 year guarentee.

Really - do you have to take the dead plant, too?

Yes bring the dead plant or what's left of it and the receipt.

Thanks, TK. It will be kind of messy, but they'll have to deal with that!

Kaperc-I grow that Colocasia in my pond, it is sometimes called Illustris. Mine is in a large pot that I stick in the greenhouse during the winter although they are hardy in the ground here. After the pond warms to above 65F I stick the pot back in the pond for the season. They die back in the greenhouse because I go easy on watering & will be putting up new shoots before they return to the pond. My Illustris are placed out in the pond by sitting them on a milk crate with about 6" of water over the top of the pot. Very easy to grow.

Louisiana Iris seem to do better planted in the ground than in the pond. I grow quite a few varieties & after the first year many would not bloom again until taken out & planted. This year has not been a good year for my Louisiana's. Out of about 25 different varieties, only 6 or7 have bloomed. Many of them got their buds nipped by the late freeze. I'm hoping more will do something for me though in the next week or so They need to get busy & earn their keep. lol

Loretta

This message was edited May 10, 2007 2:46 PM

Loretta, thanks for your tips. My Colocasia is not growing yet. There's a little tiny green tip sticking up out of the pot, but it hasn't grown at all.

Just rec'd several LA Iris and planted some in the pond (which is where the grower had them) and a couple in the bog. Have to see how they do here.

Beautiful photo - is that yours? Gosh.

Yes on the photo, this was the Illustris in the pond last year. Thanks, photography is another one of my hobbies. You should be able to stick your plant it in your pond, especially in z10. They love water & grow fast.