Vossner: Your yard/garden is just lovely! I'm amazed at your Monstera's! I bet mine would grow a lot larger and faster if I put it in the ground! I didn't take time today to plant the little one, but will definitely do it tomorrow! I have a shady corner in the back yard under some trees that will be the perfect location! I am curious as to how it fares over the winter. Of course, we've had really mild winters the past few years. It's very unusual for us to have extremely cold temperatures for more than a few hours. It's depressing when everything looks really good and then we have one hard freeze that knocks everything back to the ground .... then we have to wait a few months for the plants to recuperate and get back to looking good again! I guess I shouldn't complain though. I don't know how folks in the far north survive those long, dark, cold winters!
I really like that plant you refer to as Illustris ... never heard that name before. I just know those plants as Elephant Ears .... at least I'm assuming that is an EE cultivar?
Deb: Your Illustris is really gorgeous too. I might just have to look for one of those to put in my yard! Hey, I live in a tropical climate, might as well plant some more tropical looking plants! Only question: Do these things spread a lot .... can they be invasive at all, taking over? I'm trying to stay away from a lot of things that take over the yard! How would they do in containers??
Thanks for posting your great photo's!
Two Monstera questions
plantlady, dmail me.
I was wondering about that too Lin. The Illustrus is terribly invasive here and I have been wondering how you keep yours in check Nery? Deb is a bit cooler than I am and that probably keeps hers within bounds.
hmmmm.........well..........because I like the dramatic effect, I don't mind it getting BIG. I wouldn't necessarily call it invasive because despite its size, 1) it doesn't choke out other plants and 2) it doesn't appear in places where I don't want it. Does that make sense?
Mine are planted in moist areas of my garden, sun and shade. This year's rains have made them quite lush but it also makes them easy to yank out for thinning purposes.
Lin: It's Colocasia esculenta "Illustris", aka Imperial Taro, if my memory is working. It does tend to spread, but like Vossner, I find it easy to control. It may be the slightly colder winter keeps it from getting to the point of "invasive", as Ardesia says. (I find that EE Black Magic tends to spread more vigourously for me than Illustris.)
Deb
Vossner your monstera and philo are to die for. Im so afraid to put these types of plants in the ground and I live in a warmer climate than u. I have everything in pots; huge ones. I wish I could take the chance and stick them in the ground. It would save me alot of work cramming them into the gh or covering them.
Isn't it interesting what is invasive for one is well behaved for another. My Fontanesi (is that Black Magic?) rarely moves and I would love it to. The other ones like Illustris and Esculenta can easily travel 100' here. I find them everywhere and it is usually where I do not want them.
that amazes me all the time. And ditto about Black Magic, have bought/received a number of times and it doesn't want to thrive here, at least not like Illustris.
That's so odd! My Black Magic that are in part shade spread. New ones pop up as much as 10 ft away (100 feet! I can't imagine.) The Black Magic I have in sun, have not spread but they grow REAL big. Perhaps my Ilustris doesn't spread out far because the really nice boggy soil is a limited area. In fact, there's a concrete walkway between it and any other beds or the lawn.
Deb
My black magic did not do well this year, and I figured out that the soil (superhard red clay) was too compacted for it to grow well even though it got plenty pf water. As soon as I ameneded the soil, it's spreading now.
Wonder if that has anything to do with the differences sited?