Colocasia Species, Black Taro, Black Stem Elephant Ear, Violet Stemmed Taro

This has been a banner year for all of my elephant ears, but particularly the black stem -- in early spring it spawned an offshoot that's...Read More now nearly as large as the parent plant, and just yesterday (September 14) I noticed another shoot coming up about 20 inches away. The original plant also had several blooms this year. This is a very attractive plant, pretty care-free (basically all I've done is water it, feed it occasionally, and pull off the dead leaves), and a real asset to the garden.

Our black taro has done extremely well and we mix it into our landscaping. It does not necessarily have to live in wet, boggy areas. We...Read More have lots of keiki (baby) plants coming up in other areas as volunteers. I'm posting a photo of our black taro.

I'm from Zone 5, and my Black Stem was huge, and a great conversation plant. It had many babies. For my zone I cut it back to where the...Read More last leaf is just read to unfold. Removed the side shoots and just pot up and overwinter it in my basement, giving them enough water to live until spring. After danger of frost, they go back outside again.

This is what I've also done with 'Portadora' and all the rest of my babies - it's a bit more work but they will come back just as beautiful.

We have this Taro growing in our pond. Well, it used to grow in our waterfall, then it took over. What creeped outside the falls grew int...Read Moreo the surrounding soil and did well. It overwintered fine, and came back this year with no problems. I even dug several up and transplanted them around in different areas as well as giving some to family out of state. All are doing well, growing in the soil, in our heat. We love the tropical look that they give, and how carefree they are!