Hey plantman! Maybe we can try again on a trade? I too suffered very heavy loses in my EE collection! I still have a decent amount of some, others only a few and many seem entirely gone. :( Email me so we can start over, I have jacks giant, it gets big, not sure what else I have that gets MASSIVE but I do have some others I can share, I'll check ur list now! Mori- I can't really offer anything now, but if you will email this fall I'm should I'll sure I could send you some EE for postage!

Hi Wesley. Here in Atlanta we've had more cold spells than usual for a spring. My plain old colocasia esculanta elephant ears have been trying to explode for over a month, now. They keep getting nipped back. They were at least 8 feet tall last year. My colocasia 'Illustris' next to a west-facing brick wall of our house are beginning to put up small leaves. It's a later-than-usual start for them. You're a bit colder than we are here, so I'm not surprised yours are taking their time waking up. By July I'm sure both of us will have our jungles in their full glory. One thing I've found that helps a lot in over-wintering subtropicals that I leave in the ground is to only cut them back to a foot or two in the fall once the first frosts get to them. I used to cut them flush with the ground, but leaving a foot or two of stalk has really made a difference in more severe winters. I don't get nearly as much die-back. This works for my large elephant ears and my hymenocalis "Tropical Giant", which gets 4ft tall and 6ft across. Of course, in 6b Wichita you probably need to dig everything unless you have a sheltered microclimate.

I have had no problem with my EE's this summer.They are all potted on my deck in huge planters. I have 2 huge Eleana's,both having been overwintered as plants in my house. I have a giant Black Stem (or violet stem?) EE that flowers continously, as well as an Illustris that also flowers. My problem is that I want to overwinter all these dormant, as bulbs, but a few years ago I unpotted an Eleana and there was only a mass of roots. Nothing to clean off and store. I am afraid to unpot the Black stem or illustris as I might find the same problem. Also, I have several huge Jack's Giants that I had to buy new this year-because last fall, I unpotted one from it's tub, and after an hour or so of cleaning and trying to find a bulb, I assumed there was one somewhere in the mass, I let it dry outside for a week or so, then stored it in a milk crate in my basement. It was fuzzy and rotten by spring. How can I overwinter Illustris and Eleana and violet stems as dormant bulbs??

I cut mine down BEFORE frost. I wash all the dirt off and store the tuber/bulb in a paper bag in my basement. Since I live in a cold climate I start them under grow lights in early April. By the end of May when I plant them out, I have a decent sized plant and can get them established much faster. One great tip I learned is to leave a 6" stalk on the bulbs when cutting off the foliage. This way you'll know next year how to plant them and can easily tell which is the top and which is the bottom of the bulb.