These are my notes on my first full year of dealing with my EE's, including last year's overwintering. Still I'm looking for additional overwintering tips, especially for the black EE's, of which I have quite a few. As you can see from the 'time lapse' picture series below, our Elephant Ears did pretty well this year. Once the weather here in Ohio heated up (mid 80's), the EE's added approximately 4 feet of growth during the month of August. After a frost last night (October 28), they now look awful and I'm digging them up and heading them to the basement. This will be the 2nd winter I'll be attempting to overwinter them. While I was successful with overwintering last year, I'm still hesitant that I will do something wrong. I'll describe what I did last year and any additional hints and tips would be much appreciated. The large plant pictured below was very simply, dug up and the clump put into a pot and placed in our basement which gets very little light. I watered them pretty regularly for a while but they declined until I got lazy (plus the mites set in) and quit watering and they completely dried out. Come spring they started putting up some shoots even though they were bone dry, presumably from all the energy stored in the corms. When it warmed further, the clump (and two others) was moved outside where it grew into the monster pictured. (it, and the other two, ended up about 7 feet tall with a 3 foot base and maintained about 60-70 leaves all year, with the largest leaves reaching about 5 feet long) I feel that just letting it dry out will be the way to go this year. However, I have concerns about the approximately 70 other smaller EE plants (especially the approx. 40 black plants) I have. They have been growing in pots in standing water rather than in the ground like my regular EE's. From the other posts, I'm afraid that my black EE's will suffer or die if they dry out. I do have to add that last year I had about 20 small black EE's (a couple varieties) that I carried into the basement which got the same treatment as the large green Colocasia's (watered for a while then let dry out). I did get a pretty decent number that died but still quite a few that sprung back up once they were taken outside once the weather warmed. I don't want to lose half because I have a larger number this year. Quite simply, should they be kept moist all winter even in the low-light conditions? I'll probably have more to add but this is already long so I leave it here for now. Thanks everyone.

Usually, PLs are divided instead of repotted, but either can be done. First, your tree is not going to die if you can purge your thought process of the idea wilting means the plant needs more water. Have faith in the idea that plants in a damp/moist medium will always be able to take up water more efficiently than plants in a wet/soggy medium. The recovery will take 1 of 3 paths. 1) New growth will stop and the leaves will remain in a wilted condition for a period of time until enough new roots are generated to meet the top's moisture needs, Soon after the plant regains turgidity (stops wilting) it will resume growth. 2) Many leaves will die due to the fact a lesser volume of roots isn't going to be able to meet the moisture demands of the pot, which will cause the plant to literally wall off the leaves to prevent further moisture loss, or 3) you could remove at least half of the existing leaves to easy the o/a demand for water. If you do that, concentrate on removing the oldest leaves. If you look very carefully. You'll see the younger leaves are attached to the crown above or closer to the center than attachment point of older leaves. Resume fertilizing when you see the plant pushing new growth. Al

All aroids produce tubers. In horticulture the three terms tuber, bulb and corm are used interchangeably but there are scientific differences. I've seen all sorts of aroids sold as "bulbs" and corms but the science books say otherwise. I'll do my best to keep this simple but some of the explanation is tough. A tuber, bulb and a corm are all stems. Most people think of the stem as the support of a leaf but that part is called a petiole. Leaves are technically made up of two parts, the petiole and blade. Some people find it confusing when they read a scientific text and find "the stem is the support of the leaf". That is technically true but only if you understand the petiole is part of the leaf. A stem is the support of the plant. The definition would go something like this: The base, central axis and main support of a plant normally divided into nodes and internodes. The nodes often produce a leaf in the axil of which they produce roots and hold buds which may grow into shoots of various forms. The stem's roots anchor the plant either to the ground, a tree or to a rock. A stem may even spread as a repent rhizome creeping across the soil. May either grow above ground, underground or partially above the soil. Specialized stem forms are called a corm, tuber or bulb. A bulb is an underground storage structure used to store starches and water. A bulb is a condensed stem usually with a basal plate and fleshy storage leaves surrounding the bud that will form the next plant. It is composed of thick modified leaves arranged in layers that are used for food storage. If you want to see the inside of a bulb slice open an onion since an onion is a perfect example. The term bulb is used far more commonly in horticulture but should is not used in relationship to an aroid, at least by a scientist. Most people probably won't but if you did you could see an onion is not like the tubers that grow from an aroid. A corm is similar to both a bulb and a tuber but still different. The corm is an underground stem to which the above-ground parts of the plant may die back in the dormant season. It often stores starch and when it regrows foliage will come from the top and roots from the base like a typical stem. There are no true examples of a corm in the aroid family. My friend and scientist Christopher Rogers wrote the following to further describe a corm: "a corm is composed entirely of stem tissue. It is literally just an underground stem. It has an epidermal layer, a vascular cylinder with phloem and xylem and central pith. A corm can also be a starch storage organ, but it still has true stem tissue. This is why a corm has the new foliage growth coming from the top and the roots coming from the base. Corm examples are Crocus, Cyclamen and Gladiolus." Define phloem and pith The xylem is a plant tissue of various cells that is capable of transporting water and other substances including mineral salts to the leaves. A tuber is a strongly condensed stem as well as an underground structure which is almost entirely a starch storage organ. The buds for future growth and the roots all develop at the apex (top) when the tuber sometimes forms as the tip of a stolon. Stolons are stem runners or stem shoots that run atop or just under the ground from a plant. Stolons possess the ability to produce new plants from the buds along its length or at the apex (tip). Christopher explains further, "A tuber is just parenchyma (with some vascular tissue). It has an epidermal layer with some subdermal vascular tissue, and all the rest is parenchyma." Parenchyma is the primary tissue of most plants which is composed of the thin cells which form the bulk of leaves, roots and other plant parts. He continues with his explanation of a tuber, "It is almost entirely a starch storage organ. This is why the foliage and the roots all come from the top. Most plants with tubers have them borne on stolons, but that is not necessary. In Amorphophallus, Arum and Typhonium for example, the stem tissue is all encased in the small bud at the top of the tuber. That bud grows upward into a leaf or two, and outward into roots, with the tuber beneath. Other tuber examples are potatoes and Sinningia." Xylem is a network of hollow cells found in a plant's vascular system that transports water and soluble nutrients collected by the roots. Sorry to be technical, and I suppose there is nothing wrong with calling a tuber a corm or bulb but if you talk to a scientist they will likely frown if you use the wrong term.

Oh dear, guilty!! I am signed up to do two craft shows this summer--my first--so I have been busy making as much inventory as I can. It's all the same flowers, mushrooms and pendants you've all already seen so I haven't wanted to bore folks with more posts. Although...in the middle of it all, I'm making a cat. This will be for me. I've learned that in the process of making things to sell, I need to remember me or it will just become a second job. And at the same time, when I have popped in, most of the questions being asked are on subjects better suited for other experts on this forum. So I have been a guilty lurker! Silva, your torso is gorgeous! Looking forward to seeing it with the antler. Mr. Kat: