Ohh, you all are fascinating! I wish the catalpa 'Aurea' at Forest Farm was much cheaper and I'd place my first order! I did pick up a ribes odoratum at a garage sale/plant sale last year. It's 4 ft tall and was $2.- Yeah I'm going back to find more values in the spring! I did take advantage of a co-op again this year with woodthrush (GW) and bought over 50 lilium bulbs for about $70 Orienpets are lovely!If they do the right plants at the co-op for Walter's Gardens I will put in an order for perennials too. I also placed my first order with Thomson Morgan seed as they had a $10 and NO minimum order offer with the last catalog. I also purchased seed from Valueseeds? seeds very cheap, and recommended at the Tom Clothier website. I am hoping to buy unusual aroids from lariann's personal collection this spring(GW) Jackson and Perkins has a nice metal trellis set I'm eyeing.... And if the stinkin'!! snow clears up by then( 10 more inches today!) I'd like to drive all the way to Madison this weekend for the giant garden expo and see what all the vendors have to offer. Tickets are $6-7 for a day of talks and all. It would be a nice break to think green instead of white...... Karen

Hi Albert, I remember a thread about this from a few weeks ago. Just a few questions. 1. Why are you using coco-peat? Peat in any form will use up most of the available oxygen in an enclosed space, and these seeds need a lot of oxygen when geminating. Peat also gives off carbon dioxide when its breaking down, especially at higher temperatures, and this can suffocate sensitive seeds. You would be much better off with just pure perlite to get them going, as I have great success with this species using that method. 2. What temperatures are the seeds experiencing? They should not be allowed to go below 19°C [66°F] or much over 30°C [86°F], as this will affect germination. Are you also allowing some fresh air into the bag each day as I suggested in the older post? 3. Are your seeds still firm, and healthy looking? 4. How wet were they when you put them in a container? If you followed all the instructions from the older thread, and the seeds were fresh, they should all have germinated by now. Is there anything that you have done differently besides growing them in coco-peat that might have affected them? Regards, Neil

Hi, Rockyn! I'm just a few miles North of you in OKC. There is another member who is in Dallas and I'm sure they will respond also. I have purchased some of my EEs from Plant Delights. CHeck them out at www.plantdelights.com. They have alocasias, colocasias, and xanthosomas, too. They also have the big Mr. Stinkies - amorphophallus that some of us like, too, and a few other aroids. Another good site to check out is www.aroid.org. You can see lots of pictures of different kinds. A&B Tropicals and Asiatica also sell them online. I have been lucky and a few trips to Lowe's and Home Depot have yielded a few like Alocasia plumbea nigra, Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic', Colocasia esculenta 'Illustris', and Colocasia esculenta 'Fontanesii'. From PD I have purchased Colocasia 'Ruffles', and 'Thai Giant'. I also have Alocasia macrorhiza that I bought as a tuber labeled "upright EE". Black Magic, as name indicates has black foliage. It needs a bit of sun so the leaves will remain black. Otherwise it reverts to green. Illustris is a green/black mottled leaf; fontanesii is a puplish-black-green leaf. As a rule, Alocasia leaves point upwards, and colocasia leaves droop. Xanthosoma I am not too sure what sets it aside in another class; I'm sure someone else will pop in and 'splain it. Thai Giant can eventually get leaves about 5' across; probably not in my garden, but it will be large, very large. There are also some alocasias/colocasias will yellow mottling in the leaves. One that I have recently purchased was Alocasia lutea. The veins and stems are yellow - it is gorgeous. Others like Hilo Beauty and Nancy's Revenge have yellow markings as well. Sometimes you just get lucky at HD or Lowe's or at your local garden center, or making trades with others. But, as I just started, it's difficult to make trades until you have enough stock. Some or most can be wintered over in the ground - that I have anyway. Happy Aroid Growing..... Susan

Alocasia are easy to overwinter as dormant "tubers", but they are difficult to keep growing indoors where conditions are poor. If you have a cool, dark place (cellar, garage) then the tubers can be stored like potatoes until planting time in the spring. Colocasia gigantea are trickier because they do not form a tuber like other species. What I do is bury them in large pots outdoors, and then in the fall I cut back all but the newest leaf, dig out the pot, and store the entire rootball in the garage. With Alocasia you can do the same, but it is easier to let a light frost kill the foliage, then you can cut back the leaves and dig out the plant and let it dry for a few days. Then trim off dead roots and foliage, and store the tuber in a box of barely moistened mulch, perlite, or vermiculite. Both of these need lots of room and very bright light to be successful indoors. It is tough to get good light indoors without artificial supplementation, but at that point it is not worth the expense in my opinion. These plants grow so fast that there's no need to preserve them indoors.