looks good to me. maybe you can turn in some new soil and fertilizer around the plant. since is seems happy i wouldn't disturb it. definitely post some picture after it has being growing. look impressive already.

Thanks, dirtface,

I suppose I'll mound up some compost around it, now that the weather is starting to warm up. See how the tip is turning brown? Will a new leaf just burst right up through that, or do I need to do something? And what about the round bump on the side, what's that for?

I wish I could find my photos from last summer. The leaves were 3 feet wide and 4 feet long. It was a traffic stopper in my front yard! I can't wait to see what it does this year.

Good gracious!!!! That is beautiful. What did you do to get it to grow like that. I have one I got from NSE and it is about to die. One wilted leaf and thats all. Mine is in the greenhouse but I don't go over 50 at night mostly around 44-46 degrees.

The round spot on the side? It is trying to make a new puppy :) I would build up a mixture of leaf mold or find pine bark mixed with sand around the rhizome and keep moist. They cannot take the cold weather here in Dallas unless the entire rhizome is above ground level for good drainage.

The brown tip? I think either too much direct sun or too low relative humidity. Warm with intense sun, but only 25% relative humidity here today. I had to put up the shade clothes and flood the greenhouse floor. This is no big problem, they will recover on their own when the southerly Gulf winds return.
This is a fun plant to grow and worth some extra effort!, and I think much easier to grow in Z9 South Louisiana than Z7 Texas
Good luck
Keiko

Cactus & Keiko, thanks,
you have all reassured me that things are alright with my big baby. Cactus, I tried to not let it get below 55 on the cold nights, it usually stayed more like 68. I built a frame and double layered it with plastic dropcloths, then tucked a digital thermostatic control electric heater under there with it. I just had to be careful to turn off the heater and open the plastic on sunny days.

I can tell my family thinks I'm a bit nuts to baby this plant like I do. They're more of a farming mentality than a gardening bunch. But this plant gives me so much joy in the summer that I think its worth it. When I got it from NSE, I was also skeptical about its small size. But I practically shoveled heat, light, and fertilizer down its 'throat' and it couldn't help but grow. My hubby would make comments related to that big plant from Little Shop of Horrors. "Feed Me!"

I have a small koi pond. When I do water changes and filter cleaning, I water my plants with that water. All the sludge from the bottom of the filter box would go directly on top of the borneo's soil. Yum-Yum!

Keiko, I hope its trying to make a baby! It made 2 babies last year, one of which I traded to another gardening friend. I hope it will get even bigger this year because its starting with a huge bulb, wheras last spring there was hardly a bulb at all.

I'll go right now and mound up some yummy stuff around the bulb. I was a little worried about the effects of bright direct sunlight on it.

Again, thanks!

Bridget,

If it were my plant, I would be prepared to heap some loose loamy leaf mold around and covering the entire stem (technically, that is what it is), up to and partially covering the growing shoot. The reason I would do this is because you may get a constricted area where the old leaves came off when the plant starts growing again (and it will, with a vengeance!). A whole lot of new roots will emerge from the stem wherever you have it covered and moist, and you will also increase the probability of new pups coming out.

I got a Borneo Giant last year around May and I should have put it in the ground, but did not until this January, and it is now blooming for me. Of course my pollen brush is busy at this time of year. Although I have pics of most all of my other plants, I do not have pics of the plant online yet at the Aroidia Research site (except for a pic of the inflorescence) because I want to wait until my plant really rockets up there (which should be only a month or so!!).

You may very well see blooms on yours when it starts up this Spring.

My best to you,
LariAnn Garner
Aroidia Research

Here is a link that might be useful: Aroidia Research

Taffyj, I would love to see some more pics of your baby. I have a tiny one from eBay, and I think I have seen just about every BG pic out there(not many). Keep us posted! That pic of the bulb makes me drool! (Kind of sad, isn't it?)

Update: Two months after my first posting...

It still has not begun growing new leaves. It has been covered with a nice fluffy black mix of compost and then topped with mulch for nearly 2 months. I finally couldn't resist today, so I brushed back the mulch and compost to check on it. It is still very healthy looking and very firm. Some of the bud spots I covered with compost a few months ago seem more swollen than I remember them. We are having a very dry spring here, which is unusual. So, I have resumed watering with the old pond water and fish filter gunk.

Temps here are in the 60s and 70s at night now, and the day temps are in the 70s and 80s. I think it is preparing to do something. I keep thinking with a rhizome that size, surely it will do something soon. Maybe it lost some of its roots this winter and is growing more. Maybe instead of shooting up from the main stem, it is thinking about sending up a bunch of pups. I don't think its just sitting there dormant. It 'feels' like its gearing up for something.

Obviously I'm anxious for it to begin doing ANYTHING! I don't think I've ever been this impatient for a plant to return. It's not like I haven't got a hundred other plants, but this one is special to me. So, there will certainly be a pic when it finally gets going. And I hope to post one later in the season, too, to show progress.

Impatiently waiting...

When the temps get to 70s at night and 80s during the day (consistently), you'd better get ready because that's when these guys really take off. Mine has just gone into gear (even though I'm in south south Florida, the temps have held in the 60s at night and 80 in the day, and that has slowed things down a bit). A few days we had where temps were in mid to upper 70s at night and upper 80s in the day, and my plant grew noticeably during that period.

Now it has just put out the largest leaf it ever has, and another coming on; this is going to be a monster this year, I can tell. Yours will be impressive once the soil warms up well, I'm sure (soil temp is at least as important, if not more important, than air temp for these guys).

Patience pays. . .
LariAnn Garner

Here is a link that might be useful: Aroidia Research - Alocasia Borneo Giant page