It's contagious.....got me this year, too. Oh, well.. if it weren't aroids, it'd be something else. Darn bugs!

Darn, I started getting spots, and a fever.........it must be an airborne virus by now....I can see clinics popping up everywhere (I just hope we all don't get a calling from Nebraska--never mind, you had to be into Stephen King).

What does the unknown look like, Lisa. I got hit particularly hard this spring and summer. I like the colocasias and alocasias, and other weirdo aroids. So far, this summer, I have acquired:

A. plumbea nigra
A. wentii
C. Ruffles
C. esculenta Fontanesii
C. Illustris
C. gigantea 'Thai Giant'
C. esculenta 'Black
Resumatia Vivipara (hitchhiker EE)
Typhonium pedatisecta
Arisaema nepenthoides

Hey, if you guys want any of the tiny little tubers that are produced by Resumatia vivipara, I'd be happy to share. They're not quite ready yet, but as soon as they are....
I already have regular C. esculenta and A. macrorhiza.

Susan

Don't try to fight it, that will only make it worse.

The Alocasia is one of those very dark, shiny-leaved ones with prominent white veins and scalloped leaves.

Sounds like A. Amazonica or a hybrid of it.

Isn't it fun?

Susan

I was bitten by the aroid bug...then the bromeliad bug, then the succulents bug, and then agaves...seems there is no end.

I've been holding off on the alocasias but am tempted to jump in. The problem in my area is the softer fleshy types of plants tend to attract mites. It seems they kick up in warmer temperatures. Does anyone else have those problems?

Philofan, I am also in California and have trouble every year with aphids. If you have any suggests please let me know.

By the way, I got bit hard by the bug. I started with elephant ears and then found Amorphophallus. That is when I realized that counceling my be necessary. My collection grew from three species to over fifty. And that happened in only one year.

Anyone have a listing for a good doctor? :-) Here is a link to my Amorphophallus website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Amorphophallus

I was bitten first by the Species Tulip bug, then the Agave bug, then the Cactus bug, then the Kniphofia bug, then the South African Bulb bug and now finallly the Aroid bug...And that's just the recent bugs! I'm still also suffering from the antique bulb bug, the lily bug, the California Native Plant bug, the clematis bug, the bearded iris bug, the Colchicum bug, the Hellebore bug, the Hosta bug, the Japanese Maple bug, the Begonia bug, the growing-from-seed bug...

Ah HAH!
The almighty Aroid Bug!
It doesn't stop with just one genus of Aroid.....
I started with Arisaemas then it led to Pinellias then to Dracunculus, then to Arums, Amrophophallus, Helicodiceros and Aroid oddballs.........
Krazy Aroider

I didn't think it was legal to "advertise" on the forum?

Was I "advertising" something, or am I just in my normal state of confusion here?

Sorry - that was for another forum; my brain gets easily rattled.

My obsession has definitely been aroids this summer. But, I'm also a hosta-holic, hydrangea-holic, butterfly gardening-aholic, hibiscus-holic, big-leaved plantaholic, and anything unusual or rare.

Lisa, what kind of begonias do you grow? When you mention begonias, what comes to most people's mind, is the common bedding (semperflorens) begonias. There are some species semperflorens that I like, like cuculatta. I have the hardy evansiana in the ground, but would love to get 'Heron's Peroette" and others that they are finding to be much hardier than originally thought, including boliviensis.

Susan

I have been bitten by the same bug. Up until last week, I collected sansevierias (I have about 55 different types), orchids (about ten different types)and a few euphorbias. Went to a local orchid greenhouse nearby (Carter and Holmes, Newberry, SC), saw some alocasias and......ZING.

Came home with two alocasias and am looking forward to getting more...

Oh, now - sounds like you were in the same boat with me, Wankel! I have purchased 6 new alocasias and colocasias this summer, with no intention of stopping!

Are you anywhere close to Columbia?

Susan

>> Are you anywhere close to Columbia?

Yes. Too close : ) I live in Lexington.

C&H is having a sale next week. I'm going up and buying some more alocasias to go with the a. amazonica and a. cupra I bought from them last week.

susan, the begonias I grow are: tuberous (first year experiment, and it's going well), cane/angel wing, B. grandis (hardy) and B. boliviensis. Next year's plans include a bunch of species and shrub-like begonias plus whatever is being touted as hardy. Begonia 'Kaylen' didn't overwinter for me.

A quick question on Arum italicum: IF it goes on sale after Thanksgivine AND my soil is still unfrozen, would it be okay to plant them, or are they a late-summer/early-fall thing?

Wankel, Im not near Columbia but Ill probably be going up to the sale at CH this weekend. I live near Greenwood SC, it is only an hour or so from my house. I picked up a few this spring when they first came in (Alocasia bullata, Spathiphyllum floribundum 'mini' that they had labled as a Dieffenbachia, and some others.) Did they still have a pretty good selection of Aroids? Ive heard they had a quite good collection of Anthuriums and Philodendrons that the original owner had collected in Ecuador, but apparently they were thrown out when the guy died...literally! They still have a few collected Anthuriums here and there but they ask a little too much for relatively easy to find species. Maybe ill see ya there!
Michael M.

Yeah - on the source in Columbia. I may be moving there within the year.

Is Kaylen a hybrid of evansiana, or a thick-stemmed cultivar?

What/who is C&H?

Susan

Okay, Lisa that is a semperflorens begonia (similar to the bedding types). I have heard the boliviensis is hardier than thought. I don't grow tuberous because they don't like our heat. They are okay as annuals to grow in baskets in spring, but other than that, kaput!

I need to get my Illustris, Black Magic, and Fontanesii in the ground, or I'm going to have to overwinter indoors (no room).

Susan

Hehe. I share a home with my retired mother. I'm the planter-potter-digger-heavy lifter. She's the dead-header and weeder. Everything else in the garden gets shared pretty evenly (what little else there is).

Anyways, I'm definitely new to aroids, and I picked up Alocasia amazonica at Lowe's not too long ago. So today mom comes in from a shopping "spree" at the Grocery Outlet with Alocasia 'Polly' and the comment: "I know how much you love these ugly things and it was only $5.99..." I was thrilled, and scurried outside with the plant before she could catch me giggling.

My compulsive plant-buying is kind of a running joke between us.

Lisa, what a wonderful mom you have! Lowe's is where I picked up my Fontanesii (or it may be Metallica, I'm not sure yet), and Illustris, in 3-gallon pots for $15. Lowe's seems to get in many unusual plants that they have no clue to the identity. Mine were marked "caladiums". How general can you get?

They also had some syngoniums (giant; variegated and bronzy leaved ones), but I passed those up. I doubt I could winter over. Wish I had someone to deadhead for me. That is one of the hardest jobs when you have plants that flower constantly - like my salvias.

I hope you don't lift too many heavy bags, though. I bought my house 7 years ago, and began gardening the first summer in my home. I was lifting and carrying those 40 and 50 lb bags of soil amendments for the next 5 years. Then, the fun started with lower back pain - stenosis. Turns out that all that lifting caused what is commonly referred to as the "laborer's" or "farmer's" syndrome, from lifting those bags, digging those beds, and so forth. Just take care of your back.

Susan

Susan,

I'm still too young and dumb (at 46) to think about back pain. I did plenty of back-thrashing activity in my 20's and 30's when I enlisted in the Army. Lots of lifting heavy stuff and digging holes.

I do stiffen up more easily now, but I found the trick is to do all the hard work in a flurry of activity, then go for about a 30-min. stroll to un-kink. Works like a charm. The ONLY place that I can't seem to un-kink is my butt--a long hard weekend gardening leaves me feeling like I'm sitting on cantaloupe-sized boulders even when I'm standing up!

I'll count myself lucky that my butt muscles take the bulk of the strain--I never heard of someone crippled with butt pain!