My guess it that it probably doesn't get enough sunlight indoors. The green leaves may revert or not, I doubt they will last that long, but the new leaves will grow out dark purple outdoors next season if you overwinter it successfully.

My father's does this every year. In early spring the leaves are a combo of greens and black--beautiful. They turn darker as the sunlight increases.

4 year old Black Magic, wintered over 3 times indoors as houseplant. Big leaves die off, replaced by small mostly green ones, but starts up very quickly when put back outside at the end of May.

{{gwi:281275}}

Beautiful picture. Do you just keep it in a sunny window, or do you keep it under lights? I'm attempting to winter a Black Magic for the first time this winter. Lots of water or just enough to keep it alive?

Hostaholic2,

I put Black Magic in my south facing patio doorway. It can get very hot there and the winter sun can burn plants. I found that putting my large cacti pots in the front row right next to the door worked best, with the other things behind them. Saved me having to climb over things to get to the verticals and pull them partially shut on really sunny days!

As for the water, I could never make up my mind. Black Magic can take a lot of water, even indoors in the winter. I based the amount I gave it on whether it was putting out a lot of leaves or not. BTW, I did find that my Alocasia Polly really just liked to go dormant. So I keep it over winter in the corner of the kitchen with Clivia miniata and don't water it at all until early spring.

Thanks so much for the replies, I'm so glad to hear it will revert to its darker color. I have it in a south-facing foyer, and it seems to be doing well there, actually has sprouted more leaves (although they're green). I'm glad overwintering it this way will work, the darn thing was expensive!

... And having read this thread, I'm so glad that I remembered I had a Black Magic planted out and took a few minutes to dig it out, pot it up to bring indoors! The plain green Colocasia esculenta (grown from supermarket-bought tubers) are still doing okay under a heap of mulch, despite a few ground frosts, but I know they'll probably turn to mush once the weather gets a bit colder. And although the tubers will probably survive, in our climate it might be difficult to get them to resprout in the ground next year.

Leslie, thanks for the reply. I have mine in a large south window. So far this fall we've had more clouds than sun, but I'll keep an eye on it throughout the winter and move it back a bit if it starts getting too hot.