How to get rid of elephant ears?
Gumbo
20 years ago
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jagladyla
20 years agolouisianacricket
20 years agoRelated Discussions
How tall will this elephant ear get?
Comments (1)If this was Costa Rica, 6' with an equal spread. However, it gets cold here and not enough rain. Mine is around 2' tall and very slow to spread if at all....See MoreWhen do you put in your elephant ears, hostas etc,? And how deep
Comments (2)Seedmama, I think I'll always have Neil Sperry's voice in my head telling me what to do and how to do it, and that's a good thing! I do think May 1st was great advice for Dallas and the whole D-FW metro area perhaps even all the way up to the Red River. I still plant them May 1st (but, remember, I am so far south that I have Texas on three sides of me) if the soil temp is consistently 70 degrees and the 10-day forecast doesn't have any wicked cold weather in it. For everyone in OK north of the Arbuckles, I would think May 15th would be a perfect date as long as the soil is warm and the forecast has warm nights in it. If you want to get an early start, Momfryhover, plant them in one or two gallon pots in potting soil and place them someplace warm....a concrete patio or driveway slab would be ideal. You'll have to move them inside on cold nights though. Planting early doesn't get you much growth if the soil and nights are cold because the bulbs just sit there and sulk....or, if it is wet and cold, they rot. For hostas, I don't grow them here since I discovered, after planting 30 of them here our first year, that they are "deer chow". When I planted them in Texas and here, I liked to plant the crown of the smaller ones 1/2" to 1" below the soil surface in black gumbo clay or a little deeper in really well-drained sandy loam. With the really large hostas, you can put the crown 1" to 2" below the soil surface in well-drained loamy soil, but a little more shallow than that in clay. (Really, clay ought to be well-amended for hostas and, in that case, you could plant them 1" to 2" below the soil surface.) I think the whole issue of planting hostas deeply (or how deeply to do it) is more critical in colder climates where repeated winter freezing/thawing of the ground can result in frost heave, wherein plants are literally heaved upward out of the ground and then freeze to death. If you plant the hosta crown just a bit below the soil surface and mulch well (mulch around the plant, but not on top of the crown), the plants should do just fine. Dawn...See Moregetting rid of invasive elephant ear
Comments (1)are you looking for tubers in trade or trying to erradicate them? i have not heard of them being that aggressive, especially in zone 7. mine have stayed in the same spot for several years now, showing no tendencies to colonize a large area. they sell the plain green type of ee at the box stores for a couple of bucks each spring....See MoreHow to avoid my elephant ears from going dormant?
Comments (7)Mike, I don't know if one CAN put off dormancy, if a plant is programmed to do that by nature. Here's a link to a Grower who apparently grows a lot of Alocasias. https://www.ohiotropics.com/2019/02/21/growing-alocasia-amazonica/ At the end of the link it looks like one can email questions to him. I read about 1/2 the article & didn't see him address dormancy, but pls check it out. Looks like this guy really knows Alocasias....See Moreswamprat
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