I stuck a few of them in a shady part of my garden. Days have warmed up to the 70s, but nights are still quite cool (no frost). I keep them watered fairly regularly, but don't expect them to do much until the nights stay above 60 or so, same as my lawn. I did some digging to check on them and they're still firm. Perhaps they're growing roots? I didn't dig that far. At any rate, I just wanted to chime in to say that mine are kind of boring right now, too.

These (nor other EE varieties) are hardy in your area. If the plant forms a large tuber (such as the commonly-found taro), you can dig and store the tuber over winter. Non-tuber forming varieties can be brought indoors for the winter, but can't really be dried and stored (there's nothing to store). I'm not sure about the specific varieties you mentioned, as I've never grown those particular ones. Early in spring, the nurseries/garden centers usually have dormant EE bulbs - normally the plain 'ol green, but I've also seen the upright type. I get my big green monsters there, pot them up and set them in a warm, light spot indoors to get them going. Once outside for the season when it warms off, they grow fantastic, and those plain 'ol no-name green targo get HUGE leaves - they're fantastic!!! I've tried to overwinter the tubers but don't have much success because of my crawl space conditions, but they're not expensive if I buy them dormant in the spring, so no big deal. So, check those out next year, too - much less expensive than the fancy-schmancy ones (which I have, too, of course LOL!) and really do make a big impact.

Agree that they will grow in any exposure, but if you want the really big leaves, mostly shade is best, IME (a few miles north of AL/FL border.) I moved this bulb this spring from a much more sunny location where it had been for a few years and it's making leaves about 10x bigger than before. (The babies bulbs that were with it were also put in more shady locations and are all much bigger than the mama ever was in too much sun.) I also have a mini-compost pile at the base of it, and put mostly greens there, like watermelon rinds and other kitchen scraps that "melt" quickly in the heat. Next to it is a 5-gallon bucket with a slit in the bottom. I fill up the bucket and it takes a couple hours to drip out, which I try to do just before the sun hits it, so it has ample moisture during that time, about 90 minutes of direct sun. Otherwise, the leaves fall over. After they do that, they might or might not stand back up so I put a tomato cage around it. The newest leaf on this plant is about 6 ft. tall and about 3 ft. long, which is about 8" longer than the last leaf. Constantly losing a leaf is common but happens more slowly if there is ample moisture and plenty of organic matter in the soil. I usually leave the dying leaf connected but bend it back to rot near the bulb. Unfortunately, I don't usually have rain water for it, but start by dumping the water from the bucket our dog uses for his water bowl (which came from the hose the day before,) then fill the rest with the hose. With splashing and the dripping that happens before the bucket is full, I estimate it, and the other plants sharing the root space, are using about 6 gallons of water per day, some of which is probably taken by a large oak tree nearby. Just an ordinary Colocasia esculenta I got from Lowe's about 10 years ago. The leaf that is leaning out didn't seem like it would bend into the tomato cage without breaking and since it was the oldest (going to yellow and die soon,) I didn't make any effort to cage that one:

I have had success planting elephant ears for the last few years. I've left them in the ground, except for the couple times I took some in containers into the garage and left them there for winter. I heavily mulched the ones in the ground over winter (about 8 inches of cedar mulch), with no watering in winter. They usually come back bigger the next year, although some have rotted. I'll be uncovering them in the next few days, and I'll "help" slough off some of the decayed tops, if there are some that have decayed. When I do this, they usually sprout new growth shortly thereafter. Some have grown to amazing size: as high as about 8 feet, with a base over 2 feet. Don't give up on the ones you planted, but remember that frost knocks them back, and they have to be mulched in winter. Let's hope you weren't too early. When they get going, I sprinkle bone meal around the area above the bulb a few times during summer, and it seems to keep them going strong. Good luck!