Hi there. This is my second year buying "Black Magic" colocasias (or Elephant Ears) from a major wholesale greenhouse here in Northern Illinois. I absolutely love these plants. They looked great on my white front porch facing west, where they received about 7 hours of sun. Luckily, they did well with the strong west wind we get out in the country too. Here's some pictures of mine last year.

So this year I planted my two foot tall baby colocasias the weekend before Mother's Day. I used different (but just as deep) pots than last year. The pots had drainage holes but I added many more. I watered the babies just about every other day and used flower supports to hold up the growing leaves. They both were fertilized with fish emulsion shortly after planting. Everything seemed to be going well.

Then we got a crazy heavy rain here about a week ago and my baby colocasias have since started to wither. The stalks seemed droopy and the leaves were crackling apart. I couldn't tell if they were water logged or ill. So I pulled out the pots I used last year, refreshed the soil, and replanted the baby colocasias in there. The root balls didn't seem squishy or terribly soggy, but the soil at the bottom of my old pots was saturated.

I always thought that these plants liked heavy watering...? How should I encourage these to grow?

I had the exact same problem last year with one of the colocasias. It failed to thrive and eventually stopped growing in the pot. So I pulled it out and put it into the ground. It didn't grow there either. I bought those from the same greenhouse I used this year. There was nothing wrong with the soil in that pot because I replanted with another colocasia, which grew fine.

I'll post pictures tonight of my sickly looking baby plants.