A newly planted bulb when the soil is cold and wet will rot easily, but a plant with roots established will not rot in the same condition. As mentioned above the original bulb will be gone but the plant will survive. I have some over ten years old, still doing well, although the foliage is frosted back yearly. We only get light frosts here. Al

Thanks for posting this question, dsacco85. I hope you don't mind me adding to this thread but since it's the same subject I thought it would be better to keep these questions together for others who might be looking for the same answers later. I also bought one of the giant elephant ear bulbs from Home Depot, it's very different from Colocasia. Mine grew from a grapefruit sized bulb to 2 grapefruit sized bulbs stacked one atop the other when I dug it last fall. The bottom bulb has shriveled badly over the winter but there are several smaller bulbs embedded into it. I'm very glad to read I can remove the lower section and plant the upper section seperate, should I dig out the smaller bulbs from the mother bulb or should I plant the whole thing and plan to seperate the bulbs this fall? Some could be easily detatched, but others are firmly embedded. BTW, one of side bulbs broke off as I was loosening soil on Monday, by Wednesday it appears to have calloused over nicely. I was thinking of dusting them with old rooting hormone but cinnamon seems like a much better idea. Also, I would agree with Evan that perhaps you should leave more top when you cut back next fall. I left about a foot of stem on mine and it dried quite well over the winter. On the other hand, my mother bulb did shrivel over the winter, I wonder if that would have a difference? Fun thread. Jeanne Here is a link that might be useful: Old FB profile pic with giant EE

Very difficult to tell what you are growing from the photo of the tubers Rick but it is likely Colocasia esculenta. This is the most commonly grown form of "elephant ear. Despite common misconceptions, you do not have a bulb or a corm, your plant is growing from a tuber since all the roots grow from the top. Read the link below and it will tell you the differences. All aroids grow from tubers, not corms or bulbs. Your plant could also be a Xanthosoma or one of several other genera. Look at this link and hopefully you can tell the difference. Tubers, bulbs and corms all all very different physically despite the fact they are all starch storage units and underground stems. http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Colocasia%20esculenta%20large%20pc.html There are hundreds of leaf forms to this species due to natural variation. Sounds like you did it right. Steve Here is a link that might be useful: bulbs, corms, tubers, stems, etc

The soil sounds like it is heavy and I agree with seticoni, how is the drainage? If the soil doesnt have enough drainage & the bulbs dont get some bit of air they will rot. I use alot of perlite in my soil and my ee's do well..