I took my two Black Magic plants out of the pond a couple weeks ago to let them start drying out before winter. I cut the largest leaves off and trimmed the plants up a lot. When I pulled them out of the pond in their pots there were many leaf stems that had grown outside the pot and the part of the plant that was outside the pot had what looked to be large leaf nodes that had spouted small roots. I cut those off and put them in a large glass container of rain water. I hope to have baby Black Magic Elephant Ear by Spring. I will keep the root cuttings in the house all winter and change out the water every couple weeks with fresh rain water and hope for the best. I have about 10 cuttings in the gal size glass container and they have grown a lot in the two weeks.

Dolly, mine survived in one area that stays dry due to a nearby Crepe Myrtle tree. Small ones are popping up around the mother plant and I am potting them up for a plant sale this coming weekend. If we can devise a trade, I will save what you want and try to get together with you to trade on one of our upcoming trips to Greenville, SC. I also have a few each of Fontanesii, Elepao, Illustris and Mojita.

It is perfectly normal for colocasia leaves to fold at night. What is "root stabilizer"? If you are fertilizing (and don't get carried away with that), then the plant needs no other supplements other than adequate water. More light will help the leaves color up properly.

Do Black Magic EEs put out vertical runners? My largest one is 2 yrs old and has horizontal runner types that radiate from the base. Most have reached 3-4 ft before they went back into the ground on wet ditch substrate. All but 1 is horizontal...if it is a runner. The runners generally grow in a downhill direction, and are: 1) Subterranean, short, and immediately send out small leaves/pups and don't get roots until the fall. 2) Subterranean and send out small leaves and roots at the same time along the segment joints and the runners keep lengthening. There are more root instances than leaves/pups on each runner. These usu only have 1 place where leaves appear. 3) Subterranean and surfaces and keeps lengthening. Root buds show but never grow into the ground on the visible areas. No leaves or pups. They do this all growing season. Most of them seem like this until they find an ideal spot to send out roots. 4) Begin above ground and are slightly thicker than others. After the first 1 ft these can then share the same habits of #2 or #3 above. 5) On a potted Black Magic EE where there is less water/moisture, the runner began underground, grew up and out of the pot, and put out a pup with roots where it touched the ground. Now as the pup grows, the part of the runner that connects the pup is thinning, getting lighter in color, and seems to be drying out. The below photo shows what appears to be a vertical runner. If that is what it is called. I just noticed it. I do wonder if it is an inflorescence but no flag leaf was sent out before it...but a day later I noticed one appearing in the top center of the plant. This vertical runner has the characteristics of the many horizontal runners I see but has shorter segments, and 3-4x as wide. It is 7/8" wide where it branches off the main plant base between 2 petioles: Shown with cardboard behind it for contrast:This pic also shows the horizontal runners/rhizomes that headed downhill and some I trained to follow the same path by using small stakes and twist ties. They come from the same plant: