No matter how hard I try, my best-laid plans for planting new items in my garden each spring don’t always come to fruition. This year was no exception.
This past weekend, as I was “tidying up” the yard after weeding the garden, I stumbled upon an elephant ear which never got planted when I brought it home a few months back. In my personal experience, I have always found elephant ears to be a little tricky to get sprouted in a cooler Midwest climate. Being a plant native to more tropical regions, its no wonder they require large amounts of heat and water to sprout! So you can imagine my surprise when this is the condition in which I found my elephant ear, utterly neglected and void of soil:
What a fighter! I have since placed him in a large pot of soil in hopes that he’ll continue to grow in his new home as marvelously as he did sitting under my bench on hard concrete in my backyard. I’ll be sure to keep you posted!
Until next time,
Have a comment to share with other readers? Feel free to post below. Have a question specifically for Bridget? Feel free to email her at bridget@bulbblog.com!
4 comments
Gisele R says:
Jul 25, 2011
So funny! I took a try at planting two elephant ears this year too even tho I live in the midwest as well – one in my office, and one outside on my patio in a pot. Both are actually doing extremely well. The one in my office started growing sooner b/c its super warm and sunny all the time.
I ordered them from holland bulbs and glad I did.
Jeff W says:
Jul 25, 2011
I had a similar experience with a caladium. I had some in a pot last year and brought the pot in for the winter…they went dormant and I thought maybe dead because of too much water. So I dumped the pot out this spring by a patch of weeds under my deck. 1.5 months later we dug up the weeds and planted in that area and turned all the soil over, and I assumed the caladiums had rotted and forgot about them. Looking in that area last weekend I noticed a tiny caladium leaf sprouting through the mulch…plants are pretty tough I guess?
gail opperman says:
Jul 25, 2011
I think you are right, they usually take forever to start for me. Try to start them in Feb or March, mine are just starting to take off outside.I think they are still worth it.
The Sage Butterfly says:
Jul 29, 2011
I have often wanted to grow these…maybe next year…need to make a list for next year. Love the photo of the bulb… Welcome to Blotanical!