Elephant Ears

We have lots of Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta), and every year they get bigger and bigger. It has been hard to keep them watered during this hot and dry summer, but most of them are still thriving. I love the big tropical looking leaves and use them throughout the garden. Last year, one of the largest clumps had blooms during the first week of October. (I didn’t know until then that they even bloomed!) Below are just two of the many bulbs we have. Click photos to view larger.

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^ This one has huge leaves and is near the bench
in a shady spot in the secret garden.

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^ One elephant ear bulb in a container with caladiums.

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Elephant Ear Blooms

The bloom looks like a giant banana-yellow Peace Lily flower. When I first noticed this on a clump of my Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta) a few days ago, I thought it was a yellowing leaf. As long as I have been gardening, I don’t think I have ever had an Elephant Ear to bloom! My Caladiums always do, some even bloomed early this spring before I got them moved out of the house, but never the green Elephant Ears. These were planted in March I think, and they were large bulbs then, about three years old and around the size of a quart jar. I’m sure the bulbs will be much bigger when we dig them up later on this fall. While most people leave their Elephant Ears in the ground throughout the year here, if we have a cold and rainy winter, the bulbs are likely to rot so we always dig ours up and store them until late winter/early spring. This particular clump (from just one bulb) is not even the largest of the ones we have growing right now, but it is the only one with blooms, so far. It will be interesting to watch these flowers and see what the seeds look like. Gardening is never dull, is it?

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Flower and bud

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Flowers are down in the center of the plant

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Closeup of Elephant Ear flower

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