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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Flowers are down in the center of the plant
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Closeup of Elephant Ear flower
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Favorite Plants: Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta)…
I’ve been growing Elephant Ears for many years, most recently in my water garden. I pot up the tubers in April, move them outside after frost and bring them back indoors, in the fall. They look exotic, but they pretty much look after themselves. The o…
Is this Stephen. Mahaffey
Juanita, not sure what you mean?
[…] 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 […]
I live on the Gulf Coast in Alabama. I planted this hugh bulb with 6 sprouts emerging. This plant has grown to 6 foot. There have been 3 flowersbloomed, one is blooming and another waiting to bloom.. So Beautiful!!
will an elephant ear die after blooming,, ” like a banana”
Hi Phyllis,
No, they won’t die after blooming.
So happy to here that. So excited about this !! I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin… So proud. Thanks
Wow how neat. Thank you for posting. I was wondering the same when I saw my bloom.
I’ve had my elephant ears for a little over 12 years and they belonged to my mother for approx 10 years before she passed and mine have never had blooms before, nor have I ever heard of any blooming. Thank you for posting about yours, mystery solved