Another Colocasia Beauty
Colocasia illustris, with its black leaves, with bright green veins, rivals with its cousin Black Magic, for shear, stunning beauty.
This 4 ft beauty, with 2ft by 1ft heart shaped leaves, needs full sun to achieve its deepest colour, being almost totally green in deep shade.
Fast growing, this plant will compete with bananas in warm weather, while continuing to grow in quite cool conditions.
It likes its roots in water and will grow in a pond, but doesn't like water laying around the collar of the stems, so don't mulch around the stems. In cooler conditions this causes rot to set in and the plants collapses.
Like all Colocasias it is a gross feeder and likes a constant supply of nutrients. Feed with half strength soluble feriliser on a daily basis for largest specimens.
It is not as easy to overwinter as Burgundy Stem, but not as fussy as Black Magic, liking to be on the dry side, and above 3 deg C or it may go dormant and the plant collapses. If this happens dig out of the pot and store the rhizome dry until spring. Then start in to growth again using bottom heat.
It is reputed to be hardy to Zone 7b in the United States, but in the UK will need some additional heat to start regrowth in the spring. Generally Zone 7b in the US is much further south than here. So their April sun can be as strong as our June sun, kickstarting regrowth earlier.
My illustris had a terrible first year, after the instructions said it prefered 80% shade. So it went into a shady spot in the conservatory. It produced a few weedy pale green leaves, and I assumed I had been supplied the wrong plant. It clearly was not doing well.
Eventually, I gave up and put it outside in the Autumn. To my amazement it immediately bucked up, grew strong leaves with purple/black and bright green veins. If you see any cultural instruction saying it likes shade, don't believe it! In the UK it loves the sun, but having said that, dry heat makes it susceptable to red spider mite. So mist well if inside.
In Summary, Beautiful, easier to over winter than Black Magic, not really suitable for leaving in the garden due to needing additional heat in spring.