colocasia esculenta and black magic.

leewatson1980

colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by leewatson1980 »

Hi Guys, I've got the above 2 plants and am wondering if it would be ok to plant by my pond, the site will be in full sun and im thinking about planting them in the pots sunk in the grass that drops into my pond and acting like a sponge, the grass is constantly wet so they should have constantly wet/moist compost.

any thoughts would be appreciated

regards
Lee
leewatson1980

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by leewatson1980 »

pic.
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Scott Radford

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Scott Radford »

Hi Lee

What a nice choice of plants, I grow many Colocasia including these two myself.

Absolutely plant them in the moist grass around your pond they will love it. even better plant them in the pond itself as pond marginals, that's how I grow mine. I simply sit them in their pots on top of pond baskets filled with gravel. This gives them a nice firm footing and a couple of inches of water to dip their roots into.

During active growth they are happy to be constantly in water. Do not however allow the water level above the crown of C. esculenta as it doesn't like this and could be susceptible to rot in colder weather. Black magic doesn't mind a couple of inches of water up the stem during active growth though. It alongside C. Pink Stem and C. fontanessii are extremely unfussy about the inches of water they sit in - just as long as they sit in some.

Here's a picture of the ones I grew around my pond last year (and of course this year too)
Scott Radford

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Scott Radford »

Sadly I cannot upload the picture as it was taken with a 5 megapixel camera and the max file size is only 600KB - half of what it is :(
grub

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by grub »

Scott Radford wrote:Sadly I cannot upload the picture as it was taken with a 5 megapixel camera and the max file size is only 600KB - half of what it is :(
Resize them here Scott icon_thumright http://www.shrinkpictures.com/
Scott Radford

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Scott Radford »

thanks for the tip grub I'll give it a shot icon_thumleft
nige pook

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by nige pook »

So has anybody got any collies actively growing outside yet? Got alocacias outside as they seen to tolerate cooler temps. Did try a fontanescii in the unheated greenhouse but it soon let me know it didn't appreciate the move! Got it back in the house on some heat but may have lost it! :( Shame as most of them are getting very leggy now inside as the suns higher and not coming through the glass anymore on the window ledge. Any ideas? Nige
JungleNuts

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by JungleNuts »

Got a black magic outside now for at least 4 weeks and is chucking out some new leaves, although I think that's the benefit of the recent unseasonal warm spell ...... with the current dip in weather, we have moved her into the cold greenhouse for now ..... fingers crossed .....
Scott Radford

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Scott Radford »

All my Colocasias are sat around the pond at my parents or out in my unheated plastic greenhouses or the garden at home - fontanessii and black magic are in the pond, have been since last month.

I don't think there's anything to be concerned about regarding weather now - all of them including black magic will tolerate the odd cool night with warm enough days - it won't go dormant unless temperatures consistently day and night only get to 7C - which is most unlikely now whichever part of the UK you live in.

The only exception for me is my single Colocasia heterochroma 'Dark Shadows' which I got from the USA last year. This plant is so rare I will not risk it going outside until I have an offfshoot to protect as my insurance policy. It is still in the heated propagator where it's been since last autumn, the second leaf is out and it's looking to grow, so maybe it will go into the kitchen window, but that's as far as we go for now.
Rick1965

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Rick1965 »

Scott Radford wrote: The only exception for me is my single Colocasia heterochroma 'Dark Shadows' which I got from the USA last year. This plant is so rare I will not risk it going outside until I have an offfshoot to protect as my insurance policy. It is still in the heated propagator where it's been since last autumn, the second leaf is out and it's looking to grow, so maybe it will go into the kitchen window, but that's as far as we go for now.
Just been reading about this one Scott, do you think it will prove hardy in the UK? Regards, Rick
leewatson1980

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by leewatson1980 »

collies planted in the grass, and it appears the wet grass is great for keeping the soil moist/wet, I just need them to grow now.

regards

Lee
Scott Radford

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Scott Radford »

Good to hear - Lee happy growing

Hi Rick, I don't know if it will be hardy as yet, but I doubt it. The original unmodified heterochroma maybe though. None of the Clocasias I know truly are hardt i.e. you can't simply dig a hole in the ground, drop them in and expect to see them again next year come what may.

The most temperature tolerant and thus candidates to try are the Normal esculenta, Pink Stem, fontanessii and Burgandy Stem. Also on this very site you can see Brian's mammoths that are somewhat resilient too. They will all actually tolerate a few degrees of frost, sometimes it will even have to get that low to send Burgandy stem into dormancy.

But in order to leave them in the ground they need a dry sheltered spot because the one thing that will definitely rot them is wet and cold combined. I had a Pink Stem that naturally rooted in my pond from a runner. It took up a position at the rear of the base of the Pontederia, between them and the pond wall. I left it alone for three winters (not the last two though, they've been way too severe) and it took whatever the winter threw at it in terms of frost.

I finally removed it after it got so big to risk it any more. That was when I realised why it had done so well. It wasn't in the water, instead sitting on the edge of the pond liner, draping only its roots into the pond. The bulb itself did not sit in any water once the roots had gone and with the shelter of the Pontederia plants too it made it through several degrees of frost.

I did actually leave two bulbs in a similar position last winter, one Pink and one Burgandy to test the hardiness against each other. But snow meant there was no escape for either of them. I would imagine these to be hardier as they are species plants not heavily genetically altered cultivars. The jury is out on mammoth - any ideas on that one Dave?

My full rundown of Colocasias that I know too be factual information is as follows:

Normal esculenta and its cousin aquatilis, which I believe to be our Pink Stem are the original S.E Asian taro. Also naturally occurring are fontanesii, burgundy stem, gigantea and affinis jenningsii.

Tea cup or 'coffee cups' in the US (basically a fontanessii with upturned leaves) was discovered in the wild by Indonesian botanist Gregory Hambali. Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum 'Illustris' (Imperial Taro), name was applied by William Bull some time before 1902 so this plant has been around a while but while often grown as Colocasia antiquorum 'Illustris' the C. antiquorum has been subsumed into Colocasia esculenta and is now listed as a variety of that species.

Jack's Giant was introduced by Jack de Vroomen of Marlboro Bulb Company, who brought it back from Costa Rica.

Colocasia 'Chicago Harlequin' was discovered by John Joicus of the Brookfield Zoo circa 1993, in a batch of normal Colocasia esculenta.

Discovered growing in Hilo Gardens in Hawaii, Hilo Beauty has mid-green leaves generously but randomly splashed with minty cream. It is yet to be understood what family this one belongs to. Many say it is a Alocasia, some say it is a Colocasia, and other say it is a Caladium. Watever it's a beautiful plant nonetheless.

Of these I have or have had all but Hilo Beauty. I know of no other species plants, so can anyone else name any? Jack's Giant is definitely not very hardy, neither is Illustris.

Colocasia Mojito is a sport of C. 'Burgundy Stem' via C. 'Black Marble', discovered at Florida's Agristarts. Black magic although totally gorgeous is a cultivar as is Blue Hawaii. None of these cultivars are hardy and I won't expect the similar Dark Shadows to be either
Rick1965

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Rick1965 »

Thanks Scott a very informative piece.
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Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

Rick1965 wrote:Thanks Scott a very informative piece.
I agree. Do you have any pics of your colocasias?
Scott Radford

Re: colocasia esculenta and black magic.

Post by Scott Radford »

Thank you for that

yes I do have pics of them, but I have to modify them. I took them last year using my nokia N97 camera, 5MP hence they are all between say 750 and 1.3 megabytes, well over the 600K limit - hence the need to modify - I will post the pics on here as soon as I have done so
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