Elephant Ears (Colocasia, Alocasia, And Xanthosoma)

Use elephant ears to add a bold, tropical look to the landscape in borders, mass plantings or in containers. These fabulous foliage plants add dramatic contrast with both the size and color of the leaves and their form. They combine well with other tropical plants such as bananas, castor bean, colorful caladiums,

Chinese hibiscus and mandevillea, but they also provide wonderful textural contrast with more typical temperate bedding plants, ferns, or ornamental grasses. Pair dark-leaved varieties with any white, yellow, or orange-flowering plant for vivid contrast. The clumping varieties have an attractive vase shape so a single plant can provide an interesting focal point in the garden when planted in the midst of low-growing annuals such as petunias or begonias. Add them to large aquatic containers in combination with papyrus and water lilies or keep them in individual containers to mix and match with other plants on a deck or patio.

Many types of elephant ears can be grown in partial shade, but the darker colored varieties are best grown in full sun. All need rich, moist soil and nearly all are perfect at the edge of a pond. Most can be grown in a few inches of standing water, and can be added to water gardens as emergent plants (the roots in water and with the soil just covered with water, but the plants not submerged).

These tropical plants grow best in warm temperatures and high humidity. They may languish in Midwestern gardens until warm summer conditions begin, and they will also falter when temperatures drop below 50°F for prolonged periods of time.

The plants continually produce new leaves throughout the growing season. The older leaves that gradually die off can be removed to keep the plants looking tidy. Be sure to consider the potential for the elephant ear to shade out smaller plants as they grow when you choose a planting location in the spring.

Although they can be grown from seed, to grow large elephant ears, start with a large bulb or rooted plant (many of the newer cultivars are only offered as tissue cultured plants that have not formed bulbs yet). It will take a few weeks for the first leaves to appear from the bulb. These frost-tender perennial plants are best started indoors, potting up the bulb in March, placing the top of the bulb close to the soil surface, and keeping it in a warm location until it is planted outside when the weather warms up, usually in late May or early June.