Herself’s Houston Garden

I just acquired this plant from the Mercer Sale a couple of weeks ago.

This is a hybrid Colocasia. It can reach 5′ tall with a 5′ spread. It can tolerate high moisture, so you can use it in damp areas of your yard or in swale gardens. It can be invasive so keep an eye on it.

It will also do ok in dry areas and not spread as much. I’m finding that like a Peace Lily it wilts when dry. Try not to let it dry out.  It prefers medium to damp soil. Not drought tolerant, you will need to keep it moist in the summer.

It will grow in full sun to part shade, doing best with some shade here in Houston.

It handles summer heat well, but died after the freezes last winter. Also you’ll need to keep it on the dry side in winter to keep the bulbs from rotting.

I tried planting one as a bulb last winter but the bulb turned to mush. The bulbs will rot in cold, wet locations. It is difficult to tell which end of the bulb is which on this plant. When in doubt with a bulb plant it on its side and it’ll send everything in the right direction.

This is a rapidly growing plant, start small it’ll get to full size in one or two seasons.

It does have spathe-like flowers but rarely blooms except in the wild.

It is also used as a root vegetable, like a potato in its native climates. It has been grown as a food source for over 10,000 years.   It was brought over to the US during the slave trade days as a food source for slaves.  Today it is not used much as a food source.

More information:
Floridata: Colocasia esculenta

See also:
Elephant Ears, African Mask

There seems to be debate as to whether this philodendron is a climber or not. It has huge leaves and one stem that does not branch. The branch falls over when the top gets too heavy. Aerial roots come off of the stem. Even though it is not defined as a climber, if planted near a tree it will climb your tree. And the stem that falls over may wind its way around your yard.

It has the most unusual flower. Mine has been in the back garden 2 years this is the first bloom I’ve seen. There are two more flower pods I expect will bloom soon.

It can get to 10′ tall and 15′ wide with a stem as thick as 6″ in diameter. This plant is native to the rain forests of Brazil. I’ve read some reports that it will grow to 50′ in Florida. So plant in a large area.

It grows best in moist, but well drained soil. It does not want full sun, dappled to part shade is best. This plant is not drought tolerant, so water when times are dry. Other than that it needs little care. This one has done well through several extremely dry summers and watering bans.

It is not frost hardy. We’ve had several light frosts and temperatures as low at 28′ and the plant has done fine with no protection. But one died and the other lost all its leaves after couple of hard frosts here. Just remove damaged leaves. If it dies back to the ground, wait. Often it will come back just fine when the weather warms.

This plant is poison — do not eat it.  All philodendrons contain calcium oxalates. Depending on the plant it might numb your mouth, or cause severe stomach pain, nausea, and or irritated skin.  Wear gloves while working with these plants.

If you wish to prune it, remove leaves beginning at the bottom to let in light to plants shaded out from this plant.  If you remove all the leaves, newer leaves should grow in at the top that are smaller than the existing leaves you removed.

If you cut the stem it will not branch out.  It will send up pups from the roots somewhere nearby.

Winter 2009/2010 We recently had a 3 day freeze. All the leaves rotted. I waited a couple of weeks, then removed the leaves yesterday. Time will tell if the plant will revive itself.

When I removed the leaves I discovered three babies that had grown up from the roots near the base of the plant. The leaves had been sheltering them from view.

It is May and the philodendron has survived and is putting out leaves up top as are some of the pups at the bottom. A newer philodendron I planted last summer did not survive this winter’s cold.

More information:
Floridata: Philodendron bipinnatifidum

I noticed this happening on a few plants late last summer.

There are many reasons this could happen. One is too much Round up. Another is too much phosphorus. The other is too little of magnesium or iron or zinc or nitrogen some combination of them.

If this is a magnesium deficiency then Epsom salts ( magnesium sulfate ) are needed. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons of Epsom salts to 1 gallon of water. You want to do this 3 times at 6 week intervals. Older leaves are most effected by magnesium deficiencies.

If this is an iron deficiency new leaves are most likely to show the symptoms.  Adding organic material helps with iron deficiency or any other treatment that breaks up the soil and lets more air get in.  Adding peat moss and or 1 pound of sulphur per 100 sq feet of garden will also help by lowering the soil pH slightly.

For zinc you want to add fertilizers for acid loving plants. Too much phosphorus or alkaline soil can cause problems with plants getting enough zinc.  Often leaves will also be smaller and or curled.

Nitrogen deficiencies show in older and lower leaves first.

If your soil is alkaline, pH > 7.0 as most clay soils in the area are, you’ll do better to apply zinc, magnesium and iron as liquid fertilizer sprayed on the leaves. Alkaline soils tie up the nutrients faster than the plants can take them up.

The best thing you can do is a Soil test then you know for sure what the problem is and what you need to do to fix things.

I find some of my plants do this when they require nitrogen and that tells me it’s time to fertilize.  The plants in my garden that show the need for fertilizers first are: Mexican Bleeding heart, Passion vine, Gardenia.

See also:
Micro nutrients needed by plants