I may be mistaken and I’ll have to google, but I believe Taro is Elephant Ears. I am envious, I really want to see a plant like that in person! Didn’t even see any like that in Hawaii. I’ve been missing out!!!
4 Likes
yes, elephant ears is one variety, and yes, its the GIANT variety 
Theres cool teacup ones, and purple, almost black taro as well…
4 Likes
they love rich mediums, can grow in very wet conditions (a bog filter on a koi pond is like a 4x6ft 4ft deep “pit”, filled with large rocks, stones, and getting smaller as you get to the top, ending with gravel, and a water level of 6" maybe. Water is pumped into the bottom, flows up, and out a stream / waterfall.
In the bog theres NO soil, purely gravel. As a filter. And with a heavy fishload, it gets LOADED with fish crap. Bananas can get to 12-16’ tall and 1ft thick in a summer here on the Hudson River by NYC, and Taros get that big, but ONLY in the bog filters. In ground / soil here they get big, but nowhere near that big. Think of the bog as a giant hydro system although its goal is to remove nutrients, not grow plants (aka, we don’t fertilize them. we rely on them to lock up the nutrients in their growth)
5 Likes
I’ve only very recently started getting into strictly foliage plants aside from ferns. So, Im sure I never bothered checking these out before as they don’t flower. Man, are they bitchen! Too big for me though, they would take up too much flowering real estate. lol
2 Likes
don’t look at coleus… and dont search for em on the internet because you’ll find WAY more than any garden shop…
I’m warning ya… For foliage, coleus is da bomb, and smaller perfect for beds…oh… and super easy to propagate of course!
3 Likes
I’ve got coleus out there. I love it! A few are starting to die off now. Mine never lasts past summer really, I started buying starters. Used to start them from seed, but they are so small and such a hassle that I started buying them. I never cut the flowers off so they never last. lol Next year they will have new hybrids anyway… and just more new varieties to enjoy.
1 Like
Oh and they do flower, its just an ugly boring flower… stinky too imho at least…
coleus will flower with stalks, i pinch em unless i wanna make seeds, makes the plants grow more… once the coleus stalks get pollinated, the leaves start the downward spiral. Pinching stalks prolongs that
2 Likes
most only know the 5 big coleus at the box stores. I found one site with a few hundred varieties, trailing ones, fringy finger like leaves, every color in the rainbow, literally. small leaves, giant leaves, you name it, coleus comes in 200 flavors… collect the seeds yourself and wild sow, they surface germinate anyway… Then you get to make new colors. The box store ones are mostly cuttings and not from seed at this time. I remember that from a tour at the ball gardens in chicago area a few years back.
2 Likes
I have grown some from seed. They are some of the smallest seeds ever and I just have a hard time seeing them. Probably drowned a few hundred as tiny seedlings as well. lol I know @Calyxander loves them and grows a lot of them from seed. I did get a seed starter thing with lights this year, I think I would have better luck in there. Are you also someone who pours over seed catalogs and website inventories for hours on end? I can’t tell you how much time I spend looking at flower seeds. It’s a serious addiction. Same as others cannabis seeds addiction I suppose. lol
This has honestly been my weakest year starting plants from seed. That is truly my passion, watching them sprout. The Covid did all kinds of crazy things to my depression this year. Barely grew anything from seed this year.
On another foliage note, I bought a persian shield plant this year and put it in a container with bacopa. This isn’t turning out to be a great choice as I’m quickly finding that they have very different watering needs. So the bacopa is thriving and the persian shield looks like a sad mess. Oh well, that’s how we learn. Next year it will get planted alone and receive a lot more litfa. lol I suppose I could try and separate them, but I usually just let my annuals play out and start over. Out with the old, in with the new. There are just too many cool plants I want to grow.
3 Likes
I recently found the name of one of my favorite ferns from childhood an Australian Tree Fern. OMG! I want one so bad! They get so big though, I just don’t have space. Next plant I research is to maybe find a dwarf variety of one. Right now is their season, grabbed one at Home Depot then read how large it got and had to put it back. Hopefully I can get one minus the tree part.
1 Like
From seed, to do a plant per pot, is a PITA. I broadcasted in a little 4x6 tray, then prick out seedlings. F That… too much work. I’ll collect seeds now and toss em in shaded mulched beds and let god sort it out… Get quite a few to sprout, and less hassle then. But, obviously, no choice in what colors pop up…Gotta toss em early as possible, they do take time to reach appreciable size where the foliage is nice. Planting em in full sun / intermittent mist all day is like steroids for em…
I do get a few catalogs. lol. But I know what grows here, and sadly most catalog stuff gets ruled out. I like my hostas, day lilies, (asiatics I gave up on, damn beetles), flowering bushes like hydrangea paniculate, oakleaf hydrangea, hinoki cypress, japanese maples, azaleas, forsythia, burning bush, boxwoods, vines like orange trumpet and wisteria, TONS of weigelia and sedums, royal purple smoke bush, etc. and a few specimen plantings like a bonfire peach, weeping norway spruce, weeping dappled willow and some weeping purple beeches. General theme? Most everything can be propagated and multiplied, and is perennial… I toss some annuals out for color, coleus being one, but most plantings I can take cuttings from, toss in intermittent mist, and make more. Probably why I have so many… Only ever bought 1 of any of them to start 
I do the veggie garden from seed, like hot peppers and home depot or the local garden center aint cutting it with hungarian hot wax… So I’m forced to. But I enjoy that too, and its sooooo much cheaper 
Note on the bacopa, its another we would plant on stream edges. Here its an annual, but when its very wet, it grows FAST… Persian Shield, well, where I lived in Cozumel, we had an edging of it around the patio. COOKED during the day being on the edge of the patio, but soak it good once in a while, let it dry otherwise, and that thing was awesome. So yeah… VERY different requirements…And Persian Shield or Persion Carpet is also a common name associated with Coleus at some nurserys. Which likes moist conditions… Common names suck, cause they can be 2 or 3 things depending on area.
For ferns? Boston ferns hanging on the pergola, and painted japanese ferns scattered in shady areas. A few on the north shaded side of the house I dug outta the woods as well.
2 Likes
I sure do like coleus. I am almost never not growing or germinating many coleus plants.
I only start seeds, I have no interest in purchasing plants. I find the germination of coleus seeds to be fairly easy. I gently press them into the surface of the potting mix (Jiffy Mix or ProMix BX are good).
I like to use styrofoam egg cartons or small seedling cells to start coleus. Cover them with plastic wrap and rubber bands. Keep moist by bottom watering or misting the surface gently. They should sprout in 7 to 10 days at most.
I like to take cuttings from my favorite plants, and coleus is very easy to clone.
Starting coleus seeds in egg carton.
13 Likes
Just thinking about my growing season so far, I’ve been doing it, but half-heartedly. Since the covid, my depression has been pretty high. I seem to remember @ReikoX asking me if I was gonna run autos this year and I completely dismissed the idea. I just didn’t have the juju this year to do it.
Having said that, now that I’ve been vaccinated and the restrictions aren’t as strict for lack of a better word, I’m starting to perk up. Today I was actually able to go to a movie theater without paranoia and the county fair the other day. I can actually travel now and a vacation is in sight. Some small sense of normalcy is good for my soul.
Next year, I can grow some indica for the men if I grow auto versions. If I plant them at the right time, I can get some pretty big indica plants without worry of budrot. If they were all finished by the end of August, they should be golden as the super humidity usually doesn’t hit until September here. Oddly enough the volunteer (although more sativa leaning) made it all the way through winter without pm or budrot. It was also a tiny little plant and it’s UFS mom was super resistant to elements and was the only strain that completely stood up last year to budrot. Not sure why the Indica epiphany just hit me. Unlike me, Dad and my Man have mad love for the kush and I can find them good indicas for aches and pains. I mentioned Blue Dream autos before as well, that seems to be the ticket when it comes to growing it for my meds as all seed versions of it lean so Indica. Of course, I’ll still grow the bigs as y’all know how much I love my sativas.
9 Likes
I would start them on June 1 outdoors hoping for a mid August harvest.
5 Likes
Yep. Perfection. The best months outdoors in general for them too. Shoot. They would be close to ready or ready right now, had I not been depressed.
4 Likes
There is always next year. Containers are more labor intensive though.
5 Likes
That was where the depression limited me this year. It was hard waiting for them to go to ground this year as it was. Just didn’t have a full container grow in me this year. I feel like I was infected with Covid this year even though I never caught the virus.
9 Likes
Hey meesh. What do you think about the blue dream, does it have and particular odors?
1 Like
Blue Dream is very lackluster in smell and taste. In my opinion. It’s pretty low odor. Light blueberry smell. With the BD it’s all about the high.
4 Likes