Hi, I just bought two Elephant Ear bulbs, or big hunks at Walmart. There was no information about how to grow them. Could someone on this list please advise me as to whether or not they like full sun, partial sun, or shade? Do they like well drained soil or very moist soil? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks for any and all answers. Sandy
They like the same conditions as caladiums. That is, they need warmth, even moisture, and shade to partial shade depending on where you are located. Where are you and do you intend to grow the indoors or outdoors?
Wear a big floppy hat and nobody will notice your elephant ears!!!!
Of course, you already did a Google search and nothing has turned up on the subject. Is that not the case?
actually, these grow in drainage ditches in the deep south, so I'm not convinced that drainage is an issue of course the soil there is sandy
My experience with them (in zone 7) is stick them in the ground and then just TRY to get rid of them. I bought a couple of the giant "bulbs" from Wal-Mart, too. Around 7 or so years ago. Looking at the bulbs, they seemed to have "eyes" like potatoes. So before planting them, I cored off a couple of dozen "eyes" and planted them in those little 1 inch or so pots. Most of them did indeed grow into tiny elephant ear plants (with leaves about the size of your pinky fingernail). When those "eye" plants were big enough, I planted them outside, too.
To make a long story short, two years ago when I dug up the plants to move them, I had more than 100 bulbs of different sizes, most of which I gave away, and replanted a couple dozen of the bulbs. In the spot where I dug up the bulbs, new plants grew up from bulbs that were apparently too small for me to notice, and reached full height that same season. As big as those "bulbs" from Wal-Mart are, they grow into much, much bigger clumps of bulb and root, then seperate into dozens of smaller bulbs. The diameter of the largest stems by the end of the season should be much bigger than the diameter of the bulb itself right now.
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