Chateauclubcrest, If I left them outside in their pots, they would all die for sure! We're too wet and cold here in Michigan. SW Ohio may or may not be warm enough in winter. I just don't know. The normal procedure here is to dig them up and store them dry over the winter and restart them in spring. But they will work as potted plants indoors as well. One year when we were expecting an early freezing rain, I dragged the very large pots into the house. Never got them back out until the next spring! LOL Inside in their pots by the patio door they live quite nicely all winter. What usually happens is that the large leaves (which are way to big inside the house anyway when they have been outside all summer) die off slowly, giving me back my kitchen :~), and are replaced by new smaller leaves which in the case of Black Magic are more olive color than black when inside the house. It still makes a pretty velvety-leaved plant. Lime Zinger does the same, however Frydek seems to sulk. I stick it over in a sunless corner of the kitchen along with a single Clivia miniata in its own pot and let them sit out the winter without water. Frydek goes dormant. The Clivia keeps its leathery leaves and looks exactly the same for 3 or 4 months. In March/April I give them each a drink of water and Frydek reawakens. I continue watering it as it starts to put out leaves. The Clivia still sits there looking the same! I may or may not give it another drink of water until late May when I put it outside again. Both take copious amounts of water outside in summer and moderate (to almost none for the Clivia)amounts inside when they are waking up in spring.

Interesting. I have grown grocery store taro for the past two seasons and I was thinking of ordering "elephant ears - colocasia esculenta" from Lindenberg seeds. It sounds like it might be very similar to grocery store taro. Unless, of course, the nursery plant has bigger leaves or is a specific cultivar (though it sounds like Lindenberg has the plain green one and doesnÂt mention a specific cultivar). I guess it Âthrew me a bit and I thought I was ordering a different plant because their description mentions something about "small magenta pink flowers rise above the foliage". Does this plant bloom? Maybe itÂs one of those plants that "might" bloom if itÂs old and grown in a greenhouse. Regarding grocery store taro, I found them easy to grow. I bought my roots at superstore and at safeway. Look for bigger sized bulbs with signs of growth, or 'eyes'. I think bigger roots do better than smaller ones, just my feeling. I like shorter Âchubby roots. I potted them in large drinking cups and transplanted out near the end of May. They were only 8 inches tall at most when I planted out, but grew to 3 feet high by the end of summer. They like moisture and part sun, which was the ideal place on my north side of the house. During a wet spell, this area doesnÂt dry out very much in between waterings. They didnÂt seem to be that fussy about soil, I basically dug a hole a bit bigger than the bulb and roots and plunked them into the ground into clay soil (that was mucky at the time). I planted them in between perennial lamium and it looked kind of tropical. Regards, Glen

@love_the_yard I was at the Lowes on Atlantic Blvd the other day and there were huge discount racks of all kinds of stuff. I got ground orchids 1 gallon for 3.00 -they are the orange flowered ones. No name on them except 'Ground Orchids' lol. I am pretty sure they are the tropical types and will have to overwinter in the gh in our zone grrr. I saw Belotti passiflora, white and pink mandevillea, and a bunch of annuals and other perennials on the discount racks. I think they were getting ready to put some 3 gal roses on there too because they were in the process of pulling them from the display and moving them to the discount area. I also saw some 3 gallon Sting Ray alocasias that were good size (I already had some of those). I might go back this weekend and see what's left on the discount racks though lol. We also have the 'wild' green alocasias on our property. Last summer one had a leaf as big as the hood of my car! I am thinking of making a huge fountain base or birdbath with a few leaves (concrete casting). They are soooo big! I don't like how they invade my flower beds but if there are few off by themselves somewhere they don't bother me. These things do reseed like crazy as well as make runners. The huge one by my car last year made about 50 seedlings. Hopefully most of them froze cuz I only see about 10 over there now. I keep my Mickey Mouse Taro in pots. It likes to go out the holes in the bottom of the pots and start new plants all over the place lol. It is definitely the cutest EE !! I saw some at the Ace Hardware in Mandarin that were obviously MM taro but they had them labeled as "Variegated Sting Ray" and a big "WOW!!" marked on the sign in front of them. Reminds me of the ebay seller ads. That Ace is normally a great place to find unusual things (in their gh) so I was kinda surprised at the mislabeling. I got a 3 gallon black Bat Plant last year. It was great and flowered nicely then one of the dumb roosters came and ate up the blooms grr. It is still doing good and overwintered in the gh where I only light the heater when it goes under 32F. So I think they are a little hardier than zone 10b/11. I have another baby black one and a baby white bat that overwintered in my somewhat cool gh as well. ~SJN

I have had success planting elephant ears for the last few years. I've left them in the ground, except for the couple times I took some in containers into the garage and left them there for winter. I heavily mulched the ones in the ground over winter (about 8 inches of cedar mulch), with no watering in winter. They usually come back bigger the next year, although some have rotted. I'll be uncovering them in the next few days, and I'll "help" slough off some of the decayed tops, if there are some that have decayed. When I do this, they usually sprout new growth shortly thereafter. Some have grown to amazing size: as high as about 8 feet, with a base over 2 feet. Don't give up on the ones you planted, but remember that frost knocks them back, and they have to be mulched in winter. Let's hope you weren't too early. When they get going, I sprinkle bone meal around the area above the bulb a few times during summer, and it seems to keep them going strong. Good luck!