Re: [Aroid-l] Colocasia gigantea hardiness?

From: "David S." <maui4me at charter.net> on 2004.11.28 at 02:36:46(12437) > Aroiders: > > The Colocasia gigantea that we sell came from Hayes Jackson of Alabama, > who got it from a next door neighbor, who moved to the US from Thailand. I > suspect that most of this in the US originated from this clone. It has > survived 5 degrees F here, with no mulch, but it never reaches much more > than 4' in height. This form is stoloniferous, but the stolons don't run > far from the parent as in C. esculenta var. aquatalis. > > For spring, we will have a new form, collected in 2003 by Petra Schmidt in > Thailand. These plants are much larger...make that massively larger than > the form we grew before. Seedlings planted in the ground in May reached > 6-7' tall x 10+' wide in 5 months. In the wild, the clump was around 9' > tall with leaves much larger than a normal person. This will be our first > winter with this new form in the ground, but we've got our fingers crossed. +More > I'm curious if there are more forms of Colocasia gigantea being grown out > there in aroid land. > > Tony Avent > Plant Delights Nursery @ > Juniper Level Botanic Garden > 9241 Sauls Road > Raleigh, NC 27603 USA > Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F > Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F > USDA Hardiness Zone 7b > email tony@plantdelights.com > website http://www.plantdel.com > phone 919 772-4794 > fax 919 772-4752 > "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least > three times" - Avent ================================= Tony, do you know when Hayes Jackson got his clone? Mine came from a lady that moved here from Vietnam in the late 70's. Her family ate the leaves and petioles of this plant after cooking it like spinach. Your description of a height of 4 ft. sounds about right for mine. Your description of it's stolon activity also is similar to mine. They didn't run very far, but there sure was a bunch of them. I remember selling a bunch of it a few years ago in a yard sale. That new form you have sure sounds interesting. I've always wondered how it got the name "gigantea" when it's leaves weren't any larger than the common C. esculenta. I guess your new form settles that question! David Sizemore Kingsport, TN (Zone 6a) _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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