Just had to share this with you lot. Checkout this fella's tropical paradise http://bocajoe.smugmug.com/gallery/2853409_Nkb7S#195651705 use the previous and next buttons, it contains albums of pictures
I'm just seeing your pictures for the first time. WOW! Those are some BIG leaves! Beautiful! Your other plants are very nice too!
holy giant leaf, batman!! wowee!! that's impressive!! especially since it's not in it's natural element!! the other stuff is gorgeous too! thanks for posting the link!!
hi does anyone know what Calocasia that is in the pic, i know nothing about them but would love one in my garden!! kool pics
Check my thread under "Aroids". I have a pic of 2 different types that I have started already indoors. My plan is to emulate boca joe's garden :-)
can anyone name the lower ground cover plants?? among that huge gaint lol mainly them bright green ones to the right, and the yellow and green to the left, cheers! these r fab
The Colocasia appears to be Colocasia esculenta. There are several hundred known leaf forms for this species. It is one of the most variable of all aroids in existence. In Hawaii alone, they grow over 100 variations as a food source. They can be small and almost black or huge like the plant in the photo. Some even have patterns. The plant has been in cultivation since close to 10,000 years ago as a food crop. Evidence has been found the Chinese grew it as a food well before they grew rice. Rice is thought to have been a surprise find in one of their Colocasia esculenta fields.
Today, Florida is awash in Colocasia esculenta, so I guess we can harvest the roadside ditches if there's ever a famine. The roadside ones don't have such big leaves.
You likely could! The plant is eaten on almost every Caribbean island, all over South America, in Polynesia, Hawaii, India and southeast Asia. As a food it is called Taro, Poi, Potato of the Tropics, Dasheen, Dalo, Eddo, Eddoe, Edda, Eddy Root, Coco Yam, Kalo, Callaloo, Katchu,and many other names. Some variations apparently aren't as "tasty" as others but the leaves, the stems and the corms (bulbs) are all boiled and eaten. In Miami you can buy the corm in the produce aisle of any supermarket. The crazy part is people will go to a nursery and pay $10 for a corm to grow in their yard and they could have gone to the grocery store and paid $2 for the same thing!
Dammit, you just let out one of my prized secrets!! :-D I do the same thing with gingers, and it's stunning to me that they go for $12 - $15 for a 6" pot around here, and you can grow your own in a few months for maybe $1.50...
Happens all the time! You can visit almost any Asia market and find the rhizomes for all sorts of plants that produce beautiful flowers in your garden. The problem is figuring out the species of the plant before you buy them in the market. But if you are willing to take a gamble you can buy lots of corms and rhizomes in Latin, Asian, Chinese and other ethnic stores that produce beautiful garden plants. We use to buy the "hot" ginger rhizomes at a Jamaican market in Miami and it produced a beautiful flower. Plus, since the plant will reproduce itself so quickly in a warm climate or greenhouse you can just dig up your own and not go to the store to buy them when you need one in the kitchen!
