Re: [Aroid-l] Colocasia gigantea hardiness?

**&* S* <m*@charter.net>**

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony Avent" <tony@plantdelights.com>
To: "Discussion of aroids" <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Colocasia gigantea hardiness?

> 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.
>  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)

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