On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 16:05:13 GMT, "Road Runner" wrote:

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.

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.