How to share Elephant Ear bulbs

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Elephant Ears (colocasia) grow from bulbs, just like daffodils, iris, cannas, and lots of other plants. The really cool thing about plants that grow from bulbs is that they create more bulbs season after season. In fact, if you plant a few colocasias, they will reproduce bulbs so fast that you will need to dig them out before they take over your garden, and you will need to throw them away. Or give them away!

Pictured at left is a baby Elephant Ear that is growing too close to an area where I need to walk. When I see these, I dig them up and transplant them. All you have to do is to dig down deep enough to get the bulb, which is just shaped like a light bulb, and is fairly small for a small plant like this one, or gigantic (bigger than your fist) for a big plant.

When you buy them at a nursery, they come with no leaves like this pictures (at right). When I transplant them I leave a few leaves on to just to help show me where they are. Sometimes the old leaves droop, and sometimes they stay. The whole point is to get new leaves growing, anyway. And year after year, they will reproduce more bulbs, which you can transplant or give to friends. Like me!



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