Elephant Ears Not an Easy Choice for the Desert

 Q. What went wrong after I planted Elephant Ears (Colocasia spp.) in my back yard planter? I planted Elephant Ears last summer and at first it appeared to flourish. Very soon thereafter it began to wilt and appeared burnt. Then of course it died. The planter is covered in river rock. The irrigation to it, I believe, was sufficient for the plants. The planter also holds one lemon tree and two very tall queen palms, and they were fine.  I was wondering if the river rock created too much heat?

Taro (Colocasia esculenta), called gabi in Filipino, as it appeared at our farm in Batangas, Philippines, is a close relative to Elephant ears (Colocasia spp.) Elephant ears is an ornamental type grown for its big "ears" or leaves.

A. The river rock had nothing to do with it. Colocasia or elephant ears has a lot of things going against it in this climate; it is tender to any kind of winter cold, it is an understory plant so it does not like direct sunlight, desert soil doesn’t have enough “organics” in it so it must be amended, and the soil should stay moist because it likes wet areas.       

This particular elephant ears is a close relative to taro and yam. Another plant closely related to it is Alocasia spp., which also has big leaves and is sometimes called elephant ears as well. All elephant ears require a lot of babysitting in our desert climate because they are really tropical plants.

Just Because its Tropical Doesn't Mean it Cant Grow Here

The best spot for it is in partial or filtered shade, planted in soil high in “organics” and kept moist. Move it into a garage when winter freezing temperatures threaten it, similar to banana and plantain. Elephant ears is grown for its roots and leaves, not flowers so it can grow in lower light levels than fruit trees like lemon. Sounds like a lot of work to me.

It did well in the spring and would do well in the fall because of cooler weather, but struggles during our hot, dry, windy summers, and freezing winters. Lemons have a better chance. ‘Meyers’ lemon tolerates some freezing winter cold temperatures better than other lemons. Queen palms don’t like our dry winds. They get ‘ratty’ looking.

If you want to try it, grow it only on the north side of a home in bright sunlight under shade cloth. Amend the soil with compost. Keep the area moist as it will not like dry soil at all.

You must address all these problems; cold winter temperatures, amend the planting soil, provide a location where it can get as much protection from the sun as possible without a lack of it, keep the soil moist and windless as much as possible. It is not like a citrus or queen palms where you have fewer things that are a challenge for it here.

The more a plant is grown out of its native environment, the more time, emergy and expense is need to keep it healthy.