Picture taken 9-22-09.
FAMILY: Araceae
GENUS: Alocasia
species: x amazonica
CULTIVAR: ‘Polly’
OK, I know this is nothing like the rest of the Alocasias in this blog. Suzanne bought this plant from Lowe’s and it was always kept in the house because it seemed more like a houseplant. It was doing just fine, growing nicely, when all the sudden it just started dying! Nothing I did had any results. I didn’t throw it away, though, I just sit it outside on the plant table in the back yard and continued to water it like everything else. It completely died!!! Then after a few months, I noticed it was sprouting again! Now it is completely fine and growing as good as ever and even looks like it is growing a new shoot! It is kind of weird it died the same time the Italian Arum went dormant and sprouted the same time the Arum sprouted. Both Arum and Alocasias are in the same family, and the name Araceae means Aroid or Arum. I have never read anything about a Alocasias going dormant in the summer! Have you?
They are supposed to produce white blooms in mid-summer. We shall see this summer, because that is when mine was dead! They prefer light to full shade, evenly moist soil, but supposedly not over watered! Well, mine seems to be in nothing but a pot full of sphagnum moss. If you let it dry out in that stuff, it doesn’t absorb water very well! They are winter hardy in zones 10a-11 (30-40 degrees).
March 2, 2010 UPDATE on “Polly”. She decided to split! No, I don’t mean she left the mansion! She divided, I guess would be a better term. So, I decided to remove one of the bulbs from the pot… I was also surprised to find several “bulbletts” in the roots, which I also planted. Strange, but they weren’t even attached and it was kind of difficult to tell which end was the top. I hope I guessed right!
