Bring tropical drama to your world with Distant Memory Elephant Ears, Colocasia. Huge, elegant mahogany leaves form an upright, arching treasure that showcases its jet-black, glossy stems. A very vigorous jewel, Distant Memory Elephant Ear’s thick, basal clump is always loaded with gorgeous leaves. This is the perfect plant for combining with brightly colored annuals in large containers. The long dark stems can grow 4-5′ tall.

Use Distant Memory Elephant Ears in containers and the garden; anywhere an exotic show is welcome. It looks fantastic in mass plantings and near the water’s edge around pools, fountains, and ponds. It makes a tremendous partner to other seasonal plants. Distant Memory Elephant Ears makes a fun houseplant. Indoors give it bright light, with consistent moisture, allowing the plant to dry out between watering. Outdoors Distant Memory Elephant Ears can be treated as an annual or dug up and stored above freezing for the following season.

$0.25 per plant sold goes to Alzheimer’s research. The elephant is a symbol of Alzheimer’s Disease (“an elephant never forgets”), which is why an Elephant Ear was selected for this cause.

Plant Distant Memory Elephant Ear’s in full sun to part shade in soil that has been amended with compost or other organic matter. Keep the plant consistently moist. Plants produce prodigious growth and benefit from regular fertilization. In St. Louis, its tuber can be planted in the ground in mid-spring after the last frost date (in St. Louis, April 15). To get the plant off to a fast start, in late winter to early spring, plant the bulb in a pot and place it in a sunny window inside. Dig up tuber in the fall after the first frost and then overwinter in a cool, dry location that does not go below 45 degrees. If grown in large containers, the containers should be brought indoors to a frost-free corner for overwintering (it is best to leave the tuber in the container rather than remove it). Plants may be propagated by dividing large tubers.