Do I really need more of these?

Last weekend I took another trip to my friend Mike's garden. If you've been reading for a while, you know what happens when I go to Mikes: I dig up a bunch of plants, usually bamboo. Well I did get more plants, but they aren't bamboo.

They're specimens of the next two items on the list of plants I really have a lot of already: Elephant Ears, and bananas.

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When Mike emailed and said he wanted to get rid of these and asked if I wanted them, I couldn't say no. That was even before I saw how large they were, and they're quite large.

The plants are a cold-hardy banana (Musa basjoo), and what he called "upright Elephant Ears" -- which I believe are Alocasia macrorrhiza, although there are other Alocasia species called "upright" too. The banana has two "trunks" and several pups:

And the Alocasia -- well, they're just huge!

I'm going to pot up the Alocasia, but that means making some potting mix, as I'm all out. It's going to be a heavier mix, as I'll be using soil from my yard (removed from the bamboo rhizome trench):

I'm out of compost so I'll just add a lot of peat moss and some perlite, and that should be fine. I'll be moving these guys into the garage and/or storing their "bulbs" pretty soon, so they don't really need to thrive -- super-nice, rich potting mix isn't required.

These leaves are just incredible, and show no wilting or other evidence that they've been dug out of the ground:

There are two of these plants, and the second one has several offsets already:

I'll remove the smallest two and pot them separately:

Here's one of the two main plants, all potted up:

It's really large, and fits right in with the jungle that's been created with large potted plants on my driveway. I love it!

The banana is next, and I'm going to remove the medium-sized offshoot, the one at the upper left of this image:

Just a few quick strokes with my sharp knife and the division is free:

It's about 2' tall and looks pretty nice in its pot:

The main plant is about 7' (2m) tall, quite heavy, and I have no idea how I'm going to get it down the hill into the back where a temporary planting hole awaits:

My view from the wheelbarrow. Big plant.

I finally determined that leaning the trunk against my head as I wheeled the barrow down the hill was the best way to proceed, and I expect it looked pretty funny.

The plant though looks anything but funny -- it's fantastic!

Instant tropics in this part of my yard, especially with the bamboo in the background:

Big leaved plants are essential in a garden, as they give the eye something "chunky" to focus on. This plant does that, even when seen from other parts of the yard:

Can easily be seen from the driveway. Nice!

I'm going to have to decide if I want to keep this plant in this spot, or find a more permanent location. Since it's cold-hardy it will survive our winters if well-mulched, so I'll have to plan. For now though, I'm just going to enjoy!

These are some fantastic new plants, even if I didn't need any more of them. Thanks Mike!

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