(Metallic Taro, Silver Leaf Elephant Ear, Variegated Silver Leaf Elephant Ear)

Metallic taro is a tropical perennial native to Indonesia with large, brilliantly shiny dark green leaves borne on red-purple upward-reaching stems (petioles). In time these petioles deepen to almost red-black. Leaf undersides are a satiny beige in color and leaf edges are wavy.

Metallic taro prefers moderate shade or bright diffused light and protection from scorching sun rays. It requires moist organic-rich soil, with enough drainage to allow fresh water to pass through. Use indoors as...

(Malaysian Elephant Ear)

Beautiful leaves are the shining glory of Alocasia princeps. This taro is a tropical elephant ear native to the forested regions of Malaysia. This tall, evergreen perennial is grown for its large, beautiful dark green leaves with purple undersides. Each arrow-shaped, or sagittate, leaf has two basal lobes that extend beyond the point where the stem attaches at the leaf's edge. Throughout the year, it produces anthurium-like flowers with a finger-like floral column (spadix) surrounded by...

(Malaysian Elephant Ear)

Beautiful purple leaves with purple stems are the shining glory of Alocasia princeps ‘Purple Cloak.’ This taro is a tropical elephant ear native to the forested regions of Malaysia. This tall, evergreen perennial is grown for its large, arrow-shaped, or sagittate, leaves. Each has two basal lobes that extend beyond the point where the stem attaches at the leaf's edge. Throughout the year, it produces anthurium-like flowers with a finger-like floral column (spadix) surrounded by a pale green...

(Elephant Ear)

Borne along a short stout creamy white stem, the broad oval stiff-textured leaves are velvety dark green with sunken, silver veins and purple undersides. They have two prominent rounded lobes at their base. The ivory white leaf stalks attach to the interior rather than the edge of the leaf blades. Small anthurium-like blooms on short stalks appear sporadically in the leaf axils. They consist of a finger-like floral column (spadix) surrounded by a white petal-like leaf (spathe). This plant is self-sterile,...

(Hardy Elephant Ear, Went's Taro)

This is much hardier that your average elephant ear. Went's taro can tolerate winters to zone 7, especially if planted in a protected location. This clump-forming herbaceous plant originates from the montane regions of New Guinea. If offers bold deep green leaves with purple or bronze-hued undersides. In summer it produces fairly inconspicuous flowers that consist of an ivory floral column, called a spadix, that's wrapped by a green petal-like leaf, called a spathe.

Sites with partial sun to partial...

(African Mask, Amazon Taro, Elephant Ear)

What an amazing Amazon beauty! The arrowhead-shaped leaves of Amazon taro are deepest metallic green with skeletal whitish leaf veins and wavy or incised margins. This vigorous tropical hybrid elephant ear is a cross between Alocasia watsonia and A. sanderiana. During the growing season, greenish white spathe and spadex flowers appear but are generally overshadowed by foliage.

Amazon taro prefers full to moderate shade and protection from scorching sun rays. It requires moist,...

(Amazon Taro, Polly African Mask, Polly Taro)

With a more compact form and strudier foliage, Polly African mask has dark leaves with curvaceous edges and silvery veins. It is a frost tender tropical hybrid elephant ear parented by Alocasia watsonia and A. sanderiana. Loved for its large glossy, leathery, and green-black arrowhead leaves, the two pointed lobes and the wavy edges make 'Polly' look like an exotic African tribal mask. These edges are accentuated with a silvery pale green outline and midrib. During the growing...

(Candelabra Aloe, Tree Aloe)

While it takes many years for this branched, tree-like evergreen to reach full size, it’s absolutely fabulous in the meantime. Eventually growing to well above head height, this native of southern Africa bears rosettes of long, succulent, dagger-shaped leaves a candelabra of stems. The grayish green leaves have saw-toothed edges. In winter or early spring, long stalks topped with conical clusters of red tubular flowers arise from the leaf rosettes. Some plants have yellow blooms. Adapted for pollination...

(Lace Aloe, Torch Plant)

A cute, cold-hardy, ground-hugging aloe from eastern South Africa and Lesotho, this little charmer is an excellent choice for container gardens indoors and out thanks to its tidy form and vivid flowers. Succulent, lance-shaped, evergreen leaves dotted with white warty protuberances and tipped with white tail-like bristles are densely packed into round, perfectly symmetrical rosettes that offset to form clumps. Loose conical clusters of tubular red flowers are borne atop calf-high stems in summer....

(Cameron's Ruwari Aloe, Red Aloe)

The genus Aloe contains around 300 species of succulent plants grown for both their exquisite flowers and fleshy foliage. They are primarily native to southern Africa and the island of Madagascar but also exist in the Cape Verde Islands and the Arabian Peninsula. All of these regions are arid tropical zones, so aloes are adapted to dry, frost-free areas.

These plants typically develop a rosette of linear, triangular or sword shaped leaves with short, sharp thorns along the leaf edges...