Elephant ears Royal Hawaiian ‘Waikiki’
* Common name: Elephant ears Royal Hawaiian ‘Waikiki’
‘Waikiki’ is an award-winning new elephant ears with showy three-toned foliage.
Credit: Plant Haven International
* Botanical name: Colocasia esculenta ‘Waikiki’
* What it is: Elephant ears are hefty tropicals that send up sturdy, fleshy stems with huge leaves hanging at the top. The effect looks like elephant ears hanging on two- to three-foot poles.
The Royal Hawaiian series is especially impressive for its colorful foliage, and the new ‘Waikiki’ version is the showiest yet with green leaves that have creamy-white lightning-bolt-like markings in the middle with vivid pink veins inside those.
Elephant ears don’t flower. The foliage is the star.
‘Waikiki’ won both a 2023 All-America Selections award in nationwide trials and a 2023 Green Thumb Award from the National Garden Bureau.
* Size: Three feet tall and wide.
* Where to use: The centerpiece of a big pot is prime real estate for ‘Waikiki,’ although it’ll perform well in the ground, too. Elephant ears do best in full sun to part shade and in damp to wet soil, including a bog garden, rain garden, or the shallow part of a water garden.
* Care: Wait until after frost to plant outside. In a pot, water daily. Fertilizer usually isn’t needed.
Elephant ears can be grown indoors over winter as a houseplant. Or the corms can be dug after frost and stored dormant inside in a cool room for re-use the following spring. A freeze will kill them.
* Great partner: No partner is needed in a pot, other than possibly a trailing annual around the edges, such as sweet alyssum, dichondra ‘Silver Falls,’ or licorice vine. In the ground, underplant with pink annuals to echo ‘Waikiki’s’ veining, such as pink vinca, pink geraniums, pink verbena, or pink petunias.