The Beautiful Elephant Ear

Like the rest of the COVID-19 world, I finally caved in and bought my first plant last October.

A beautiful elephant ear plant, or officially called an alocasia macrorrhizos, it was. Elephant ear plants as the name suggests are plants with glorious leaves that can grow quite magnificently, to look like, yes you've guessed it, elephant ears.

Now, my check list was pretty simple : A no-fuss plant that doesn't need care or water frequently.

I quickly settled on the elephant ear. I had seen them once when I visited a friend in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan where she had these gigantic alocasia odoras (a slightly different type of alocasia which were even bigger than the macrorrhizos). And, they’d instantly stolen my heart.

So, off I clicked away, and waited impatiently for my online delivery.

Finally, the motorbike (yes, motorbike) delivery arrived. All safe and neatly packed

I had imagined getting a younger, smaller version - so I was A B S O L U T E L Y stoked, that it was standing tall and proud, almost a meter tall. She was everything that I wanted! I called her Chloe Jr.

A few days later, though one of the beautiful leaves started to turn yellow!!

I was appalled and dismayed. Asked Mr Google profusely what was wrong and what I should do.

Too long to read? Jump to the video version of this article.

The Holy Grail for all beginner gardeners of over or under watering remained a mystery. There were lots of conflicting advice on the internet. I bought vitamins and sprayers. Fungicides and pesticides, you name it.

But she only grew weaker and weaker, stem after stem, day after day.

Until a friend, who had much more experience, tried to tell me as gently as she could, that at some point if unsalvageable, I may need to cut it off. And, to check if it had root rot - the gardener's worst nightmare.

My friend suggested that I repot her with new soil. So I did. But it did not seem to help.

Chloe drooped further and further, needing to be supported by the wall to hold herself up

It was heartbreaking to watch. Yet, nothing I researched seem to help - with various analysis of possible problems, from soil to fungi to root rot, not to mention some hardly visible thrips that could irritate human skin, etc. Huufff... it was really stressing me out, I had to admit. This was not what I imagined at all.

I decided that I would dig out the bulb if in feasible condition, and drop it in our apartment backyard, and let the building's professional gardener adopt and take care of it. To do that I had to cut the two remaining stems as they were already bending backwards uncontrollably.

To my shocking discovery, what I saw was the vision of baby growth within one of the stems. I was totally taken aback. I wasn't sure if my heart sank or missed a beat. It almost brought tears to my eyes. (Serious, no drama). It was growing new life!

I also found that the roots, although not entirely white, were not rotten, and in salvageable condition.

The next day

and the next.. and the next

Through Chloe, I have learnt that, sometimes in life when you feel like you've done your best, and tried everything that seemed right, yet nothing seems to be going your way - in fact everything seems to be going downhill, to remember that

though we may not see it, God is working. He is indeed preparing, something beautiful for us.

Here is the video version of this article. Feel free to share to whoever you think may be inspired. Have a blessed day!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/77e347_c4852eee26494a8c868eba240124ddb2/720p/mp4/file.mp4

PS

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