Elepaio Elephant Ear Live Plant

I was excited to find this one as it's on my list of must haves. It got here pretty quickly but USPS delivered it on Monday so I know it spent a whole extra day in one of their facilities which I'm sure added extra stress, luckily it's not too cold right now this time of year. But do keep that in mind when ordering this, had I known that, I would've ordered on a Monday so it didn't sit for an extra day. It was packaged decently but looks like it got shaken around as quite a bit of the dirt came out of the pot into the box. I appreciate them putting the wooden dowel in there to protect the plant from getting crushed. I got a single leaf and it's quite pretty for a juvenile. The plant is pretty stressed out from the trip so I'll try to update on it after it's acclimated. I'm really hoping it overcomes the stress because this will be a gorgeous plant when it matures. Update 2 weeks later: The original leaf died and I cut it back. I moved it to my plant cabinet that is kept warm and humid and after 2 weeks, a new leaf emerged. I'm quite excited this little guy made it and can't wait to watch it grow.

Not many greenhouses around me carry interesting exotic plants, so I order a lot online. This is probably the most disappointed I’ve been with a plant order. Looking at the photo, I expected at least a plant that somewhat resembled the photo. What I got was half dead and about an inch and a half tall. Seriously - it looked like a week old seedling. I used the fertilizer put it in optimal soil for elephant ears and gave it ample sun and appropriate water. Then one of its two teeny tiny leaves dies. This plant “seedling” is not viable. I contacted the seller who balked at my refund request. Now I have to figure out how to safely pack this teeny tiny thing to send it back in order to get my lousy refund. Ridiculous. Avoid buying from this company, unless you like overpaying and hassles.

A lot of people don’t know what a juvenile plant looks like; please don’t let them scare you away from getting this plant. Similarly, they don’t know what shipping stress is either. I’m genuinely glad I tried this seller out, because I received a cute little friend in some pretty neat packaging. I got what was exactly as advertised: a “baby” black coral elephant ear. Expect it to be small, and don’t expect it to be jet black right out of the box. The poor thing has been through shipping, and less sun = less black and more green. Pot her up immediately, give her quality grow lights or really good sunshine, and she WILL turn black and start growing more leaves. I unpacked a perfectly healthy elephant ear child who was a roughly darkish green color due to age and lack of sun, quickly darkening up within three days of delivery and full sun exposure. Please note that my photos are after a month of having this little friend in some good summer sun, and a few drinks of nitrogen rich fertilizer. The leaves become glossier as the plant ages, giving you that classic black coral look. While young, the leaves will be more matte like in my photos; I took them when my little guy was still getting there. The first two original leaves died off after being replaced by new ones, and are not in my photos. Again, this was expected as the plant went through the stress of shipping. For some reason, a lot of people don’t understand this either. LEAVES WILL DIE. AND BE REPLACED. Your plants need love, sunshine, water, and time! Dieback is normal! Overall, I’m really happy I tried this seller, because I literally got what I wanted and paid for. I plan on ordering a black magic too as I ended up really liking the matte look the young black coral leaves gave off, but will probably wait until spring.

I bought this plant around 6 months ago. I’ve purchased plants online before and had no problem with shipping as they always ended up on my doorstep. This plant was put in my mail box (probably because of the small packaging). It arrived in a narrow tall box, and the plant appeared to be up side down. As I unboxed it, the plant looked completely dead (refer to 1 and 2 picture). I’m not a plant expert, and knew this was going to be a hard plant to take care of. I cut off all the stock, and put the nutrients they sent in the originals nursery pot the plant came in. I also contacted the seller, with no response. Almost a month later the plant started to grow strong steams with smaller leafs. I was shocked I was able to revive the plant. It also had a huge spider mite problem. I would take a wet towel to the hot areas of spider mites, and check on the plant daily. I was able to finally rid the plant of the mites and it continues to rapidly grow new growths. I trimmed dying leafs that had damage do to riding the mites, but I bigger new leaf would pop up. 2 months after receiving the plant I received another plant from the sender. I guess they got my email and acted accordingly but never tried to reach me. This plant came healthy looking, but again with a ton of spider mites, that now have spread to my original plant. I continued to treat it as I did my original plant. Now I’m here 6 months later and both plants seem happy, and very close to mite free (3 and 4 picture). They’re probably not in the best condition, but given this being my hardest plant to date, I think they’re doing well (if you have any further tips I would love to hear them). The moral of the story is if you’re not a plant expert, don’t buy this plant. If you don’t want to take the time and effort needed to maintain and help it out, it will not survive. I have pruned about 12 steams since the original plant was delivered, and continuously have to keep an eye on it. The price point is good, but the labor and knowledge needed make up for it.