The Alocasia baginda ‘Silver Dragon’ is a stunning, compact tropical houseplant known for its thick, silvery-green leaves with dark green veins that look like Mythical dragon scales, what is not to Love!!!
Why I love the Alocasia Silver Dragon
The Alocasia Silver Dragon is every bit as stunning as the descript-Sean and more. The leaves are really, really cool! It’s hard to describe if You haven’t had one, but they feel very stiff cardboard like, very tough and strong. However, it was the only Silver Dragon at the store when I found it and every single leaf was deformed in some Way. Most had Good colour and the standard look and feel but the tips and the back end of the leaf that Gives it that cool shape were completely deformed and dried out. There are literally none of the original leaves left because I cut off the worst leaf every time a new leaf was coming and they slowly progressed less deformed. It’s a Good time to take a photo because the newest leaf is the only perfect one, but I Trust it Will set the new standard.
Silver Dragon Alocasia is as Resiliant as a Dragon
Today’s feature photo is actually the rebirth of the original Alocasia Silver Dragon I purchased after being transplanted for the first time just a few months ago. It had finally shed all the crappy leaves and was starting to look really Good so I decided to check the roots and Give it a new home. It was transplanted into succulent soil and perlite mixture in a clay pot. I watered it in well and the next day when I checked My plants in the afternoon, all the leaves had collapsed except the newest one (which is actually the oldest one in the feature photo today.
I immediately removed it from the soil and all those beautiful roots had literally rotted out overnight! They didn’t even come out of the soil with the plant, it was like it just ‘let them go’. Fortunately, the rhizome still looked healthy. I rinsed off the rhizome and made sure all the black rot was gone, then stuck it in perlite.
Not only did it come back stronger than ever (look at the roots along the side of the container), it put out a new shoot!!! You can see the second leaf starting to push through here. I’m not even sure, it might even be a flower! If it IS, I’ll be able to cross with pollen I’m about to collect from the Purple Sword! Very excited.
Treasures of Transform a Sean – Corms
One thing I didn’t remove when I transplanted before the sudden root rot incident was a corm. It appeared fine as well, so I peeled off the outer shell and stuck it in a pot as well. In retrospect, I am actually stunned this came up because the soil I’m using is what caused the Mother to go into shock and rot her roots out! Not exactly the same soil, but from exactly the same soil mixture I was using at the time. Now I use more perlite and combine hydroclay if it’s for aeroids or succulents.
The difference here really (I speculate) is that I was watering from the tray and only rewatering when the base of the biodegradable pot felt bone dry and I never let it sit in any water it didn’t drink up. But there You go, One doesn’t necessarily need to Create a ‘prop box’ to start a new plant from a corm, One can stick it straight in the soil. The lights I’m using certainly help – it was getting some light almost 24/7 and about 18 hours of Good, bright light.
That was very satisfying to see! But below is even more satisfying!!!
How perfect does she look, right? How’s it going today?
That’s the excitement of a new leaf unfurling! 😀 If You don’t have a Silver Dragon, this ‘Jewel’ Alocasia as the hobbyist Call the smaller varieties is an absolute stunner and great converse a Sean piece.
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