Q: This is an elephant ear blooming in the front of my house. It also bloomed last year. Can you tell me how often to expect this? I have others that haven’t bloomed at all in 9 years!!

A: Elephant ear is in the same family as peace lily and anthurium, the common houseplants. Their blooms are technically called spaths. Botanically, a spath is a bract (modified leaf) enclosing a spadix (fleshy spike of tiny flowers). If the flowers are pollinated, tiny “berries” will form along the spadix. Save them to plant outdoors in spring.

I can’t say how often flowering will occur. My guess is that older, crowded plants will bloom more often than newly-planted elephant ears.

Elephant ear bloom