I have had great luck buying at Walmart, I purchased 2 Jumbo Elephant Ear bulbs @ 5.00 each and started then 3-5 thinking they would take weeks to start to show sign of growth, it was only 2 weeks and they have both popped up, now I'm in trouble since i cant put them outside til May, I goofed LOL !!! Did you mist your bulbs over the winter? I have cannas in the bottom of my fridge and I've been misting them once a month and they are all doing ok.

I can tell you why your caladiums didn't make it, they were too cold. I live in zone 8 and I can't store caladiums in my garage over the winter. I have to store them inside my house because if the temperature drops below 50 degrees, they die. But I do make this effort because I love them and you can't beat them for color all summer long in shady areas of the yard. I have about 15 varieties that I store every year. I can leave colcocasia in the ground here, so I think they should be cold hardy to at least 38 degrees, but if your basement gets colder than that for extended periods of time, they probably aren't going to make it.

I don’t think my basement closet gets that cold. There is heat
down there, even if I shut all the registers. I store things in the basement closet
because the main basement won’t get much colder than the rest of the house: coldest
at 63, at night. Warmest setting daytime 67. I COULD keep the caladiums / colocasias upstairs
in the main house, but then I think they’d be trying to break dormancy.

Regardless, I need some new ones, and everything I see except the plain green Escuelenta is at least $ 6 each, and $ 7-10 at least for shipping.

Yours shiveled ... but was it from cuts made to it or did it rot and shivel (darken) with a rot? If you cut the bulbs while dividing try putting warm thin wax or another sealant on the cuts? If a rot, it was damaged when handled or too moist. Too wet might rot in any situation if too cold too especially bad because bulb resistance is down.

Larger bulbs store fine nearly bone dry for a few months IF they dried right as they went into dormancy. Any very dry ones won't easy break dormancy unless watered enough or they've been stored too long.

For smaller bulbs use sawdust or almost dry peat moss to help regulate stored bulb humidity, so not too wet or dry. Misting the bulb directly is more risky because it might attract surface fungal attack. A safer method is to put a slightly moist sponge or paper towel wad into the sawdust or peat moss so that it doesn't touch the bulb*s). Some people just put these in sny empty spice jar, salt shaker or old film can, anything with holes punched into it. Check the moisture source weekly.

Home Depo, Lowes, Fred Meyers, and most garden stores have green Colocasia and some other colors or Alocasia (upright leaf which are generally less hardy Elephant Ears). The big bulbs seem about as stable as potatos. They are sold unprotected in bulk laying loose in cardboard boxes. When dried hard like this they take longer to sprout and start growing well. Mine took nearly a month to spout this year, with 60 °F nights and 75 °F days.

Costo generally has great prices on large green variety Colocasia esculenta. And last year I got a Alocasia macrorrhizos, a common large green variety. And they had (have?) Colocasia 'Diamond Head', 'Blue Hawaii', and 'Hawaiian Punch' this year all at 3 for about $13.

I'm currently expanding my Colocasia types for yard use and also hardy banana (I have Basjoo already and wanted a Snow Banana). Florida Hill Nursery sells virus free (tissue culture) plants for about $9 each and combines shipping to reduce cost. Everything I've got from them this year is insect free too and growing well. An Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' (Red Ethiopian Banana) that I got there in early Feb this year is getting huge. It needs to go into a 3 gallon tub next.

Now MY challenge question.

I am running out of headroom quickly for an Allocasia which is being stored inside! This one get at least 8'!

WHEN CAN I SAFELY PUT IT OUTSIDE?

I'm storing the 3 Alocasia macrorrhizos that I got last year in a heated shed, where I also start seed. The Alocasia all grew well outside last summer. Two have multiple growths and one a single growth. I'm growing them on the dry side to slow them down. All the energy in the single growth plant is going upwards! It has suddenly nearly doubled in side. It has gone from 6' to 7' in the last two weeks (I admi I foliar fed it along eith my germinated seeds).

The very late falk 2016 photo below shows two of the green leaf Alocasia Elephant Ears. Both they and the baby Giant Gunnera (at 5' across) will double in height this year. To the right are hardy Hedychium ginger (Elizabeth and Dr Moy) and a 7' Canna 'Stuttgart' (in too much sun here so not very variegated at this light level. The black-red Canna to the left of the green Canna and Hedychium are Canna 'Australia' and 'Black Knight'.

From the photo shoot location below shows a summer 2016 photo with the Canna Tropicana and Red Cardinal flower in full glory driving Hummingbirds wild. Right behind the orange Canna flowers is an 8' tall Joe Pye Weed 'Gateway' in a large tub sitting on a bog shelf within the pond edge in shallow water. Fish are in the pond.

There are a few other Canna already outside too. Whose foliage pattern alone is interesting.

Below shows the first Colocasia 'Diamond Head' test. It's reported as hardy here. We'll see in time.

These are the virus free Colocasia and Snow Banana starts being expanded now to add to the display. There are some Brugmansia cuttings to the right too. And a 2 Passiflora edulis (with purple or yellow fruit) started from seed below the green Snow Banana and black leaf Colocasia 'Black Coral' starts. The Banana and Brugmansia should reach 5' by fall 2017. The variegated leaf Brugs are 'Maya' and 'Peaches and Creme.

This subtropical side of the Gazebo West direct afternoon sun side, is still under construction but already shows promise!

The Gazebo East morning sun side is a Garden Lily rainbow. This is the Summer 2016 location test.

It past the test okay too. So the stock is being expanded this Spring, design arranged and the current tubs plants put into the ground. They will stay in the current tubs for 2017 to test the design and replanted without tubs late this fall.

That's the sunny parts. The more shaded edges host 80 varieties of hydrangea whose installion started last Spring.

We been here a year, using the last yard to supply much of the nursery stock needed.

Finally ... we live on a circle and the small north facing front yard was finalized and 95% planted last year. It is a lawnless hydrangea haven with Japanese Windflower mini meadow and timber bamboo background, Phyllostachys nigra and nigra 'Bory' (Tiger Bamboo).

I went lower key visually ... but there are 115 Hyacinths opening three now in the preshow to add some fragrance to the other bulbs:

Crocus, Grape Hyacinth, Mt Hood, Poet's and Tete-a-Tete Narcissis. Some other gems for summer hide here too. Yep sharp eyes there ... that is indeed a 'Red Hot Poker' next to a hydrangea with red-brown new growth. 'Selina' is a looker too even at tbis young age.

Adding screen privacy and contrast to the road side is a tall Hydrangea 'Limelight'. But 'Selina' pokes out a little drawing the eyes into the yard for our family and friends visiting. If the pass here in the late affernoon and evening, 4'OClocks, Evening Phlox 'Midnight Candy', and Nicotiana alata hybrids, being grown now from seed will be installed on the edges and gaps to greet with rare and finr fragrances. I will be hiding some Evening Stock and Dianthus 'Rainbow of Loveliness' in there too, in 4" pots now from seed, as ground cover. It's more better than weeds to fill in gaps

I did starts some Old Fashioned Vining and Balcony Mix Petunia also to test in hanging baskets along the porch and to spill over the upper porch flowerbed. 2017 is another big test year. A plant has to earn it's spit over time to stay in my yard! Many of these smaller annuals were selected to self seed. Darwinian champions return on there own.

Many neighbors have few plants in their front yard. That might change automatically. With more than just weeds.