Hey what's up everyone, I'm Craig, this is Grow Paradise and I've got some exciting collocation news for all of you. So what exciting collocation news have I got? This year, Grow Paradise has managed to source some very new and previously very rare collocasia plants. Now they were bred by a chap called Brian, a company called Brian's Botanicals in the USA and from the thousands of plants that he breeds and selects from the plant he grows outdoors in his fields. There are two that really stood out and the first one is collocasia redemption. This plant may just look like your regular dark-leaved collocasia at this size but just look at what it turns into. This beautiful plant gets glossy black leaves with that neon pink rich centre and that neon pink colouration flows to the edge of the leaves. It's really really something special. Now reading online, Brian saw this plant emerge and developed the pink colouration from the thousands of plants and this was back in 2016 and it's only just got to a point that it can be produced commercially for retail and this is one of the first batches as far as I'm aware to come into the UK. Now this collocasia is something that I've been excited about for ages. It's one of those plants that I've been lusting over online and to be able to actually find it and bring enough in to the country that I can share them with you is just incredible. Again, this is collocasia redemption. So at the moment the leaves are just black, quite matte black but as the plant matures it will develop that neon pink colouration and the leaves will get darker and glossier. Now this will grow to a height of about one to 1.2 metres and the leaves are held high on these really dark leaf pethules or leaf stems. Now with Brian over at Brian's botanicals he's had them planted outside and in the USA this collocasia redemption has proved hardy in USDA zone 7. Now that means it's survived a average minimum winter temperature of minus 12 to around minus 17. Amazing, if we can have something that colourful that will survive that temperature is here in the UK then we're on to a winner. Now because it's something new I would air on the side of caution with this plant either grow it in a container and then keep it somewhere frost free in winter or if you'll brave leave it out plant it somewhere with good drainage so that the underground parts of the plant don't rot in a cold wet winter and give a good layer of mulch over the top and it may well come back. I mean the promise is on the label hardy to zones 7 to 10. My garden is so 9 so that sits right in the middle maybe I'll keep one in a pot and I'll leave one outside and see how we go on. Now the second plant is one that you may have seen previously online. Plant collectors have had these for a couple of years but they would have paid an extortion at price to be able to have one of these plants so early. This one from the same breeder is collocasia farrow's mask or farrow's mask. Again at this size it's not yet fully developed it's distinguishing leaf formations. Now the one with this the feature with this collocasia farrow's mask is that these leaf veins that spread out from the center of the leaf turn a dark purple color the same color that the leaf stem the petal currently is and they will protrude in a three-dimensional form out from that leaf surface and then curl back to form like a three-dimensional rib cage look just look at that photograph of a mature plant. Now I cannot wait for this and you can see how quickly these plants establish and form clumps now this pot's about 10 centimeters in size and width and there's one two three shoots in here already so by the time they're getting planted out and established especially in the heat of summer like we've got today that I can't cope in these plants are going to absolutely thrive so this collocasia farrow's mask and collocasia redemption I consider them brothers or sisters because they've come from the same breeder in the same part of the world that they both have a completely different but equally striking characteristics right let's have a look at one more now I've no idea where this one's been bred and it's been around for a lot more years but I think it deserves a place in this video if we're talking about some really special collocasia now this one is collocasia mojito look at those stunning speckled leaves and that speckling carries on down into the leaf stems the petioles it's a really really impressive collocasia now as I held it close then you might notice this one's in a pond plant and that's because collocasia thrive when grown as marginal aquatic plants they love to have their roots in rich moist soil and they love the high humidity because these thin leaves can dry out and wilt in hot dry weather so that humidity just keeps them looking really good and really really happy now this one's tender it hasn't shown any signs of hardiness at all I have planted one out into the garden so we'll see my collocasia pink china which is another completely hardy collocasia is coming back and thriving and that was out in minus 5.2 in my USDA zone 9 garden this year but this one's worth a grow but like I say just air on the side of caution when it comes to winter hopefully you are as excited about these plants as I am I will put a link to our UK plant shop where if you're looking to add something new and exciting to your garden that's a real talking point because these are very very new in cultivation and I think these collocasia redemption are from the very first batch to reach the UK and they're not the extortion at price they used to be so go check it out thank you so much for watching and if you love plants as much as I do hit subscribe thank you so much I will see you all in the next one hot