Crazy for Caladiums

Our Caladium garden on June 7, 2014

Caladiums are one of my favorite plants for the summer garden.   So easy to grow, they are  strikingly beautiful.

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Caladium, “Florida Sweetheart”

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I enjoy the intricate patterns etched into their huge leaves in bright tropical colors.  Each leaf is a little different from all of the others.

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Caladium, “Miss Muffet”

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Had you been sitting with me and helping as we unpacked this year’s Caladium order, you might have thought me certifiably crazy….  crazy for Caladiums, that is.

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Caladium, “Florida Fantasy”

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When I begin looking through a catalog of Caladiums, it simply isn’t possible to select just one.  So some friends and I combined our orders for Caladiums from a grower in Florida.

And since the best prices are had when Caladium tubers are purchased in lots of 25 or more, I needed a lot of gardening  friends to share the bounty from such a gargantuan purchase.

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Caladium, “Red Flash” ordered for a friend who wanted all red Caladiums. This variety can take more sun than most, and grows into a vigorous, large plant.

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So enough of us banded together to purchase six different varieties, plus a lot of 25 mixed tubers, just to see what we would get.

Do the math:  that is 175 large Caladium tubers spread out across my dining room table.

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The final Caladium plants came out into the garden on June 7. This final hypertufa trough also holds the Saxifraga stolonifera we found at Forest Lane Botanicals this weekend and some Begonia semperflorens.

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Although one or two friends wanted their Caladiums all the same, most of us were interested in a mixed batch.  And so based on the preferences each friend expressed, the tubers were divided up and delivered in early April.

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Caladiums must have warmth. 

Even dormant tubers must be kept consistently warm.  They won’t survive a freeze, and may be damaged if kept below 50 degrees for any length of time.

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That is why our order was delayed by several weeks.  The dealer, Bill Kurek,  waited for a long enough stretch of warm weather in Virginia before he shipped the order.

Some of us waited to plant the Caladiums outside once warm weather settled in for good.  But I planted ours in plastic boxes of potting soil within just a few days of receiving them.

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 I’ve been bringing the Caladiums outside, a few at a time, over the last few weeks.  Believe it or not, one of those boxes was  still over half full of tubers, just beginning to send up their first leaves,  a week ago.

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Caladium, “White Christmas”

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Given the warmth of sunshine on their soil, those outside are growing far more quickly than those left inside, waiting their turn.   All these plants will  require, for the next five to six months, is consistent moisture.

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Calaldium, “Red Flash” on top, with C. “Miss Muffet”  below.

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Grown for their leaves and not their flowers, Caladiums aren’t heavy feeders.

They’ve already been fed with Osmocote, a time release fertilizer, and were given  a good drink of Neptune’s Harvest when transplanted.  Minerals in the Neptune’s Harvest help the Caladiums  establish by supporting new root growth.

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Caladiums prefer partial shade.  Newer cultivars have been selected to tolerate more sunshine than older Caladium varieties  can tolerate.  Any Caladium with “Florida” in its name is a newer hybrid and can take at least a few hours of sun each day.

Given warmth, light, and moisture Caladiums will grow indefinitely.  Perennial in Zones 10 and south, these lovely plants won’t survive a Virginia winter out of doors.

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They are true tropicals, and their huge lovely leaves lend a tropical summertime flair wherever they are planted.

Even though they can go directly into the ground after the soil warms, I still prefer to plant mine in pots.  It is much easier to bring them inside as cold weather approaches.

 

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All parts of the Caladium are poisonous, another reason we grow them in abundance.  They won’t be grazed by a hungry Bambi who happens to find its way into the garden.

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Caladiums are purely ornamental in our summer garden.   They won’t feed birds or give them shelter.  They won’t attract hummingbirds or butterflies.

Pure eye-candy, we grow them for their beauty.

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With minimal effort from us, they give maximum pleasure for the rest of the summer.

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All Photos by Woodland Gnome 2014

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About woodlandgnome

Lifelong teacher and gardener.

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