‘Sweet Carolina’ Charms

Caladium ‘Sweet Carolina’ on September 22, 2016, about seven weeks after planting the tubers.

‘Sweet Carolina’ Caladium takes the prize for the most entertaining Caladium I’ve grown; maybe the most entertaining foliage plant of any sort I’ve grown. Why? Because no two leaves unfold the same.

There is so much going on with this plant! First, there is the background color of the leaf. Will it be cream or green? How chartreuse will it turn? How much darker green, and where?

Then, there are the blotches of cherry pink. How many will appear? How light or dark might they be? What shape and patterns will they take?

And finally, there are the veins. Will they be pink, red, or white? Will the edges of the leaf have a pink stain, too?

Thus far, no two leaves have come the same.

‘Sweet Carolina’ is bred to take full sun, which is very unusual for a Caladium. Ours grow in several different places with varying amounts of light. I wanted to see how the plants would perform in everything from mostly sunny to partly shady. I’m growing four plants directly in the ground, others in pots.

I’m also watching to see how tall the plants will grow. Breeder Dr. Robert Hartman reports they grow into large, bushy uniform plants. The Classic Caladium website indicates they will grow to over 36″ tall. This hybrid is know for its large, broad leaves.

There are four tubers growing together in this pot.

Ours have been growing now for between 5 and 7 weeks. The pot started the first week of August is doing the best, and the tallest leaf is at around 18″ growing in only partial sun. Fed with both Osmocote and regular feedings of Neptune’s Harvest, these plants are very well nourished.

Caladium tubers planted directly in the soil have not performed as well as those in pots. They are shorter and have fewer leaves, and got a slightly later start. I expect them to show a great deal of new growth now that there is plenty of moisture in the soil again.

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Caladiums delight us with their beautiful colors, patterns and forms. They also satisfy us because they suffer little or no damage from grazing animals. This makes them a good value for us.

The exception here is some insect damage to a few leaves of our ‘Sweet Carolina.’ Caterpillars ate a few leaves of a single potted plant. Removing the caterpillar solved that problem.

But some of the plants in the ground have lost their tips to some other sort of grazing insect. I’ve not noticed this problem with other Caladium varieties.

This pot holds Begonia ‘Arabian Sunset’ and Begonia ‘Richmondensis’ along with a single Caladium tuber.

We expect to enjoy our Caladiums outside for about another month. We will see how these plants develop now that they are all in active growth.

Our nights are dropping into the 60s now, a little on the cool side for Caladiums. But we are still enjoying warm days. With the warmer than average weather we’ve had so far this year, we may get to enjoy Caladiums into early November.

I hope you find these plants as interesting as we find them. They are different from the more standard Caladiums in several ways, but that is part of their charm. Their colors blend beautifully with other plants we enjoy.

All in all ‘Sweet Carolina’ Caladiums are an excellent addition to our forest garden.