Caladiums

It’s peak Caladium season and if you have a tropical style garden, love a potted plant or simply collect as many plants as you can you surely already have (or most definitely should get your hands on) a Caladium or two!

Caladium sp.

Caladiums are part of the Araceae (Aroid) family, and originate in South/Central America where they grow in filtered light on the edges of forests. The most popular species - Caladium bicolor (no points to guessing how that name came about) come in an amazing array of colourful heart shaped leaves in all sizes. From huge leaves splashed with pinks and whites to small ruffled leaves in solid pink, and everything in between, Caladiums are grown for their foliage.

Technically there are no stems, only the extra long leaf petioles (stalks) that emerge from the corm hidden underground. They will produce flowers, but it’s rather a non-event. The typical aroid flowers - a spadix surrounded by the leaf like spathe - are usually in the blandest of creams and hidden below the foliage. Unless you want to start making your own cultivars, they are highly ignorable. To help plants flourish, remove the flowers so they can put their energy into the leaves.

Caladium sp. “White Christmas”

Caladiums need a warm climate to survive, but will still die back over winter, so don’t fret you’ve killed it. When they do go dormant, keep the corm dry - don’t water your pots. Move them undercover or tip them on their sides if they’re in the garden and you live where you get rainy winters. Here in the subtropics where our winters are dry, I plant them directly in garden, but sandy, well drained soil gives the best results. As soon as it warms up and the leaf tips begin to show, give them some fertiliser and a good drink and sit back and wait for the show.

Caladium sp. “Thai Beauty”