Caladiums are special
The rainy season is here, if you do not believe this weather report, just look around at the soggy lawns and run-off ditches. This is an extremely early rainy season, and just in time. We were also extremely dry before this last week.
Spring has started, for sure. More days until school closes for the summer and here we are at Memorial Day weekend.
A great spring plant for the garden is the spectacular Caladium. The heart-shaped colorful leaves will grow fast and last until fall. They can be planted in pots and in soil, even hanging baskets. Use them outside and inside. The leaves cut from the plant, also make a colorful bouquet for a centerpiece.
You can purchase already potted Caladiums or the bare tubers. The tubers are kind of ugly looking, with little knobs all over them. The knobs will be the leaf that grows into the remarkable colored leaf. These tubers come from the Amazon jungles of South America. What a sight that must be. The tall stately, large leaf verities growing up thru the huge ferns and the shorter, full masses covering the jungle floor. These are not ground cover plants as far as being a spreading vine. They are single tubers that will sprout several leaves from each tuber knob. The tall stemmed, caladium leaves will be 8 inches to 2 feet across. The more moderate ones will grow 2 inches to 6 inches wide. All will have the heart-shaped leaf at the top of the stem and then different verities will flow down to a sharp lance-leafed style. Others will flow out more widely, as they come to a point. there is even a mini variety that is almost a ground cover if you plant enough of them. They have a perfect heart shape and ruffled edge, and only grow about 2 inches in height.
So when you see those bagged brown tubers, think beautiful leaves. Bags of tubers will have a photo of what they will look like when they are mature. They also grow fast. So planting now will assure leaf colors within three weeks. Now, of course if you plant them in some way that will keep them too wet, or too dry, or in the sun and not in at least partial shade, you may be disappointed.
You can, however, plant them upside down and they will still find their way up into the light. There are a few sun verities. Aaron is cream with a green edging, and tall. Rose Bud is medium height, with green edging and splashes of pink in the middle. Red Flash is cream with green edging and a large deep pink splash radiating out from the middle of the leaf.
There are hundreds of combinations of the more shaded loving verities. What they all like is some soil that has some peat moose, or is light and drains well. The first week of planting, tubers, need some regular watering to help them adjust to their new lifestyle. Plant each tuber 2 inches deep with the knobs pointing up. A tuber with only one knob will be a single, large leaf plant. A tuber with several knobs will produce several leaves, same color pattern, and usually be a moderate height.
You can plant taller plants in back of other shade loving plants. Maybe plant the taller ones in the middle of the lower growing plants. When they start coming up and you want to move one or two around, do so when they are first showing their colors. You do not have to do a lot of soil amending but they do like a some-what acid soil. You can turn in or sprinkle some Black Kow on the soil. Plants in a pot should do fine with regular light potting soil.
It is recommended to use some 666 fertilizers about every six weeks. The more sun they are growing in, the more water they will need. Partial-shade plants will do fine if the sprinkler hits them twice a week, once established.
Caladiums will be colorful all summer and will then die back in the fall. Just leave them alone, or sprinkle with some mulch. They will reappear in the spring as soon as the soil is warmed to at least 75 degrees. They are after all a tropical plant. By the second year die back they may not all come back the next spring. You can dig in and see what the tubers are like. They will be smaller and may not bloom well or they may be soft and need to be removed.
Propagation is by cutting the bulb and replanting each section of knobs. This has to be done early and under warm conditions/ better to just buy a new crop.
There is a Caladium Festival in Lake Placid in August. The event includes lots and lots of plants and a bus ride tour to the massive Caladium fields. I will remind everyone of that date.
The Garden Club still has a few tubers for sale. They are a mixed selection only. Questions and answers for me may be e-mailed to sbutts@breezenewspapers.com
H. Jean Shields is past president of Cape Coral Garden Club.