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CaladiumsAdd a vivid touch of color to your garden. |
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Transcript: Caladiums
Caladiums are a traditional southern favorite when it comes to shady warm season color.Even on our hottest central Texas day in the summer, it never gets too hot for caladiums. They love the heat. Just give them adequate moisture and they'll do fine.
Caladiums come in several different types: one is the standard heart-shaped type which does best in the shade, then there's also the strapped-leaf type of caladiums. Strapped-leafs can go into a bright sunnier area, even full sun if you provide adequate moisture.
Another tip is whenever you're choosing plants that have dark red or green in the leaves, they're going to tend to take light a little better than the white leaf types. Those will tend to sunburn as you get them into too much light.
Choose white types for those dark, shady areas. They really brighten the shade and make it look great.
Caladiums can be planted from the bulbs themselves but you want to wait until the weather warms up quite a bit, sometime in April or even May is fine. Or you can purchase already started plants such as these.
Caladiums do well throughout a bed or lining a pathway or even in a hanging basket. I think they're especially well-suited to the baskets because hanging baskets tend to hang in shadier areas, and it's a great way to bring color where blooms may be hard to come by.
Caladiums are easy to care for, just keep the soil moist and they'll be happy. You can fertilize them a little bit, but they really don't need much.
With your common sense tip for providing a cacophony of color with caladiums, I'm Skip Richter.
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Last Updated:
July 6, 2006