Grow Caladium Plants for Shade Garden Interest :- Caladium cultivars with vibrant reds and pinks or cold white leaves make striking accent pieces for your shade gardens.
Grow Caladium Plants for Shade Garden Interest
Caladium Care and Growing Tips
Typically, flowers are what attract your eye while selecting new plants for your garden. Tropical caladiums are a great illustration of how interesting foliage can be a great complement to your garden. Their enormous leaves are coloured in variations of red, pink, and white as well as all three together. Caladium leaves can have elaborately ruffled edges and can be heart-shaped or longer, resembling spears. Most importantly, they work well in shade gardens, which are frequently the hardest environments for plants to flourish in.
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Caladium Tubers
Caladiums, or Caladium bicolor, are tropical tubers native to South America that are often sold as “bulbs.” They are also referred to as “Angel Wings.” When warm, rainy weather approaches, they promptly spread out their enormous, long-lasting leaves because they thrive in moist, humid settings. They aren’t normally thought of as aggressive, because they don’t often blossom; instead, they expand underground like other tubers.
Caladium Varieties to Grow
Caladiums vary greatly in the wild, and gardeners have benefited from this by creating a wide range of cultivars. There are dozens of varieties that are perfect for gardens in the shade.
The mostly white species are my favourite because they look especially beautiful in dappled shade. The songs “Moonlight” and “White Delight” are my personal favourites.
If colour is what you’re after, though, you can discover reds and pinks like in the Heart to Heart series, “Desert Sunset,” or “Freida Hemple.” Some of the more recent types can even tolerate direct sunlight.
Overwintering Caladiums
Plant your caladiums in full to part shade and let them grow organically if you reside in gardening zones 9–10. When the summer rains arrive, they will resurrect from their dormant state during the drier winter months. Lift the tubers in early autumn in milder climates, once the foliage starts to yellow and die. After a few weeks of drying out in a warm place, trim off any leftover foliage and keep in dry peat moss until the next spring when the soil warms up again.