Planting Caladium Blubs
Fancy-leaved Caladiums, natives of tropical America, have been grown in greenhouses and gardens in the warmer parts of this country for many years. Mid-America has been a bit slow to use them as window plants, and perhaps even slower to recognize their garden value.
Anyone who can provide warm growing conditions, rich soil, and water need not hesitate to try caladiums. Dormant tubers are available in late winter until June. Nurseries list named varieties, assorted color mixtures, or a choice of color as white, red, or pink.
When to Plant
The time to start the tubers into growth depends on when one desires their colorful display. They have a growing period of approximately six months. Then growth declines as the mature leaves turn yellow to brown.
Where the growing season is at least four months in length, the easiest way is to plant the tubers directly where they are to grow. Thus one handles them only once, saving time and labor and there is no shock of transplanting.
When an earlier display is wanted or when the season is too short, the tubers can be given an extra boost inside. Plant them in flats or pots filled with peat moss and sand (equal parts), four or five weeks before it is safe for garden planting. When roots are well started, reset into individual pots of rich potting soil.
Before planting, inspect the tubers and cut away any decayed spots with a sharp knife. Dust the cut surfaces with a fungicide. Large tubers may be cut into sections leaving several eyes on each division. Place the tubers, topside up, in the pots or flats and barely cover with the planting medium.
If started directly in the ground, cover them with three or four inches of soil. The planting medium must be kept just barely moist until root growth commences. There is great danger in overwatering at this stage. The roots grow on top of the tuber around the rather prominent eyes.
When growth is well started more water must be given. Caladiums require warm growing conditions at all times. In, 4 – 5 weeks, leaf growth shows. Then they must be in good strong light if started indoors.
When warm weather is at hand, the growing plants (after being hardened off by exposing them to outside air on pleasant days) may be set in the ground in a well drained location, or the pots sunk in the soil as the case may be.
If set in the ground, the bed should contain plenty of organic matter. Almost all soils can be improved for caladiums by adding peat. They like soil on the acid side.
After the growing plants are well established, they should never lack for moisture. However, avoid sour, soggy conditions. A mulch of leaves, partially rotted compost helps greatly to keep the needed moisture from evaporating.
Light Exposure
Authorities differ on whether fancy-leaved caladiums are at their best in shade, partial shade, or full sun. The tubers grow larger in full sun but the leaf coloring is not so good. In deep shade they become somewhat weak and leggy and the leaves may droop and fall over.
Partial shade seems best, at least protection from the torrid rays of the noonday sun. Try them in various locations to find where they are happiest or make the best display in your garden – under trees, at the edge of shrubbery, in front of evergreens, in pots or jardinieres on the porch, terrace, or patio, around pools, in tiers against a wall, or in window boxes.
For companion plants use wax begonias, tuberous begonias, pink-flowered summer blooming oxalis, sultana, Sedum sieboldi, Helleborus corsicus, platycodons, or Clematis manchurica.
When caladiums are to be used as house plants, they should be started into growth in small pots and shifted to larger ones as they become root bound, or when crowding becomes apparent. They need the strongest light possible to keep the colors of the leaves at their brightest.
Watch the foliage to see how much window sun they can take without fading or dulling. They will require ample moisture but the soil must not become water-logged.
If you receive a fine potted plant, keep it in luxuriant growth by frequent sprayings to enable it to tolerate the change from a humid greenhouse to the drier air of a home. Caladiurns, indoors and out, respond to periodic feedings of liquid fertilizer, following the directions on the package.
Dormancy
When plants commence to lose their foliage, it is an indication that rest time is at hand. Do not dig the tubers, or remove the leaves until they have fully ripened, but decrease the amount of water gradually. When all the leaves have withered, cease watering.
Tubers in pots can remain there until planting time again, or they can be shaken out and stored. As a rule, they can be kept from year to year, and stored in a warm, dry place. Temperatures below 50 to 60 degrees are considered dangerous. Those not in pots should be packed in vermiculite, dry sand, or similar material.
If some of the tubers are wanted for the winter window garden, let them rest at least a month before starting them into growth again.
Caladium leaves are prized for flower decoration work. Use them with such flowers as lilies, hardy amaryllis, geraniums, phlox, or Viburnum carlesi for stunning effects.
The lance-leafed types with shorter and narrower leaves have been suggested for use in arrangements. When the leaves are submerged in lukewarm water until well filled, they will last for several weeks in vases. If you do not wish to cut the leaves from the plant, pot grown caladiums can be removed from the pot, the roots washed clean of soil, and then wrapped in sphagnum which must be kept moist. These will last almost indefinitely and continue to grow.
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