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| 'Puppy Love' |
It is so very tempting to jump the gun and plant Caladium bulbs in springtime when the soil and air first begin to warm. New shoots of Caladiums from the year(s) before respond to the seasonal transition and lingering sunshine. Out they come, slowly unfurling into glorious shocks of brilliant color. Fingers itch to put more of them in the ground right away.
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| 'Burning Heart' is the larger, background Caladium with 'Tiki Torch' bordering. |
It's perfectly acceptable to plant Caladium bulbs anytime after your last frost date and when the temperatures warm to above 65F (or so) consistently. But, I like to wait. Caladiums respond best to warm, moist soil, and humid air. These are the conditions that make them best suited for
summer foliage plants. As my Florida gardening friends are well aware, our
spring season is typically very dry.
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| 'Classic Pink' in the front garden. |
I don't know about you, but I tire of dragging hoses around to my newly installed plants in the
spring. Caladiums do not tolerate drought conditions for any enduring length of time. As a matter of course, they prefer our
summer rainy season. Happy they are to receive a good daily downpour as long as the soil they're planted in drains well. You don't want to put them where water collects.
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| 'Puppy Love' in the front garden. |
As difficult as it may be to wait past spring to plant, I do. My bulbs are ordered early from
Classic Caladiums for the best selection. I don't actually have them delivered to my doorstep until June and often don't get the last of them planted until July (or later). At that point the
soil is warm (day and night) and our
summer rainy season has kicked in full force. New sprouts from bulbs rocket out of the ground in a matter of days and colorful foliage unfolds in what seems like time-lapsed speed.
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| 'Celebration' under the blue bottle tree and 'Radiance' on the right in the back garden. |
Happy heart-shaped faces of reds, greens, pinks, white, and even salmon colors shine for the entirety of summer, and often into fall, when planted later. The general life-span of Caladium plants each year when they sprout or re-sprout is about 150 days.
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| 'Tiki Torch' mixed with 'Desert Sunset' in pots. |
I prefer my annually planted bulbs, with their dazzling foliage show, to peak mid-August into September when many of the spring blooming flowers have faded.
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| 'Lemon Blush' and 'Desert Sunset' |
Summer is Caladium season. They thrive with very little attention once the rainy season begins and provides them with plenty of nutritious water from heaven.
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| 'Classic Pink' to the left and 'Lemon Blush' to the right. |
My garden is chocked full of
Florida-Friendly and
Florida native plants, but Caladiums are the stars of my summer garden. Waiting to plant them until after the spring dry season is well worth the patience required. Especially when August rolls around and there is still ample color gleaming in my garden from their easy-care foliage.
*** All Caladiums shown are varieties from and sold by
Classic Caladiums.
*** Other articles
I've written on Caladiums.
****
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