Last updated on December 2nd, 2011
IF YOU HAVE A DEEPLY-SHADED AREA ON YOUR PROPERTY, consider planting Caladium hortulanum there. The leaves, strikingly colored and patterned, are as effective as flowers. I certainly enjoy the psychedelic caladiums that brighten my dark Woodland Garden all summer. Closeups of these deer-proof exotics, and my tips for growing and overwintering them:
C. ‘Frieda Hemple’ brings a touch of heat to an otherwise cool setting of green ferns and hostas. The leaves, edged in hunter-green, have a large red center and scarlet veining.
Dazzling too is ‘Kathleen.’ The elephant-ear-shaped leaves have a salmon-pink center, deep-pink veins, and a mottled green edge.
I can tell you there is nothing cooler-looking than the classic, white and green C. ‘Candidum.’ This one has the same effect on me as a glass of ice-cold Pinot Grigio on a blazing day.
There are many other varieties, too, each one more spectacular than the next. Visit a specialist like this one, and you might be tempted to start a collection.
Caladiums are started from tubers. Don’t put these outdoors until it is really warm for they are touchy about cold. Here in zone 5-b it would hardly be safe until after May 30.
A good plan is to start the dormant tubers indoors in early February. Use 6-inch pots of of humussy soil or potting mix. Plant the tubers one inch deep, with the eyes, or little knobs, facing up. Set the pots in a bright but not sunny window, keep the soil barely moist, and 40 days later you’ll have gorgeous houseplants.
When summer is a fair certainty, bring the pots outdoors. You can keep the plants in pots, or transplant them to a shady, well-drained location. In any event, provide water weekly (daily if in pots), and feed monthly with a balanced, organic fertilizer.
In October, or when temperatures dip below 60 degrees and remain there, dig the tubers up. Cut off any remaining foliage, and let the tubers dry in the sun for one week. Then give them a 3 month rest in a dry, dark and warm (65-70 degrees) location. I set mine in paper bags filled with dry peat moss, perlite, or vermiculite (whatever I have on hand). In early February you can force them all over again.
The deer who visit my Woodland Garden have eaten the hostas around my caladiums, but not the caladiums themselves. Consequently I will bestow upon these plants the enviable title “Deer-Proof.”
Are caladiums for you? Let me know, by leaving a comment.
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Katreader says
They're gorgeous, but I don't think I'd remember to dig them up and put them back! I'm more of a plant them and forget about them kind of gal!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Katreader – Well, you could, if you wished, plant and forget caladiums, too. The tubers are not expensive.
Eric says
Gorgeous plants! I have just the place for them, too: in a strip of pachysandra that grows on the north side of my garage.
Thanks for the growing advice. The details are really helpful.
The Japanese Redneck says
I luv them….but am too lazy to dig them up.
So if I do plant any, I consider them an annual.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Eric – I have no doubt that red, pink or white Caladiums would look ravishing in a bed of shaded pachysandra. Glad you appreciate the growing details.
The Japanese Redneck – You're not alone. Many gardeners treat caladiums as annuals.
MAC!!!!!!!!! says
JUST HOPE YOU ARE CORRECT ABOUT DEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Deb Cole says
Sorry to say, but something ate all the leaves off my new deep red caladium along with my hosta leaves.
Audrey Harig says
Unfortunately we share our neighborhood here in south Texas with several deer families and we have to be careful what we plant. Even the toughest “deer resistant” plants get eaten if the deer are hungry enough. It sucks. I planted a huge area with different varieties of beautiful caladiums and the deer ate them all to the ground within a month, once it started to really warm up at the beginning of the summer. I managed to save a handful and moved them to the backyard but even after that only a few survived. It really is frustrating.
Suzanne says
Well I put mine out in large pots and they were gone the next morning
Vicki says
Deer LOVE to eat caladiums! They ate every leaf on mine! Deer eat impatients too!
Tracy Ericksin says
Yup, the deer ate all of my caladium leaves last night in Austin, TX but the good news – there are new leaves coming up already.