Caladiums

[estación seca]

Almost every winter I order a bulk box of Caladium bulbs from Caladium World.

They arrive extremely healthy, and produce beautiful plants. They are grown in Florida. They are far less expensive than buying them at garden centers. The company waits to ship them until it is warm enough to plant outside in your area. Mine typically arrive in April. You can request them earlier but exposure to low temperatures in shipping will kill them.

Contrary to what many people think, Caladiums do fine in full sun in the ground if they have enough water. In pots the soil heats up too much in full sun. I can grow them in Arizona sun. The most important factor to growing them is warm to hot temperatures, as the company makes clear on their Web site:

We can’t say it often enough or loud enough– caladium bulbs love HOT weather. Caladium bulbs should be stored in an area that maintains temps above 65 degrees. Told ya’ that we can’t mention warm temps often enough.

In years past this section said "above 70 degrees."

I get a Fancy Leafed Mixed - Mixed Sizes box. There are assorted sizes of tuber and assorted leaf color. This mix has more variety than the boxes with larger sized tubers because some varieties only produce small tubers.

They sell individual varieties, and boxes of tubers with all the same colored leaves. They also sell Elephant's Ears. I can't grow Elephant's Ears outside here because of spider mites, so I haven't ordered those.

I guess I've never mentioned this before here on OB. At least I can't find it with the Search.

[Dollythehun]

You've mentioned it before. At your suggestion, I ordered from them. They shipped promptly and have an excellent quality tuber.

[DirtyCoconuts]

wow- this is a new place to send some money!

do you guys dog yours up yearly or grow them in containers?

i recently went to an old nursery that had caladiums they said were in the same pots for 40+ years and the leaves were more than 30" tall!!!

[Dollythehun]

"do you guys dog yours up yearly or grow them in containers?"

In colder zones you must dig them up or order fresh each year. In your zone you're likely to grow them more like perennials. However, they are difficult (for me) to overwinter. It's easiest to buy fresh each year.

BTW, the new White Flower Farm catalog arrived yesterday. Expensive, but we'll worth it.

[estación seca]

Mine mostly go into pots. I overwinter them dry and warm, or wet and warm. Caladiums grow for a number of months, then die down until growing conditions are right again. The ones outside I could dig and store, but I don't.

You could chat with the people there. I think they dig all theirs every year to sell. I don't know whether they start each year with tubers stored from the previous year or with tiny mericlones.

Edit: They notified my the approximate shipping date will be April 5 of this year.

[piping plover]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Almost every winter I order a bulk box of Caladium bulbs from Caladium World.

They arrive extremely healthy, and produce beautiful plants. They are grown in Florida. They are far less expensive than buying them at garden centers. The company waits to ship them until it is warm enough to plant outside in your area. Mine typically arrive in April. You can request them earlier but exposure to low temperatures in shipping will kill them.

Contrary to what many people think, Caladiums do fine in full sun in the ground if they have enough water. In pots the soil heats up too much in full sun. I can grow them in Arizona sun. The most important factor to growing them is warm to hot temperatures, as the company makes clear on their Web site:



In years past this section said "above 70 degrees."

I get a Fancy Leafed Mixed - Mixed Sizes box. There are assorted sizes of tuber and assorted leaf color. This mix has more variety than the boxes with larger sized tubers because some varieties only produce small tubers.

They sell individual varieties, and boxes of tubers with all the same colored leaves. They also sell Elephant's Ears. I can't grow Elephant's Ears outside here because of spider mites, so I haven't ordered those.

I guess I've never mentioned this before here on OB. At least I can't find it with the Search.

ES, Have your caladiums sprouted yet this year?
I love them. I often get the classic candidum (white with green veins) and plant with pink impatiens in large planters outdoors.

[estación seca]

I've been waiting to plant until our nights warm up more. Looks like this week will be the time.

[piping plover]

A mixed bag of caladiums from Walmart. I’ve never seen an almost all-white variety; this was a surprise.

[Dollythehun]

The surprise is that the product was still viable. While tempting, I've had little success with their bulbs/tubers/corms. I highly recommend Caladium World. The selection will amaze you and the quality is high.

However, that is pretty, TY for sharing.

[piping plover]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

The surprise is that the product was still viable. While tempting, I've had little success with their bulbs/tubers/corms. I highly recommend Caladium World. The selection will amaze you and the quality is high.

However, that is pretty, TY for sharing.

The surprise is that the product was still viable. That comment gave me a LOL with my morning coffee!

Thanks for recommending Caladium World. The 2nd time I heard of them on this forum, will check them out! ES mentioned them above.