Caladium

About Caladium

Caladium is a South American genus grown almost entirely for the ornamental leaf-colour cultivars of one species, C. bicolor: pink, red, white and green patterned selections developed over more than a century of breeding, most notably through the University of Florida's Caladium programme.

Care notes

• Caladium bicolor cultivars grow from a tuber and are naturally deciduous; a full die-back and dormant period over winter is expected corm behaviour, not a sign of a dying plant.
• White and pale-centred cultivars (White Christmas, Aaron) generally need more shade than the pink and red forms, since their leaves carry less chlorophyll and scorch more readily under direct light.
• Named cultivars are propagated by dividing the tuber, not by seed: seed-grown Caladium bicolor won't reliably reproduce a specific named pattern.