Where's the pics of all the Caladiums everyone's planted?

Cool, Thanks Bill! :D

Here is mine. I did not know so many flowers have names!! Bev

Neat display there, dragonfly.

I would agree with Bill on NOID#2 being Pink Beauty - mine look identical.

Oh good, I will give it a name then :) Thanks Kooger!!

Xant. Lime Zinger w/ caladium Miss Muffet from the first caladium coop this year. So fine!

Very NIce!

Yeah, those are great together!

Hey Bill, we are still having nice weather, but in the interest of actually having these guys next year, should I be digging them up now? Thanks for your expertise! Julie

Bill, I'm visiting down here in Fl. Been doing a lot of yard work at my FIL's house. Really had a good laugh he has Caladiums growing in the grass in his yard and my nephew has been mowing them down. Apparently there was a small flower bed there at one time. One of the first things I did was move them to a bed under one of his trees. They seem to be thriving in the new location already.

I did some reading and came up with these:
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Planting in pots is the easiest. Just bring them inside.

Storage of Tubers
Caladiums cannot tolerate cold temperatures, and when soil temperatures drop below 60°F (15.5°C), plants will gradually deteriorate, and finally the foliage will die. This is essentially what happens in the fall in north Florida. The yellowing and drooping of the foliage signals the time to dig and store caladium tubers. They should be dug before the leaves completely deteriorate because leafless tubers will be difficult to locate.

Digging and storing caladium tubers. Tubers should be dug when the foliage begins to yellow and droop or frost threatens. They should be lifted from the soil, cleaned, dried and stored in dry peat moss or sand in a dry, well ventilated area at a minimum temperature of 70°F. Do not allow temperatures to exceed 90°F or fall below 60°F for prolonged periods of time. Tubers gradually lose moisture and shrink at temperatures above 90°F. Storage temperatures below 60°F result in physiological breakdown of the tubers. Storing tubers in unheated garages where temperatures during the winter months can drop to 40°F or below will result in cold-damaged tubers.

Tubers will usually begin to sprout after eight weeks of storage. They are ready to plant at this time, however, they can be held in storage and planted in the spring.

CALADIUM -Native to South America, once upon a time caladiums were strictly a plant for shady gardens. With the development of thicker-leaved varieties caladiums can grow in full sunshine as long as adequate moisture is available. Light frost kills caladium leaves outright but the best time to dig the plant is before the leaves disappear. You’ll be able to find them hidden in the soil much easier if you use the stem as a handle to gently tug the corms free as you dig.

Caladiums can also be stored in a plastic tub and covered with perlite. Separate the corms by leaf color and label the tubs carefully. You won’t be able to tell which is which next spring without a label.

Both caladiums and dahlias should be stored in a warm, rather than cool, spot for the winter. A little-used hall closet is a good place. If kept in a cool basement or unheated garage the roots deteriorate and do not sprout easily in spring. Keep the lid on the container until you retrieve it in April.

Chopping the bulbs is done in the spring. Take the smaller bulbs and chop them up into pieces. As long as each piece has an eye or portion of an eye on it, it'll grow. By fall, that piece can be anything from a #2 to a Mammoth bulb. There are a ton of variables.

A tuber will grow in size for a couple seasons, it won't grow much after the first or second one though. They'll actually begin to shrink in size after a couple years. If you have managed to plant the same bulbs a couple years in a row, chop them up before planting them a third time. You'll have just as nice of plants and you'll end up with more bulbs.
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I dug mine my varieties, one at a time. Left each to dry a day or so, then took a plastic knife and scraped the bottom of each, removing any mushy stuff and wiped it on a papertowel. I wonder if it would be easier to just wipe the whole tuber with the towel, thereby removing any mushy areas. Now they are in flats, drying in the spare bedroom, then I'll pack them in icecream buckets with peat moss.

Hope this helps.

You bet that helps. Thank you so much Kooger, I'll have to put that post in my favorites so I remember how to do it next year, too. Great info!!

Thanks Kooger! Great information!!

Well, it looks to me like Mother Nature has been a little fooled this year with all this warm weather we've been having! I've got Bills Caladiums (Caladiums4Less) popping up all over! Love it!

These white ones have been coming up for over a month now...

I can't remember where I got these "Thai Beauty's" from, but I really thought they were goners as I had rearranged and dug up the container! Low and behold...they just appeared again. I planted some other plants with them and hopefully they'll fill in nicely. They are gorgeous though!

very nice!

Very Nice Kathy!!!

oh wow! nice mix of other plants with them, too- how beautiful

Mine are just starting to pop up. It will take a week or 2 before I have pics. The Carolyn Whortons are the ones that seem to be waking up.

Thank you Janet, Hyblaean and Bill...

Last year was my first year to grow Caladiums and I learned a lot.

When I first ordered my bulbs from Bill in March I planted them and then sat there looking at them everyday wondering when they were going to appear. It seemed to take forever, but that was just me being impatient. It did take a little while as it was an early planting and I now understand that the ground needs to be warm. I really found this out later when I wanted to add some after suggested planting season and ordered them and they were sprouting in 2 weeks!

I know that you all don't have this luxury...but what you trade off in beautiful tulip bulbs that you leave in the ground all year, I get the same thing with Caladiums. It's just a joy to see them poking out of the ground again this year. AND...they're looking good.

It's very satisfying to a Florida gardener...as we don't have many things that go away and then later re-appear! .I just placed another order to plant in my front entry...this time being a little more experienced and trying to plan with height, color and sun/shade conditions in mind. I can't wait to plant and post some photo's!

Yeah...I'll probably still be out there everyday checking them out and wondering when they're going to appear! hahaha.

One thing though...I bought some other Caladium bulbs from places like Home Depot, etc... They couldn't even compare to our Bills!

Kat

This is the combo I have in my head right now...and lots of them (this a shady spot)

Galaxy in the back against the foundation...cause they're tall.
Pink Symphony's
Rose Bud (I llove these!)
Short little "Miss Muffet" in front

What do you think?

They need to share their space with this big White Bird and a few other plants, but I think it's a great spot for beautiful Caladiums.

Galaxy and Rosebud(my personal favorite) look great planted together!!!
You nailed it right on the head too!!, you have to be patient. Especially at the beginning of the growing season. They are going to be a little slow at first but as soon as the soil temperature gets to that magic number, 72 degrees, they'll grow like crazy. The deeper we get into the season, the faster they come up. I had a couple beds I planted last year in July that took only about 10 days to appear.
I was cleaning up a bunch of my beds last night, I already have about 7 varieties showing and ALLOT more poking thru the ground. I have 10 new Thai's I'll be adding to my collection this year. I'm planting all those in nice pots.
I'll have about 60-65 different varieties(Thai's and domestics) growing this year. I should get some real nice pictures for my web site.

I'm also discussing something with a grower that I never thought I'd do. I'm thinking about planting 5 acres of my own. He'll lease me the land(which is the cheap part) and do all the work. If I knew for certain that we weren't going to have any hurricanes this year it would be an easy decision , I'd probably do it. There's allot of money involved though and I really need to think about it. It costs about $1700.00 an acre just to fumigate and that's just the beginning of the expenses. The reward though is I'll get to plant 5 acres of varieties I want.
I keep asking myself, "Do I really want the headaches that come with being a grower"? One minute I do and the next minute I'm hesitant about doing it. I'm busy enough as it is and this would be a MAJOR investment!!!

biLL

Hey Bill, That is a big step. Just think how far you have come over the years. I'm sure you will have it all thought out before you jump in. I would tell you to follow your heart that is what brought you to where you are today.
Well I'm pretty pleased, I was a little worried that I would not be able to overwinter my Caladiums bulbs from last year. So I decided to do what has worked best for me in the past "benign neglect". LOL I brought my potted caladiums inside and shoved them under the bottom of my seedling stands and just ignored them. A couple of weeks ago I pulled them out and started watering them. Looks like quite a few if not all of those are coming up. I have the ones that came out of the window boxes to pot up I put those in a brown paper bag to overwinter I'll be checking them out soon. Wish me luck. Of course I bought more this year just in case. LOL

Well Bill…Sounds like a lot of work and of course more worry and responsibility, as well a major investment!

However, you’ve got the most experience to undertake something like this. Did you say “He’ll do all the work?”. If so, that kind of eases things.

You do love your Caladiums…and I can see so many possibilities as far as varieties go. As far as hurricanes go, I haven’t really heard too much doom and gloom from Dr. Grey this year as he’s really screwed up with his predictions in the last 2 years. Besides, wouldn’t you still have something left if we did have hurricanes? Also, I’m seeing more and more full grown Caladiums being sold in Garden centers at a pretty good price.

OMG…this could be really exciting! Picture an acre of “Florida Beauty” Caladiums, which are fairly hard to find and go for good prices!

FL Beauty is definitely one I'd like to grow. I don't know about a whole acre of it but I'd like to have at least a couple rows. That's still allot of bulbs. Buying that seed would be a little costly but the return would be awesome!!
Back in 2004 when we had the three hurricanes in six weeks come through here it put a major hurting on the caladium growers. It put a couple of them out of business. The fields were flooded for a couple of weeks and there was allot of damage done

I bet some of the people downstream ended up with some unexpected suprises in their yards!
Bill you know me...I'm still addicted to Florida Sweethearts, Carolyn Whorton, and Red Flash. They pop from across the yard!

Bill, I can see why you're hesitant. BUT...we're not getting any hurricanes this season! Let's hope not anyways! (fingers crossed)

I'm sure you remember Charlie in 2004 as I think he moved up into your area after he devastated ours! That was probably one of the most devastating things I've ever encountered in my life. I had a 21' boat at the time and it flew into the house, broke the roof trusses and then bounced off and was later recovered about a mile away, sunk. What a mess this town was in...it was sad.

I have to say though...it's starting to look pretty sharp now...things are fairly rebuilt.

I just received my latest order today from you and thank-you so much for getting it to me by the weekend...I really didn't expect it but am so glad they came as I'm going to be away next week and tomorrow is about the only day I can plant. I just can't wait for this bed of Caladiums to sprout! I'll be posting some photos! (surprise, surprise)

Kat

OMG! What was I thinking?

I've got 200 beautiful Caladium bulbs and all I managed to plant today was about 60! (and that was back-breaking work! hehe). I am burned to a crisp as it was a gorgeous sunny day. I'm beat, and I have no idea why I can't sleep!

I managed to plant 1/2 of my front entry (the small side). Tomorrow, I'm going to do the other side which is in complete shade and is bigger. I need to come up with some marker system to know where I've planted as I was digging bulbs up today! I've also been planting them pretty close together (about 9").I planted Galaxy in the Semi-sun and pink symphony in the total shade. Rosebuds and Miss Muffet in the shade also. I think my neighbors must have thought I was nuts, just standing there watching where the sun fell! haha

I cannot wait until this bed fills in...I think it's going to look fantastic! Leftovers are going to be stuck in some of my container pots on the lanai, as well as in the beds. I'm going to be living in "Caladium Heaven" LOL

Here's one of the beds they're going into...

Kat, I plant this bed full of oxalis, caladiums & coleus (in that order) every year. The only way I've figured out to mark the caladiums is with the white plant marker. And then I leave them in the ground so I'll know where the caladiums are when it comes time to dig them up.

It doesn't take long for everything to grow and the white makers all disappear.

But I was just thinking... you don't have to dig your caladiums, do you? Duh... I need more coffee!!!

Brinda, what a beautiful site!!! Nice planting and beautiful pool too~!

Thanks Janet, that's one of my favorite gardens to do every year. Except my hiney is always sore for days from sliding along the cement. LOL

I love the mix you have with the Oxalis and Coleus along with your Caladiums!

Brinda...Your Caladium garden is absolutely breathtaking! That is so beautiful! I LOVE the mix with Coleus. I've got some gorgeous Oxalis going on in pots...but how does it do in complete shade? That really is a spectacular display! You should be very proud...It's amazing!

My problem is that I'm working with a cover of about 3" of Pine Bark mulch...so I just can't dig a hole and plant. Got to scape the bark off, then dig. Fill and recover. Like I mentioned earlier, It got to the point were I was digging up bulbs I had already planted! Got smarter today though...I marked them with those little bamboo skewers you thread meat and stuff on for parties. If nothing comes up..I've got a "stick garden" hahahaha. All I needed was something to mark where I had already planted. I finished off things today and just can't wait to see what comes up!

Mrs. Confident Caladium Bulb planter posted something earlier in this thread about her first experience last year planting Caladium bulbs and how everybody needs to just have patience! Patience? What's that? hahahaha.

Here's a good pot of Oxalis I have going on...I Love this plant.

Would you also believe that I managed to plant nearly 200 bulbs? I'm sore and have imprints from the pine bark imbedded in my legs! hahaha! Whine, whine, whine!

Oh yeah...thanks Brinda! Now I have to add Coleus in there?

I'm just kidding as I thank you for the ideas...that really is gorgeous.

I have to get some of that burgundy oxalis...what is the name of it? I have some that are green leaves, but not the burgundy ones!

Janet,

Are you ready for your bulbs?

biLL

Yes, Bill....as ready as I am ever going to be...lol Thanks!! Can't wait to get them. I am putting them into pots this year. I really enjoyed the ones I had on my porch and deck last year. The deer and rabbits enjoyed the rest! GRRRRRR! LOL

I'll get them out by Wed. for you. I am absolutely slammed right now. It happens every year when there's two or three days of nice weather. I'll get 100 emails or phone calls from folks that have to have there bulbs "yesterday".. This is the one week of my season I hate!!

biLL