The caladiums in my balcony suddenly came alive after the first rains. I just cannot take my eyes off them. I also notice that the people passing by taking a minute or two to look up and admire the colors. I just had to share my joy with you here like any proud plant parent.
It's not just the calaadiums the Hoyas have come into bloom for the second time now. The first flush was in March and once those blooms dried the vine didn't show any signs of growth for a couple of weeks.
It then suddenly it started to push out buds and now they are blooming one by one. None of my other hoyas have bloomed this year though they showed a huge spurt of growth in March. Maybe I'll have to wait until next year or who knows maybe it will happen when I least expect them too.
Back to the caladiums There are two varieties of caladiums in this container. One is a green leaf with red veins the other also has red veins but in addition it has a splatter of red dots as well. I don't know their specific names, when we were little children we referred to all of them as bleeding hearts. It was much later that I learned that bleeding heart was a name commonly used for another type of flower.
Then there are these similar looking caladiums, only here the green is much paler and the veins and splashes of color is pink not red. This one looks rather stunning in a subtle way. The colors change a bit due to exposure to sun, the leaves turn a slightly yellowish shade when the exposure is a bit too much.
These plants don't require much sunlight, just bright light in a semi shaded spot keeps them happy. The tri-color variety has pink and white splashes on the deep green leaves making them look very attractive. These leaves are slightly smaller than most other caladiums.
This hybrid tricolor variety of caladium is different in a lot of ways from the locally gown varieties. These are imported from Thailand and are a little more expensive than the local varieties. The leaves are shaped differently, a bit longish and thereby losing the basic heart shape that the native varieties have. These are a bit wavy and curly towards the tip.
This is a stunning deep red and green bordered caladium, another hybrid variety. The leaves turn a deeper red as the plant matures. These look amazing when grown in large clusters. Right now I have only a couple of plants here.
This one to the right is called strawberry caladium which is my favorite, I fear I have lost this one due to excessive rains last year. I am just hoping that one would pop up magically from one of the containers sometime soon. Caladiums are easy to care for if you've found the right spot for them, as long as the soil is moist (no water logging please) they thrive. Dappled light is all they need in our tropical kind of climate.
This iron heart is a very delicate variety. It doesn't have tubers like the other caladiums, it spreads from roots. It needs light to grow but direct sunlight burns the plants to death. I guess I have lost this one as well. I am not sure, miracles always happen. Especially with caladiums you never know when one when one one could spring up from the earth and surprise you.
Thanks for taking the time to read and support. Please answer the following questions in the comments section.
Do you like caladiums? These being tropical plants, do they grow well where you live?