How to Care for Caladiums
Caladiums are stunning foliage plants featuring vibrant leaves that contain no frost tolerance. This plant’s unique requirements make growing Caladiums as indoor plants more challenging. However, a few pro-tips on how to care for your gorgeous Caladium indoors might help you enjoy the appealing leaves for much longer than any outdoor-grown tubers.
There are many Caladium varieties with examples including:
- Caladium Blazing Sun
- Caladium Angel Wings
- Caladium Pink Lady
- Caladium Strawberry Star
- Caladium New Wave
- Caladium Hilo Beauty
Moving Your Caladium Indoors
Many plant lovers want Caladiums as indoor plants. However, there are a few special instructions on growing your Caladium indoors to keep them happy and preserve their tubers. Plants growing in locations that experience cooler conditions could be potted in containers to help move them indoors when cold winters threaten. Growing your Caladium as indoor plants comes with its challenges, though, as this plant needs high humidity levels, and heated homes are commonly quite arid. In addition, Caladiums develop leaves from spring to fall only and require a resting period of about five months to recharge and sprout again during spring. You can also extend its foliar display more by bringing containers indoors, but ultimately its leaves will die back, and the tubers will become dormant until warmer temperatures arrive. Still, getting your plants indoors in containers will help preserve their tubers and save them from experiencing damage in cold outdoor conditions.
Caladium Care Indoors
Indoor Caladium plant needs a medium sunlight location with safety from midday sunlight, which can scorch its leaves. An eastern or northern window generally seems the ideal exposure. Humidity is essential to your Caladium indoor plant care as its tubers belong to South American tropical rainforests and develop seasonal foliage only in the rainy, warm months.
Imitating your plant’s native habitats is crucial to welcome the plant to any home interior successfully. Keeping the humidity levels high in any heated home can be done by using a humidifier, misting your plants, and placing a tray filled with water and pebbles under its container. The water evaporation will moisten your ambient air and allow the humidity required for your Caladiums.
Keep your caladiums far away from heating vents, drafty windows, and doors. While your beautiful caladiums are still in their foliar glory, you’ll need to keep them watered and healthy. You must only fertilise your plant when it’s actively thriving in spring to late summer. During fall and winter, no feeding is necessary. Water your plant’s soil when it seems dry to your touch.
Locate your plants in a region with temperatures of minimal 65°F (18°C.). When its leaves start to die back, allow it to continue until fully exhausted and then chop them off. Then, you can either lift its tubers, let them dry out completely, and store them with peat in the breathable bag or leave tubers in the soil and stop watering. During spring, either plant out your stored tubers or start watering the already potted tubers.
Move its container to slightly brighter sunlight, carefully saving its new shoots from hot sun rays. Once your plant’s container has completely sprouted, slowly reintroduce it to your outdoor environment until fall and repeat this procedure all over again.