Caladium: popular types and flower care

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Caladium is a flower popularly known as the “heart of Christ”, “angel wings” or “elephant ears”, famous for the shape and color of its foliage. The fruit is a panicle with berries. The root system is tuberous.

Caladium is a perennial ornamental deciduous plant with beautiful arrow-shaped leaves: white, carmine, purple, pink and yellow colors predominate in color.

The leaves may be plain, with a darker pattern of veins, or speckled.

The flowers are inconspicuous, small, collected on the cob. The fruit is a panicle with berries.

The root system is tuberous.

What the caladium looks like can be seen in the photo.

Varieties of houseplant Caladium

Caladium (Ca.lad.ium) is a genus of 14 species whose names are accepted in international nomenclature. It is synonymous with the names Aphyllarum S.Moore and Phyllotaenium André . Family: Araceae.

Due to the similarity of the name, the plant is sometimes confused with Cladium (Cladium) – this is a herb from the Sedge family.

Homeland – the tropics of America. Caladium esculentum , the variety with the largest and most starchy tubers, is cultivated in agriculture.

For indoor floriculture, the most interesting are:
Cladium Humboldt (S. humboldtii);

Caladium two-color (C. bicolor) , whose synonyms are K. two-color rubicunda (C. bicolor var. rubicundum);

Caladium bicolor White (C. bicolor var. wightii) and others. In stores, plants are sold, as a rule, without cultivar names.

Caladium Humboldt is the ancestor of most artificially bred indoor caladium varieties. It does not have a stem, the flower is a rosette of dark green leaves with blurry silvery spots. Blooms in early April.

Caladium bicolor comes from the Antilles. The length of the foliage reaches 30 cm, it is painted mainly in shades of red, raspberry, light green.
Hybrid varieties are also popular, which are bred to improve the characteristics of the plant.

Caladium ‘Rosalie’ – characterized by a green border on red foliage.

Caladium “Pink beauty” – with a bright pink veining and a pink color in the middle of the leaf with a green border.

Caladium “Florida Cardinal” – glossy crimson foliage with emerald edging.

Caladium “White Christmas” – silvery leaves with dark green stripes and specks.

In the photo you can see examples of flowers of different varieties of Caladium.

Planting and caring for decorative caladium

The nuances of caring for caladium at home are due to its tropical origin.
requirements for environmental conditions. Caladium prefers a bright place, protected from direct sunlight. You can place the plant on a window if it faces east or northwest. Brings out partial shade.
High humidity is vital for Caladium. Place the flower in a tray of moistened gravel, spray the air around the plant, avoiding getting water on the leaves.

For spraying, it is best to use a unit with a fine spray nozzle. A suitable humidity level for growing ornamental caladium starts at 70%.
“Elephant Ears” is a heat-loving plant, the temperature of the content is 20-25 ° C.

Caladium care is simple, despite the exotic homeland of the flower. Water the plant regularly, with a small amount of water so that it does not stagnate in the soil. The top layer of the substrate should dry out between waterings. Water is used at room temperature. Caladiums are species that leave for a dormant period – from early autumn to spring, at which time the plant sheds leaves. Then watering is stopped as soon as the leaves begin to dry out.

The tuber is removed from the pot, placed in wet peat and stored at a temperature of 15 ° C, a little warmer, but not higher than 20 ° C. Once a month, the substrate for wintering the tuber is moistened with a spoonful of water.

The buds begin to grow in March. Then the tuber is planted in a pot to a depth of several centimeters, transferred to a warm room and watered regularly. The leaves are growing fast.

For planting caladium, the substrate is prepared from soddy and leafy soil and peat (2: 1: 1).

At home, you can plant a caladium in a terrarium – it will appreciate the high humidity and warmth. Transplantation is carried out as soon as roots appear in the drain hole of the pot.

Abundant watering and regular feeding of the caladium during the summer are required. Fertilizers are applied every half a month.

The process of caring for decorative caladium is shown in the photo.

Reproduction is carried out by daughter tubers in February – March, until the plant has entered the phase of active vegetation. Tubers can be divided into several parts, each segment should have 2-3 buds. Slices of tubers are sprinkled with finely crushed charcoal. After planting, the tubers are kept for some time without watering – in waterlogged soil, they can begin to rot.
It is also possible to grow a flower from seeds, but this method requires high temperatures (25 to 30 ° C). Soil with seeds, covered with glass, is regularly irrigated from a sprayer. Seedlings germinate in 14-20 days.

If the plant sheds leaves, or they decrease in size and fade, this is a sign of improper care. With care that meets all the requirements of the plant, home-grown caladium looks like in the above photo.

Dropping foliage occurs when the flower is supercooled. Temperatures of 16°C and below are considered critical. Changes in the size and intensity of the color of the foliage indicate that the flower lacks nutrients, that is, the fertilization schedule is broken or the transplant has not been carried out for a long time.
Tubers often begin to rot during dormancy. The damaged part is cut off, the place is treated with fungicides for plants. With their help, leaves are treated in case of late blight.
Caladium is susceptible to aphids, mealybugs and spider mites. Having found pests, the grower isolates the diseased plant, rinses and dries the surface of the leaf plates, and treats with an insecticide.

When performing any operations on the plant, you must be careful and work with gloves: its juice is poisonous and can cause contact dermatitis.

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