Enliven your Mother's Day gifting with Florida-bred caladiums

Sure, flowers for Mother’s Day are traditional, but this year, we have another suggestion. How about a gift every bit as colorful as a cut bouquet, but that can go on living – for years, even? Bonus: It's uniquely Florida.

Caladiums, with their appropriately heart-shaped leaves and vivid colors, make a lovely present for a mom whether she’s a gardener or not. These bulb-grown tropicals may have originated in the Amazon, but over the last century, have become tied to the Sunshine State, which leads the world in caladium breeding, says University of Florida spokesman Brad Buck.

Plus, caladiums have all the right symbolism. Their lovely leaves represent “love, kindness and tenderness,” says internationally known University of Florida professor of environmental horticulture Zhanao Deng, who breeds caladiums. “And they keep coming back.”

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Though they’re often massed as a groundcover, single potted specimens can be a striking focal point. Cut and arranged in a vase, they can make a lasting centerpiece. Nurseries and garden centers sell caladiums already potted and growing or you can buy the tubers then plant them where you'd like.

Caladiums introduced to U.S. gardeners more than a century ago

U.S. gardeners were introduced to caladiums at the1893 Chicago Columbia Exposition, known as the Chicago World’s Fair, when they starred in the Brazil exhibit. There, they caught the eye of pioneering botanist Henry Nehrling. Hired by Thomas Edison as a consultant (Nehrling’s lush Collier County property, later known as ““Jungle Larry’s Caribbean Gardens” became the horticultural underpinnings of what’s now the Naples Zoo.

Florida has been caladium central for almost 50 years. In 1976, the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences started a breeding program at its Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Wimauma, southeast of Tampa. It remains the only major organized caladium breeding program on the planet, sending plants to “Europe, Japan – all over the world,” said Deng.

Though much of the work is still done the old-fashioned way – by cross-breeding – new technologies are making things easier Deng says. “We use tissue culture, growing the plants in test tubes and (can) induce mutations for new color or new shape or greater tolerance of sunburn.”  

Once Deng and his team develop new varieties, they’re sent on to growers to be tried. And it’s the growers who usually get naming rights. A recent favorite: Spicy Lizard, though Deng recalls another with a chuckle,  a fancy-leaved variety splotched with various shades of green: Frogs in a Blender.

As Karen Maxwell, horticultural specialist for the Edison and Ford Winder Estates writes, they thrive in Southwest Florida, and the estates plants out “dozens and dozens of caladium tubers each season. As a tropical tuber, caladiums can be planted in our Zone 10 all year, but they will sit quietly until both the air temperature and soil temperature are a minimum temperature of 65 degrees … (They’re) most spectacular when planted en-masse.”

Her advice for caladiums in the landscape: “Lay your tubers out where you want a color riot in a shady part of the garden. Cover with 4” of good compost, water and voila! If you plant now, as described, your caladium palette will fill your garden within five weeks! Keep good compost in your soil, keep the soil moist and caladiums will last through December. Do not let them dry out, as that will kill the foliage.”

But they also make great additions to arrangements, Maxwell says. “After cutting your stems in the morning, allow caladiums to rest and recover for 24 hours before using them in floral design. Just be sure never to put them in the refrigerator – nothing below 65 degrees.”

About caladiums

Scientific name: Caladium hortulanum

For Northern transplants nostalgic for all the spring loveliness that comes from bulbs — crocuses, tulips, jonquils and the like — caladiums offer a subtropical alternative.

But rather than bright flowers, these tropicals, which rise annually from tubers, produce colorful foliage in shades of red, pink, white, silver and green. Even so, picked and arranged in vases, caladiums make lovely bouquets.

The plant grows up to 15 inches tall and its large leaves flourish from now through autumn before they die back. After a winter's hibernation, they return the following spring.

Native to the Amazon region of South America, caladiums are ideal for the humid subtropics. They like heat, shade and humidity, though growers have developed some varieties that can tolerate direct sunlight.

Neglect doesn't much bother them, which is why you can sometimes see caladiums thriving on long-abandoned homesites, but water and a balanced, slow-release fertilizer make for showier specimens.

Widely available in nurseries and home improvement stores, they usually cost between $3 and $10 per tuber.