Re: Caladium bulbs shrinking ?

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2000.07.19 at 22:00:37(5152) Dear Donna, I will have to try to get these two cultivars that you mention, Florida Calypso and Florida Fantasy, for next year! They sound wonderful! My Florida Sweetheart are doing fine in beds that face West, exposed to full sun from around noon to late afternoon. I have noticed that after a few 'special' cloud-less, extra hot days some fading has occured to some of the older leaves, but the plant is so vigorous that this 'fault' is soon corrected by their production of many more new leaves! The C. schomburgkii (lance-leaf) species input to this cultivar/hybrid, it would appear, has really made for a 'many-leaf' cultivar!! Hope to see you soon! Cheers and good growing, Julius +More >Julius, there is a pic of Caladium 'Florida Calypso' there but mine have a lot more color in the leaves...vivid almost florescent pink splotches with heavy red veins and white spotches that light up the whole blade. Downright gaudy. 'Florida Sweetheart' is growing as border to the Calypso. There is some high shifting shade from a pine tree but otherwise pretty sunny in the mid-afternoon where these two cultivars grow. I also have 'Florida Fantasy', an almost pure white blade with sharp red veins and black petioles. This cultivar is really elegant. I have it in more shade than others (actually they are probably in too much shade).< It is good to see in the chart on Derek's site that some of these Caladium cultivars do not take well to "de-eyeing." Donna Atwood< << Donna - you might like to go to my magazine at www.hortdigest.com -- go there, then click "archives" and go to Issue 4. My article in cladiums is not wonderful, but does have a little about the state of the industry and images of a number of varieties. >>

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