Caladium Collection

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Today was another busy one with lots going on out in the gardens.  If you haven’t caught wind of this Pokemon Go phenomenon, it has swept the gardens with lots of participants coming to the gardens to participate in this game that I have yet to fully understand.  We planted our Caladium Collection yesterday with the remaining 1,000 or so caladiums going in to our last open bed out in the gardens today.  I should mention that all the caladiums seen in this blog are from my recent trip to the Cultivate ’16 event (Columbus, OH) and are relatively new.  We have over 60 varieties we’re featuring although only a few of these are out in the collection.  I do hope to acquire many of these in the near future like the variety ‘Flatter Me’ seen above.  Caladiums are excellent in the part sun and shade garden with colorful foliage.  Keep them happy with adequate moisture and occasional fertilization and they will reward you with lush, colorful foliage until frost.  The “bulbs” (tubers) can be dug in late fall and stored like you would cannas or dahlias.  Come see our exciting collection and enjoy these new introductions.

Our grounds staff and volunteers had another busy day which included primarily watering, weeding, planting and primping.  The rain totally missed us last night and we had to accomplish quite a bit more watering today.  The entire grounds staff (Cindy, Big John, Larry H., Trevor and Nolan) all had watering duties and other tasks.  Our caladium planting force this morning included Suzie, Winifred, Donna, Terry and Linda.  The ladies then moved on to weeding in the Japanese garden.  Kathy and Eva weeded primarily in the sunken garden which is looking great for a wedding this weekend.  Dr. Gredler was in for mowing and Alan M. worked on a wide range of projects including watering.  Kristin and Stan worked in the Japanese garden.  Bob C. and Ron R. worked on path tidying while Steve, Dave, Jim, Vern and Ron Y. all had projects at the Horticulture Center.  Del tidied and did some painting and Patrea was over to work on labels.  We saw many others as well including Sue S., Tom S., Jean S., Marcia M., Marcia N. and Barb T.

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Caladium “Burning Heart’

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Caladium ‘Pearl’

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Caladium ‘Radiance’

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Caladium ‘Water’s Edge’

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Caladium ‘Allure’

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Caladium ‘Autumn Beauty’

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Caladium “Southern Charm’

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Caladium ‘Posey Pink’

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Caladium ‘Freckles’

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Caladium ‘Chinook’ (above and below)

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Caladium ‘Spring Fling’ (above and below..different light)

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Caladium “Wild Fire’

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Caladium ‘Pearl Blush’

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Caladium ‘Flamingo’

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Caladium ‘Autumn Beauty’ (seen above in more light)

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Caladium ‘Snowdrift’

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Caladium ‘Fiesta’