Caladiums will multiply, but in temperate zones they are treated as annuals. Also, they go dormant in the Fall. You could then try to dig the corms and store them over winter.

I am originally from the Carolinas and we just bought new ones each Spring.

Blue, caladiums resent cold (even cool) soils, so growing them in the winter is usually a waste of time, even as a houseplant. If you keep the soil warm and moist indoors that time of year, they will never create as lush of a clump of leaves. Compared to a clump growing in summer, a winter clump with have less than half the number of leaves, and they're often be on shorter stems and have smaller leaf blades.

Caladiums grow from tubers (flared storage stems that are underground). You will find that after a growing season the tubers will be significantly larger with small branches that may be cut off and babied to become new plants. These tubers do not create bulbils like onions, tulips of daffodils.

In nature, caladiums (regardless of species) are usually seasonally dormant in winter, which in the tropics is the dry season. They are root hardy in zones 9b and warmer, but still go dormant in dry or cool soils, not sending up their new leaves until the spring soil warms considerably.

If you want colorful houseplant foliage, have you discovered fittonia yet? Or, there is the common zebra plant (Aphelandra).

Here is a link that might be useful: Caladium cultivars, information

Thank you so much for all the info. I had no idea and you really saved me some money, they would have died in this weather. This year, in July we are having night time temps at 49 degrees! I will look at the other plants you mentioned, sounds great!

blue

i bought 15 caladium tubers [mixed] at home depot on sale for 3 dollars - i am growing them in my bedroom and they look amazing in a 6 inch pot...
i think it was worth. curious if they will go dormant or stay the way they are.

I think they look way better as a houseplant on their own than lost in some boring city garden where they are used as a sidekick rather than as a main character

I would be interested in a seed swap with any of you. I want to get seeds of the Calladium (please mail photos to me at first as I want the purely red calladiums), and in return I can offer seeds of edible and/or ornamental plants of the Caribbean. I live in Jamaica.

I have literally thousands of caladiums. UF has come out with an almost completely white breed called "Florida Moonlight". They're pricey...about $15 for 10 bulbs. As mentioned before, caladiums are a tropical, but you can keep them for many years as they don't require a chill period.

You can get (and share, lol) fabulous caladiums from caladiumworld.com. Extremely inexpensive. I'd look for the Florida Moonlight just for an extremely unusual, luminescent(ish) plant...

I'm putting them in my moon garden because the foliage is the big deal and it, of course, stays full throughout the night (whereas the cereus and nightshade only bloom at night).

You can get them in mixes, do HUGE indoor planters with them or put them in hanging baskets, as some are so tall that they'll lay down over the edge of the basket, and plant shorter ones in the center so it doesn't have that flat look (sort of backwards gardening, usually, you put the tallest plant in the center and graduate down. In this case, you'll want the shorter one in the center so it stands and the larger ones around it so they'll hang.)

The strapleaves are NOT as nice as the fancy's.

Because most of them are grown in south Fl, the companies started shipping out in early Feb. you may have to do a bit of searching to find what you're looking for at this point...(you can find them on eBay too).