The Heat is On Collection, Norman Winter - Dog Days Transformation with Heart to Heart® Caladiums
Dog Days Transformation with Heart to Heart® Caladiums
Commercial caladium production in Florida is a testimony to the rugged nature and beauty of our
'Heart to Heart' caladiums. NOTE: The Lake Placid, Florida Caladium Festival is July 28-29.
Dog Days Transformation with Heart to Heart® Caladiums
If I asked you to name summer flowers for the brutal heat, you would quickly name plants like Luscious®️ lantana, Vermillionaire®️ cuphea and Sunstar®️ pentas, and you would be correct. When the temperature sends you indoors and has you wistfully looking forward to the first freeze, think Lake Placid.
No, not to New York where snow covers the ground and the Winter Olympics are held, and they boast a lengthy growing season of 96 days. Instead, I am referring to Lake Placid Florida, where the Caladium Festival is held at the end of July and they boast a growing season of 340 days. Not far away, 48 miles to be exact in Lake Wales FL, the Bok Tower Gardens hosts an annual caladium walk during the month of August.
 Caladium landscape partnerships are only limited by your imagination. Here Heart to Heart®️ 'Bottle Rocket', Heart to Heart®️ 'Snowdrift', Surefire®️ Red begonias, Diamond Snow®️ euphorbia and Unplugged®️ So Blue™️ salvia come together in a magical setting. |
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The average daily high temperature during June, July and August is 90 degrees. But this area knows quite well when the soaring summer heat gets going, caladiums like the Proven Winners Heart to Heart series start to dazzle with unparalleled beauty. This plant that is native to the tropical South and Central America is among the toughest available for the home landscape.
This year The Garden Guy went into the season with a two-fold plan involving jumbo Heart to Heart caladium bulbs. I would plant half the bulbs in situ. I always wanted to use that phrase, meaning I wanted to plant the bulbs in place, in planned beds. In all beds I used a Twist ‘n Plant®️ auger attached to a cordless drill. This literally takes just a minute and is like speed planting.
Heart to Heart®️ 'Tickle Me Pink' caladiums and We Bit Giddy®️ hydrangeas are just a tiny sampling of the possibility of caladium and hydrangea combinations. |
Heart to Heart®️ 'Clowning Around' caladiums, Royal Hawaiian®️ Maui Gold elephant ears and Luminary®️ 'Sunset Coral' phlox make a smashing summer combination. |
Around a Windmill Palm I planted 40 Heart to Heart 'Clowning Around' bulbs in 4 quadrants, each also having Royal Hawaiian®️ 'Maui Gold' elephant ears and Luminary®️ 'Sunset Coral' phlox. Heart to Heart 'Clowning Around' is absolutely riotous in a color arrangement that no artist could duplicate. This was a Top Performer Award Winner at the Cincinnati Zoo and The Garden Guy’s house too! It is recommended for part shade to shade. Mine is getting a little more sun than that and it seems to be just fine.
On a slope in a shadier area, I planted 20 jumbo Heart to Heart®️ 'Dawn to Dusk' caladiums with Soprano®️ Orange Impatiens. Next to the impatiens, blue Let’s Dance®️ bigleaf hydrangeas serve as a scenic backdrop. Heart to Heart 'Dawn to Dusk' is considered a shade caladium and has a burnt orange patch in the leaf that echoes nicely the orange in the impatiens.
 The backlight sun shows the marvelous coloration in Heart to Heart®️ 'Clowning Around' leaves. |  In the shade garden Heart to Heart®️ 'Raspberry Moon', Shadowland®️ 'Coast to Coast' and Shadowland®️ 'Empress Wu' hostas and Let’s Dance®️ bigleaf hydrangeas create a corner of color along the path. |
I planted another 80 plus bulbs in 4-inch containers that I had saved. I planted Heart to Heart®️ 'Raspberry Moon', Heart to Heart®️ 'Flatter Me' and Heart to Heart®️ 'Burning Heart', knowing they would all play a vital role but I just wasn’t sure where.
As I had used the EZ Scapes™️ Night and Day recipe available from Proven Winners and Walters Gardens in a shady area at the end of a path, I could tell my 4-inch containers of 'Raspberry Moon' caladiums would be perfect incorporated into the design. I already had Shadowland®️ 'Coast to Coast' hostas and 'Dark Side of the Moon' astilbe around a chartreuse-leaved anise shrub.
Heart to Heart 'Burning Heart' caladiums in three containers create a Taste of the Tropics in the late August hot Georgia garden. |
Heart to Heart 'Burning Heart' caladiums dropped in a pot with Proven Accents®️ Goldilocks Creeping Jenny, and Graceful Grasses®️ Queen Tut™️ papyrus offers late summer wow. |
In late June and early July some containers get weak looking, even more so after some heavy trimming on petunias, calibrachoas and verbenas. So, a quick fix or pick me up for the containers while everything is growing back, is to drop in a caladium. A container with Proven Accents®️ Goldilocks Creeping Jenny, Heart to Heart 'Burning Heart' caladiums and Graceful Grasses®️ Queen Tut™️ papyrus was one such stunning impromptu solution.
Heart to Heart caladiums are the beautification prescription for the Dog Days of Summer. Follow me on Facebook @NormanWinerTheGardenGuy for more photos and garden inspiration.
