Caladium (Caladium bicolor) care

Aroids · needs attention to keep

Last updated 26 October 2026

Angel wings: paper-thin leaves in pink, white, red and green, so translucent they light up from behind. It is a seasonal plant grown from a tuber — it leafs up in spring, performs all summer, then dies back completely in autumn and spends the winter as a dry tuber in its pot. People throw them away every October by mistake.

Quick facts

Water

Water every 4 days. Keep evenly damp while it is in leaf, then stop completely once it starts to die back in autumn.

Light

Bright indirect light; the paler varieties want more.

Humidity

60% and up while in leaf.

Soil

Chunky and fast-draining: bark, perlite, a little coir.

Feeding

Balanced feed at half strength every second or third watering, spring through summer only.

Repotting

Repot once a year.

Toxic to pets

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life. The ASPCA does not list Caladium bicolor itself, but lists a relative, Caladium (Caladium hortulanum), as toxic to cats and dogs (checked 26 October 2026).

Difficulty

Needs attention.

Mature size

30–60 cm tall while in leaf.

Native to

South America.

Watering a Caladium

Water every 4 days. Keep evenly damp while it is in leaf, then stop completely once it starts to die back in autumn.

That cadence is the one PlantParlour sets for this species when you name it, and it is deliberately on the cautious side — a plant that asks a day early is safer than one that asks a day late. Log each watering and the reminder moves with the plant rather than with the calendar.

Light

Bright indirect light — more than people give them. An alocasia in a dim room loses a leaf for every new one it makes and slowly winds down to nothing. Direct afternoon sun, though, burns holes in those thin leaves.

Humidity and temperature

60% and up while in leaf. Central heating in winter is what turns a comfortable room into a dry one, and it is the usual reason an established plant suddenly browns at the edges or picks up spider mites.

Soil and potting

Alocasias grow from a corm, and a corm sitting in wet compost rots. Use a very open mix and a pot with real drainage. Many growers keep them in semi-hydroponics for exactly this reason.

Feeding

Balanced feed at half strength every second or third watering, spring through summer only. Stop feeding in autumn and start again when you see new growth in spring — feeding a plant that isn't growing just builds up salts in the pot.

Repotting

Repot once a year. Caladiums die back to the tuber every autumn. Keep the dry tuber in its pot somewhere warm over winter, stop watering entirely, and start again in spring — that is the plant's habit, not a failure.

Common problems

• Leaves dropping one after another over winter

  Dormancy. Alocasias often go down to nothing and come back in spring.

  Fix: Cut the water right back, keep the corm just barely damp, stop feeding, and wait. Throwing it out in February is the usual mistake.

  Leaves falling off: how to read it on any plant

• Fine webbing, leaves going dull and stippled

  Spider mites. This genus is their favourite.

  Fix: Shower the plant, wipe both sides of every leaf, and treat weekly for a month. Raise the humidity or they come straight back.

  Spider mites: how to read it on any plant

• Yellow leaf with a brown mushy stem

  Rot at the corm from a wet mix.

  Fix: Unpot immediately, cut back to firm white tissue, and repot into bark and perlite.

  Yellow leaves: how to read it on any plant

• Dry brown patches in the middle of a leaf

  Sunburn.

  Fix: Move it out of direct sun; the damage does not heal.

Propagation

Lift and divide the tubers when dormant, making sure each piece has at least one bud.

A cutting taken in PlantParlour keeps its link to the plant it came from, so a propagation years later still traces back to the mother plant — which is the point if you ever sell or trade it.

Toxicity and safety

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.

The ASPCA does not list Caladium bicolor itself, but lists a relative, Caladium (Caladium hortulanum), as toxic to cats and dogs (checked 26 October 2026).

Every houseplant in the library the ASPCA lists as non-toxic to cats and dogs

Named cultivars and variegations

Caladium bicolor is sold under several cultivar names. Care is the same unless noted; variegated forms carry less chlorophyll, so they grow more slowly and want more light than the plain species.

Questions people ask

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