Caladium (Caladium bicolor) care

Aroids · needs attention to keep

Caladium (Caladium bicolor) wants bright indirect light; the paler varieties want more. Water it every 4 days. Keep evenly damp while it is in leaf, then stop completely once it starts to die back in autumn. Pot it in chunky and fast-draining: bark, perlite, a little coir. Balanced feed at half strength every second or third watering, spring through summer only, and repot once a year. Humidity: 60% and up while in leaf. Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Questions people ask

How often should you water a Caladium?

Water every 4 days as a starting point — that is the cadence PlantParlour sets for Caladium bicolor. Keep evenly damp while it is in leaf, then stop completely once it starts to die back in autumn. Light, pot size and the time of year all move that number, so treat it as a reminder to go and check rather than a rule.

How much light does a Caladium need?

Is Caladium toxic to cats and dogs?

How do you propagate a Caladium?