Heart To Heart® Clowning Around Caladium

Light Needs

Partial Shade to Full Sun

(At Least 3 Hours of Direct Sunlight)

Mature Height

15 - 20 Inches

Mature Spread

10 - 14 Inches

Heart To Heart® Clowning Around Caladium (Caladium hortulanum ‘Clowning Around’) turns shaded beds into living confetti with broad heart-shaped leaves splashed in peach, cream, and hot-pink veins, all framed by an olive-green margin. Fancy foliage unfurls in late spring, holds its pattern through the hottest weeks, and rises 15–20 inches on sturdy petioles. The color echoes 'Twist-and-Shout' parentage yet introduces a fresh mosaic motif unseen in earlier caladiums. Because blooms are insignificant, the plant’s carnival of leaves remains the star from planting until autumn chill.

Heat tolerance, reliable deer resistance, and an Award Winner badge make this tropical a smart pick for humid gardens from the Gulf Coast to Mid-Atlantic porches. The upright, mounded habit performs as a thriller in mixed pots, a bold filler in window boxes, or an eye-catching ribbon along shade paths. Native to Amazonian forest margins, it appreciates dappled light but copes with morning sun where soil stays moist. Indoors, a bright east window lets its playful pattern color a room long after annuals outside have faded.

Heart To Heart® Clowning Around Caladium Care

Set tubers once night temperatures remain above 65 °F, planting them two inches deep in loose, humus-rich soil; point the knobby crown upward for quickest sprouting. Choose consistently moist yet free-draining soil, and feed every other week with quarter-strength balanced fertilizer to protect pale leaf tissue from burn. Site containers in part to full shade, or garden plants in filtered light where summer sun never scorches midday. No deadheading is required—simply remove any weather-battered leaves at the base and new ones quickly fill the gap.

Gardeners in zones 10–11 may treat this caladium as a tender perennial; elsewhere lift tubers before first frost, dry them for a week, then store at 60 °F in peat until spring. Potted plants shift indoors easily and will hold their foliage for three to four months; when leaves yellow, allow a brief dry rest and resume watering once fresh buds appear.

Heart To Heart® Clowning Around Caladium Spacing

Space tubers ten to fourteen inches apart in borders or mass plantings so mature leaves overlap lightly without trapping humidity. One tuber fills an 8-inch pot; three create a striking mound in a 14-inch patio planter. In mixed containers, allow at least a square foot of surface area per tuber so companions do not crowd this foliage centerpiece. Always select pots with drainage holes to prevent soggy conditions.

SKU:

CALCD