Part One - Elephant Ears - Caladiums
With a huge range of leaf sizes and shapes and growing habits, their most common trait is their flower - or more correctly their spath, which contains a spadix that is either male, female or bisexual. It was the distinctive grace and line of this flower, first seen on the native Arisaema (jack in the pulpit) in our woods, that first attracted me to this family. I have since learned that the inflorescence can be more weird than beautiful on some of the species.
The flowers still fascinate, but the foliage and stem (petiole) coloration of plants I have recently seen and acquired are simply entrancing.
I grow only a very few of them compared to how many are available, but I'm adding to my collection every year. Even the tropical varieties are suitable for gardeners with frosty winters because most of them are relatively easily stored dry or dryish for winter. Summer would certainly not be the same in my garden without my elephant ears.
Caladiums
What is a shady garden in summer without some caladiums in a pot or slipped into a border? I know mine would not be the same without them. I never think of my caladiums as elephant ears, but that's one of their common names and their leaves are the same shape as the colocasias I think of as elephant ears - at least most of them are.
There are either seven or seventeen species in the genus - it's a topic under much debate at present. All species are found in the tropical parts of the Americas in forests and along creek banks in semi-shade.
The pure species are not as easily located as the hybrids (C. x hortulanum), of mixed parentage, sold as potted plants or dormant tubers in grocery stores, "big box" stores and garden centers as well as via mail order. Almost all of these are produced in Lake Placid, Florida. There are over on hundred named cultivars of Caladium. They come and go as new ones are developed and fashions change, with a few lasting through the years.
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