Caladiums are Cool

    

As the heat wreaks havoc on my blossoms in the August heat, I opted for more caladiums this year for color.  Here they are in reddish color next to my garden griffin statue.  He also protects the garden from bad spirits.  I usually use colors in the red and pink range in this long bed right off my patio.

This one is a cooler color with chartreuse leaf and accents in burgundy.

This one is a pinker shade next to my Tiki statue, bringing good luck from the Pacific islands. 

A little less pink and the cooler of shades of green.  They're related to elephant ears, which always fow so large.  Usually they grow much larger than mine.  But in the dry heat, they stay small, like a miniature caladium.  They love humididy.  When we were groing up in north Texas, my mother always had green and white ones on our front porch to match the color of the house's trim.  Very sheik. And she said they made the porch look cooler.  She's always been an inspirer to my gardens, but I'm much more eclectic and mismatched in my garden style.  At any rate I still think of cool Southern porches when I see caladiums.