Year-round colours

Why not add colour into your home this new year, suggests Stephanie Choo

Caladiums are stunning additions and grow best in high soil moisture.

LEAFY foliage ornamentals have brightly coloured leaves and they’re small in size. Some have colourful leaves in either a single colour or variegated, while others have interesting texture or even both. And the best thing is, they really do look handsome the whole year long.

POINSETTIA

The blooms of a Euphorbia pulcherrima are not flowers but coloured bracts (modified leaves). They come in many different shades as there are over 100 cultivated varieties. Those with red and shades of red bracts are the most popular.

Other colours include white, yellow, pink, purple, salmon and multi-coloured. The colours are generated through photoperiodism, which requires darkness of 12 continuous hours at a time for at least five days in a row. Alas, for this reason, the leaves do not really colour up easily in our gardens.

Soon after those flowers shed their pollen, the plant will drop its bracts and leaves. So, before buying, look for poinsettias with rounded green buds or no yellow pollen showing on the small cyathia (actual flowers) found in the centre of the bracts.

When using a blooming poinsettia to brighten up your interior, water only when the soil becomes dry to the touch and don’t feed it. After the bracts have turned green or dropped, transfer it to a sunny spot in the garden and feed the plant with any balanced fertiliser regularly. The plant will most probably only flourish leaves as without long nights, it will not bloom again.

CHINESEEVERGREEN

Another beautiful small accent to liven up the space inside is Chinese evergreen or Aglaonema spp. Available in a myriad of colours with a vast array of leaf patterns

Aglaonema comes in many colourful varieties. • Other colourful leafy favourites include Calathea spp., Maranta leuconeura varieties and Fittonia albivenis (Verschaffeltii Group). They’re suitable for growing inside and outside the house. • Indoor plants require maintenance. If you don’t have much time to look after them, they’ll not thrive as you’d like them.

and shapes, they’re also every shade garden’s must-haves.

The foliage of nearly all Aglaonemas, including the popular Thai hybrids, are variegated.

In the garden, they thrive in partial shade and partial sun locations. Those that have more variegation require more light to maintain their colour compared to those with lesser variegation. However, they’re all tolerant of low light levels.

So if you’re growing plants indoors and under artificial light, it’s best to select those

The striking Poinsettia.

with darker leaves and less variegation as they can fare better in the interior mediumlight conditions. Feed as you normally do other foliage plants by using a wellbalanced fertiliser. Like poinsettia, water only when the pot becomes light in weight or the soil feels dry to the touch.

LEAF CALADIUM

Boldly textured, Caladium bicolor’s heartshaped leaves look lovely in the bright shade. Some do not mind the sun but too much sun can fade its leaf colour.

The leaves come in brilliant colours and give the garden a tropical look. Mottled and blotched in pink, red, silver, white and green or a combination of all, they grow to 60cm tall. The dwarf types can reach between 20 and 30cm high only. Interestingly, the Latin genus name

is derived from the Malay plant name, Caladiums have tubers underneath the surface of the soil. When growing a caladium plant, don’t let the soil dry out completely before watering as it likes to have lots of water. Feed the plant lightly at intervals with a balanced fertiliser to maintain its attractive leaf colour. This deep-red Caladium bicolor cultivar with green edge leaves can tolerate plenty of sun. Aglaonema with dazzling pink and green variegation.