eclayne- What you did is referred to as de-eyeing a bulb. By removing the dominant eye on a caladium bulb the bulb will direct it's energy to the secondary eyes which will result in a bushier although slightly shorter plant. You can do that to a lot of the different varieties but there are a couple varieties that don't benefit from it. The most common way I've heard from my customers up North is to store the bulbs in a ventilated area in a mesh bag or something similar filled with peat moss or sphagnum moss. The ideal temperature to store caladium bulbs is about 65 degrees.
Out in the fields the bulbs get sun from sunrise to sunset. We're not growing them for the plant though. It's the bulb that's forming under the ground that is our gold. I'm out in the fields every day and the varieties that Don't like the sun will get sun burned. Not to sound stupid but we could care less about the leaves when they're growing, it's the bulb we're after!!
ALL caladiums love the shade. Noel was correct though when referring to morning sun. The optimum conditions are for the caladiums to get sun from sunrise to say 10:00- 10:30, maybe a little later in the Northern states where the sun isn't that hot. There are varieties like Red Flash(red), Carolyn Whorton(pink) and Aaron(white) that can take full sun though. Those varieties(and a few others) can take full sun but they'll look even nicer if planted where they'll get a good amount of shade.
Bill
