Thanks for the wealth of info Sean
I must admit I would have been very tempted to keep them growing overwinter as they are such showy plants. Also the nitrogen, as I tend to give the leafy plants extra nitrogen for BIGGER leaves.
I'm surprised about sunlight, as all the info I have read suggests it is a No-no. It will be so much easier if they can take early morning/late evening sunshine, as although we are not quite the 'land of the midnight sun', the sun rises in the NE and sets in the NW in summer, making all day shade a bit of a problem outside.
I wasn't initially sure that the plant at Kew was a Caladium, as Red pointed out, the leaves were huge and far bigger than I have seen on this type of plant before. Just to confirm what I was looking for I used the 10x zoom to full advantage. Zooming in on the label about 25 feet away, and this confirmed that it is a Caladium bicolour, but there is probably a variety name under the compost there somewhere. John P was intregued at this use of the camera
but I'm so long sighted, I use it a lot to get a close up view
.
This morning while still marvelling at the new plants, I noticed the white one has a flower about to open. A bit of a bonus really
Just one further question is about humidity. I guess they want high humidity, if possible, in the growing season? Just seen your reply Steph, so as I suspected
Just counted and the red one at least 13 growth points, and the white one 7
Chad, I suppose needing shade, and high temps are a bit mutually exclusive in most the UK, although I have some of the highest summer max, I'm a lot cooler than London at night.
Red, That burger was quite something else
Not only was it by far the most expensive burger I have ever bought,
£9.50, it was also easily the biggest at about 8ozs. and did come with sautee pots, tomatos and onions. Certainly kept me going all day. Irony was, my wife had decided on a BBQ in the evening, but following a broken down van on the elevated section of the M4, it was too late by the time I got home
so had the burgers cooked under the grill. I don't think my doctor would have been too impressed with my diet yesterday