Red and green Caladiums bring eye-popping colour to a mostly shaded, sunken entranceway to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario.

If you love to stop people in their tracks, try stuffing a garden bed with flaming red Caladiums. They’ll only last until frost but if you plant them in late spring, what a show they’ll put on all summer. They’re really handy if you’ve got:

• a shady spot–part to full shade

• lots of humidity in your forecast–they’re from the tropics after all.

• the urge to try the unexpected. A mass planting of these suddenly makes hostas look ho-hum.

For even more lushness, try adding some shade-tolerant ornamental grasses such as Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macro ‘Aureola’) and a potted palm or two. Then all you need is a hammock for two and some banana daiquiris.