Cold hardiness & minimum temperature

Is Caladium 'Puppy Love' (Caladium 'Puppy Love')cold hardy? Hardiness zone & min temp

Also called Puppy Love caladium, pink miniature caladium.

More about caladium 'puppy love'

About Caladium 'Puppy Love'

Caladium 'Puppy Love' · also called Puppy Love caladium, pink miniature caladium · houseplant

A compact, dwarf caladium with soft pink leaves edged in green and fine green veining, making it ideal for small pots and shady borders. A tuberous tropical aroid that produces a tidy mound of pastel foliage in summer, then goes dormant and rests as a bare tuber through the cooler months.

Cold limit: USDA 9-10 (lift tubers or grow as a houseplant elsewhere) · RHS H1b (21-29°C)

Watch for — Soft, rotting tuber: Overwatering or cold, damp dormancy storage. Keep dormant tubers dry above 13°C and discard mushy ones.

What caladium 'puppy love''s hardiness rating actually means

Caladium 'Puppy Love' is not cold hardy. It is a tropical houseplant that dies if it is left out through frost — there is no zone where it overwinters outdoors in a UK or cold-US climate. Its RHS rating of H1b means: Sub-tropical — a normal warm home is fine, but it cannot go outside in a cool season. On the US scale that maps to USDA 9-10 (lift tubers or grow as a houseplant elsewhere) — the zones where it can be left outdoors year-round.

New to these scales? The USDA hardiness zone map explained covers how the zone numbers work, and you can find your own zone with the zone finder.

Minimum temperature — and what happens below it

Minimum survivable temperature is roughly about 10 °C (sustained cold below this is damaging). Caladium 'Puppy Love' has no frost tolerance at all — it is an indoor plant in any climate with a real winter.

Concretely, for caladium 'puppy love' as it gets too cold:

Below about about 10 °C, growth stalls and the leaves start to show cold stress — dark, water-soaked, or yellowing patches.
A single light frost blackens the foliage; a hard freeze kills the whole plant, roots included, and it does not recover.
Even a cold, draughty windowsill or an unheated porch in winter can be enough to damage it permanently.

Can caladium 'puppy love' go outside or overwinter — and where?

It can holiday outdoors in summer once nights are reliably above 10 °C, in shade or dappled light, hardened off gradually.
Bring it back indoors well before the first autumn frost — do not wait for a frost warning, move it when nights drop toward 10-12 °C.
It will never overwinter outside in a temperate climate; the indoors is its winter home, full stop.

Work back from your local frost dates with the frost-date calculator: the last spring frost and first autumn frost are what really decide when caladium 'puppy love' can be outside. US growers can check USDA zones; UK growers should use the RHS hardiness ratings, which match the H1b figure above.

Caladium 'Puppy Love' hardiness — frequently asked questions

Is caladium 'puppy love' cold hardy?

Caladium 'Puppy Love' is not cold hardy. It is a tropical houseplant that dies if it is left out through frost — there is no zone where it overwinters outdoors in a UK or cold-US climate. Indoor-only in almost every home. Caladium 'Puppy Love' can only live outside year-round in genuinely frost-free climates (roughly USDA 9-10 (lift tubers or grow as a houseplant elsewhere)); everywhere else it is a houseplant that summers out at most.

What is the minimum temperature caladium 'puppy love' can survive?

What hardiness zone is caladium 'puppy love'?

Caladium 'Puppy Love' is rated USDA 9-10 (lift tubers or grow as a houseplant elsewhere) and RHS H1b — Sub-tropical — a normal warm home is fine, but it cannot go outside in a cool season.

Can caladium 'puppy love' survive winter outside?

It can holiday outdoors in summer once nights are reliably above 10 °C, in shade or dappled light, hardened off gradually. Bring it back indoors well before the first autumn frost — do not wait for a frost warning, move it when nights drop toward 10-12 °C. It will never overwinter outside in a temperate climate; the indoors is its winter home, full stop.

What happens to caladium 'puppy love' below its minimum temperature?

Below about about 10 °C, growth stalls and the leaves start to show cold stress — dark, water-soaked, or yellowing patches. A single light frost blackens the foliage; a hard freeze kills the whole plant, roots included, and it does not recover. Even a cold, draughty windowsill or an unheated porch in winter can be enough to damage it permanently.