During the Easter season and early summer, homemakers and designers decorate their homes and workplaces with calla lilies. Elegant and colorful, calla lilies, also known as arum lilies, draw admiration from all beauty lovers with their trumpet-shaped blooms and spotted leaves.
Calla lilies categorize as vascular plants, seed plants, and flowering plants and as part of the Arum family, according to the federal plant database. They are not to be confused with lilies belonging to the genus Lilium, such as the Asiatic lily or the tiger lily, for they belong to the genus Zantedeschia. Several varieties exist, and each bloom in different shades of color.
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The well-known calla lilies grow anywhere from 24 to 36 inches high. During the blooming season, the flowers grow white spathes with yellow edges. Other varieties, which only grow to about 16 inches, develop yellow, lavender, red, or pink spathes. More exotic looking calla lilies, such as the spotted calla or ‘edge of the night,’ have white spathes with purple bases or dark purple blooms with purple stems.
Calla lily leaves are glossy and shaped like arrows. For most varieties, white spots speckle the deep green leaves. Others exhibit thick white lines, instead of white spots, and colors, such as purple, on the edges.
Gardeners who wish to add some elegance to their gardens purchase calla lily bulbs or potted flowers at garden shops, which continue to sell more summer bulbs as their popularity rises. The bulbs must be planted immediately after purchase, in fall or early spring. Otherwise, the bulbs dry out.
To provide optimum growing conditions, northern gardeners plant bulbs in full sunlight and southern gardeners plant bulbs in partially shaded areas. The soil must have adequate drainage and should be mulched so the flower roots remain cool. If gardeners are worried about pests, they plant the bulbs in wire cages.
Before placing bulbs into soil, gardeners till 12 to 15 inches deep and put in several inches of compost. They then place the bulbs, with the pointed ends facing skyward, into the soil, firmly covering them with the remaining soil and watering them thoroughly. Depending on the calla lily variety, the bulbs need to be planted within 8 to 18 inches of each other.
Above all else, the soil around calla lilies must remain moist. During the summer, their blooming season, the flowers need constant watering, if the weekly rainfall is less than 1 inch. Gardeners continue to water the flowers until the spathes and leaves fade and wither.
Though calla lilies bloom in full sunlight, the spathes wither with too much sun. Therefore, in southern regions, gardeners provide the flowers with some covering to prolong bloom lifespans. They also detach offshoots from the flowering bushes and plant them separately, in pots or free areas in flower patches.
Calla lilies cannot endure winter frosts. So, during the winter months, gardeners move their calla lilies into greenhouses or basements, ensuring the locations do not go below 50°F. To yield winter blooms, gardeners increase the indoor heat.
If gardeners plant bulbs in pots, they remove old soil from the pots and pour in new, fertile soil. They perform this duty once a year. Or, when the winter frost fades away, they remove the flowers from the pots and plant them outside. Gardeners also have the option of removing calla lilies, planted outside without pots, at the end of their blooming life and planting new bulbs the following spring.
This exotic flowering plant originates from South Africa. In tropical climates, calla lilies bloom year-round with no supervision. In greenhouses, gardeners can set the temperature to cause the plants to bloom several times a year. Overall, calla lilies require much care. Yet, the wonder a 7-foot white giant brings and the loveliness in a flower patch with several calla lily varieties is well worth the effort.
Further Reading: Cymbidium Orchids, Prides-of-Barbados, Tulips
Sources:
‚”Calla Lily,” United States Department of Agriculture: Natural Resources Conversation Service, accessed December 19, 2010.
Charlie Nardozzi, ‚”Stunning Black and White Calla Lilies,” National Gardening Association, accessed December 19, 2010.
Kate Jerome, ‚”Exquisite Summer Bulbs,” National Gardening Association, accessed December 19, 2010.
National Gardening Association, eds., ‚”Lily,” National Gardening Association, accessed December 19, 2010.
Suzanne DeJohn, ‚”Lovely Lilies,” National Gardening Association, accessed December 19, 2010.
‚”Zantedesch’ia,” Botany.com, accessed January 18, 2011.
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