Lilies: When to retrieve Calla Bulbs .., 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
Actually, your calla is not odd - I have some that have bloomed for five years or more in the same pot.

I actually take them in their pots to the back yard or the garage and let them dry out. Then I cut back the leaves after they wither. Then I put them, pot and all into the basement in a room with a window. They go completely dormant. Over the winter I give them nothing - not even water. I get more every year.

In the spring they sense that it is time, and they send up little starters. Then I decide whether to leave them in the same pot (to which I add fresh compost, bulb food and water) or to take some of them out of the pots and move them to new pots with soil, compost, bulb food and water.

So the answer is that you do not have to harvest them at all if you don\'t want to. What you have been doing works. Wait until spring to divide them. If you want to divide them.

Do be careful about watering them during the dormant period. Rot is possible.

The ones below are the results of three bulbs. And I just throw these pots into the basement.

I love easy.

Donna