Hi I just love Cala Lilies and wondering if anyone else feels the same as I do.
Also would like some information about my Calas.
Happy Gardening Sharron
Cala Liles
I love calla lilies but the big whites are very aggressive. They will try to crowd out or smother everything planted nearby. Since even the smallest bit of corm will reproduce, it is also difficult to get rid of them!
The whites are the only callas I've found that are tolerant of water during dormancy. The colored callas are really lovely, but none of them seem as vigorous as the standard whites. I've ruined a lot of them until I realized the colored callas must be kept absolutely bone dry during dormancy, like ranunculus.
Snails and slugs can be a problem, so I bait with Sluggo as needed. Haven't had any other problems, though. I love the leaves in flower arrangements and wish they stayed green all year.
My callas have now finished blooming for the year. Below is a picture of the last flower thrown up by a big clump of standard whites. For some reason it formed a double flower -- very pretty and lasted a long time on the plant, too.
Oops, the link to the PDB didn't post with my message above. The double-flowered white calla is at:
http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/20726/
I love callas, especially the old fashioned white. I just started two of the newer, smaller, colored varieties and have to say they are soooo cute! I suppose I'll have to make room for a new addiction. But they don't compare to the old fashioned whites in any way.
Cheri'
I have calla lilies and this year they put on large seed heads...how do you know when they are ripe and do the seeds have to go through a cold spell to sprout????
Those are so pretty, I want to raise some and I have a question for other northern gardeners. If I raised them in a large pot and brought it into a cool greenhouse for the winter would that work? Or, if I planted it next to the house foundation and mulched it very deeply for the winter would that be better? Although I'm in zone 5 we don't often get those -20 winters, so I think maybe it is worth taking a chance. In the past 10 years we have only had about 3 nights that were below -10. How fast does a clump get to be about 3 ft across?
I have mine in a large pot and bring the whole thing in and keep in my cool basement over winter....This spring I took them out of the pot and gave it new potting soil and replanted....
I do the same thing as bluepoppy. My callas have speckled leaves and the flowers never get more than 2 to 3 inches across. I have seen them in England and California that are a whopping 4 to 5 to 6 inches across. Makes me wonder if I have something different or if it is just the cold here. Any ideas?
Callas in the ground will get bigger than those in pots. Here in frost-free CA we can leave them in the garden over the winter and the clumps just get bigger and bigger. In the case of the standard whites, they are positively invasive! I am always digging up clumps and giving them away to other suckers...er, friends.
The colored callas need to be a few years old, whether potted or not, to produce larger flowers. The first couple of years are usually pretty small in bloom size.
jkom, when you have some to give away can you let me know? I would be happy to pay postage to get some small starts. I'm going to be expanding my yard this fall and need some things to be bones for that area.
OH, jkom, I'd be happy to take some of those errant calla lilies off your hands also!
When you plant the bulbs in pots and raise them indoors, do you water them during the winter or just let them go dormat?
I put in the basement and let them go dormant..