Calla lilies (Zantedeschia)

I'm only growing two this year. A purple called Anneka.

And a white, Albo Maculata. Both are going in pots.

Mr Martin which is an aethiopica selection by a Mr Martin I believe, it is supposed to have very large spathes but it is only a young plant and bought last year, note the unusual shape

Z. Pink Mist

I couldn't really see the pink in the Pink Mist until I enlarged it. I thought at first the name came from the varigated leaves, which are also beautiful.

Mr. Martin looks like it flattens out at the top. The Anneka almost looks like it does the same, but not as pointy. Optical illusion?

The leaves that are variegated are canna Black Knight, Pink Mist leaves are the crinkly green ones. Mr Martin does flatten out. i was going to buy Anneke, but all the pics I saw were different and I had to buy 3 for more money, I found others instead so saved the day!

Oh, don't say that. Now I won't get to sleep worrying that Anneka will not look as pictured and I'm so sleepy tonight; I can hardly hold my winkers up.. I just got past the fear of rotting tubers, now this. Does it ever end????

Well, they better be exactly the color pictured. If not, they'll get dipped in shellac and spray painted! I'll stick them back in the pot with some wire. Will go quite well with the silk lilies I plan to stick in the garden once Lily season is over. (:

wallaby, your 'Magestic Red' is gorgeous. What is the pinkish leaved plant underplanting it? That combination is great!
Neal

I agree - I love the "Majestic Red" - beautiful!

I've had my eye in Pink Mist for a while. i love that one.

The plant underneath is Pseudowintera colorata, I got it by mail order a few years ago from Bodnant Gardens, which is in Wales, a Historical garden. it is supposed to be tenderish but it has survived outside for some time now, and is still in a pot so could be time to put it in the ground, it has grown quite a bit but took a while. I had a couple of others that gave up the ghost, grown in the dreaded all peat i think and not good, lost magnolia sieboldii (roots rotted after 3 years and struggling) and a Daphne, can't get one of those to survive so gave up for now! I bought seed of Magnolia sieboldii last year, still waiting!

The bright pink/red flower you can just see is a hebe, not sure of its name, think I found it but I write on bits of paper and then don't know where to find it! I have in the ground, got knocked back in a cold winter as not too hardy, but has regrown. That one is one I rooted in a pot, which also desperately needs a spot in the ground!

Vossner Pink Mist is one of the more reliable ones. and can flower at any time of the year, mine dies back but it can be evergreen in milder climates. I got that as a bare division and that was it's first year flowering, the leaves are really big and strong. Plenty of organic compost and it romps away.

beaker so sorry, do you have the shellac ready? ROFL!!!

wallaby where do you have your hebe planted?

Its on a dry bank west facing near a tall leylandii hedge, it is very free draining and protected from strong winds, gets sun later in the day. It is growing near a Leptospermum which was supposed to be dwarf to 18", double red, but very quickly grew to 8' and is single and pink! It gets covered in masses of flowers, and the seed pods stay on the shrub/tree waiting for a bush fire to burst them open, it has a long wait!

I am weak - I just spent about $100 on Calla bulbs on Easy to Grow Bulbs this afternoon :-) All of your pictures made me do it!

Steve join the weak kneed club! I got an email today from Blue Ridge daylilies, and just started to have a look,,,eerrr dangerous! I want lots more, and most of them ar $100 each! What excuse can I come up with????? We'll have to ask for commission!

Oh no! I've read this entire thread - have not grown Calla lilies before - always thought they were gorgeous - and I feel my fingers moving toward the keys - searching for Blue Ridge daylilies web site - AARGH - I'm weak!!

Wow - I checked their site out. Some nice stuff but not for me. The whole site looks like it's one big daylily auction - and some of them were up to $199 for a single plant! I'll stick with Oakes :-) I think the most I ever spent on a daylily was $49 per plant (bought six of them), and while they still grow vigorously and flower every year, I found they weren't nearly as pretty or vibrant when they bloomed the first time as in the *picture*. I think I learned my lesson!

They sell on ebay too, you can combine orders! Steve you just didn't go far enough to see the really good ones, every now and then one just makes you go funny, yes the fingers do move towards the keyboard, it is all too tempting and easy! most are 'buy it now', there are some others that sell but Blue Ridge want to make it easy for you, I tend to go for Stamiles, sometimes Salter, my mind was in a whirl, how do I raise the money????? It costs me a lot more, shipping, phyto, import duty, must stay off, must stay off! And they are such nice people to deal with!

I wish I could get my hands on more of those gorgeous calla lilys, that would keep me happy for a while (cheaper too!), the weather had better change soon!

When do the calla lilies bloom?? I bought 2 (on sale of course) and potted them in the peat moss that came with them and added some good potting soil.. Just repotted them ,, the roots were growing up out of the pot.. the greenery is about 2 or 3 ft tall. thanks, Elaine

Elaine my reddish one was blooming in July/August, the flowers last a long time. I have a pic on 21st July, the one above with 3 flowers is 1st August. The z. Pink Mist 26th June, another I took 18th July, it can flower almost anytime while it is growing.

Mr Martin is earlier, got a pic on 3rd June. Z. albomaculata taken on 9th July.

If yours are 2-3 feet tall they must have been grown in warmer conditons, mine won't start for some time yet They are in a cold greenhouse and survived so far there, I put them quite deep. Don't put them out in cold weather, or are you getting unseasonal warmth? I hope you get flowers, they sometimes take a while to recover from being forced, but a pot on with some fresh food should give them a good boost. Let us know what you get!

Janet

Elaine,

Mine bloom mid-May into early June - that's being the the ground two or three years - I imagine yours will be somewhat similar. Are yours outdoors?

Wallaby,

I agree with your taste on the Stamiles and Salters - however the $50 ones I bought that I was a little disappointed in were "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Stamile). Pretty enough but not worth $50. I have learned to beware of pictures with dark backgrounds where you can't see the green leaves - a sure indicator the photo has been darkened to make the flower color appear more intense than it really is under normal lighting!

My green goddess is blooming right now

Yours are very early, but the same old story, hotter days, colder nights, but I'm surprised they get through the winters in the ground.

I was thinking of buying Strawberry Fields from a German ebayer who also has a shop, but I looked around and found a few different pics and changed my mind. I did get Startle, they too are different but not many pics to be found and it didn't cost me much! Besides he gave me a free one to choose, I got Wine merchant, Moldovan, a nice burgandy with white stripe. The newer ones only have the breeders pic to go on mostly. I did a lot of research on others and found some that were in a natural situation with leaves and actually looked better than the pics.

Talking about dark backgrounds, my camera takes shots in the dark with infrared and flashes the flower, the colours always come out perfectly true with a dark background. If I use the macro inside they mostly end up with a dark background too, and the colour is right. It's the digital fixing that alters the colours, I found many to be a bit washed and just a poor photo.

Not that I'm trying to encourage you, but you may just have had a bad start!

OK vossner, now you're boasting! No-one has the right to have a zantedeschia blooming now! Not fair!

Steve I meant to ask what yours is called, do you have a name for it?

I feed it no magic potions, I promise! It has bloomed in Jan/Feb the past 2 years

Oh,, on the calla lilies,, I meant- do the blooms come after the leaves, my amaryllis bloom sometimes before the leaves. I am sure the callas were force-bloomed.. Now, I think that I can plant some of these down near my wet-weather creek after reading information that they like wet conditions.
I know I shouldn't ask this,,, but what is zantedeschia - sounds expensive. I have quite a few named daylilies, but not any of those $$$$ that is the sign on those expensive golf resorts. Elaine

elaine, I wouldn't say they are expensive, but there is a price range. I look over catalogs for a while, decide which ones I must have, then wait for the end of season sales.

HD and Lowes have basic, sturdy varieties for reasonable prices, you can buy those, get acquainted with the plants, then start hunting for the fancier ones next season. I recently bought a yellow zantedeschia (sp?) calla lily at Lowes for about $3

This message was edited Feb 27, 2006 7:56 PM

Elaine, did you mean 'what IS zantedeschia' as in what sort of plant is it? If you did, that is the proper name for a calla lily, the scientific name.

Just adding that the flowers come after the leaves on calla lilies, but the leaves stay too!, if it has flowered there should be a stem with the old spathe on unless it has been cut off.

This message was edited Feb 28, 2006 2:17 AM

HI Wallaby,

I don't know what it's called - I got those a few years ago and they seem to come up every year. You have some really beautiful ones.

Hi Steve

I have got an old pic of Z. Cameo, a bit fuzzy but, along with others, I took a digi of the pic, it has the Coprosma Evening Glow in it as a smaller plant, and the green/yellowish new summer growth colouring.

Steve's calla looks like Crystal Blush, but that's just a guess.

Elaine - I'm not an expert, but I don't think callas like being wet. I might be wrong, but I'd check it out before planting.

Thanks Wallaby,, yes on zantedeschia, and thanks Steve, Beaker, & Vossner.. now I can see that maybe I need to grow these along with my clivias and amaryllis. They need some cool and resting in winter then shade from our hot southern summers

Beaker - just wondering......how is your Anneka doing? I was looking on ebay yesterday and saw one, I remembered seeing it on this thread and wanted to see how it was coming up. I guess its kind of early in your zone to be seeing too much progress. I had one bloom (another kind) last weekend and it is so gorgeous that I ran out to look for more!!

What do you fertilize with during the season? I used Bulbtone last year and didn't get anything but green foliage.

I don't fertilise, just grow in a mix of moss peat, gritty river soil and leafy compost. They get plenty of food from that, an occasional top up or pot on is advisable to maintain vigour. If you are growing in a medium which is mostly artificial then you will need to feed, but plants are not very long lived in artificial composts.

Mine needed a rest and to bulk up again after first flowering, so don't panic, the bulbs multiply and need to grow big enough. I do sometimes add some slow release fertiliser to the mixture when repotting.