As the thread Robert started was getting a little lengthy, a new thread for showing your Calla lilies is in order. It doesn't matter if they are stunted, robust, wierd, or wonderful!
We want to see them all!
Cameo has blessed me with a lovely bloom today, another on the way. It starts this deep, creamy colour, and progresses to a wonderful mango hue. Well that is how I remember it, I have waited for regrowth and missed two seasons!
Janet, enjoyed seeing the photo of your garden, I knew it would be that beautiful.
Vi
It's All I've got right now.
Pity it's blurred slightly...
Vi, I feel humbled after seeing Tussee's wonderful garden! Psst...the aquilegia seed are drying! Thanks for the compliment anyway!
Kenton, you have excelled! Such a beauty deserves no excuses! No matter if blurred, if you had said you planned it that way we would be no wiser! An artists touch is not to be questioned! Sometimes, it is an interesting touch to blurr the subject slightly with the crisp complimentary subject. I have seen photo competition winners trying for this very effect, first prize winners at that!
Black Star I presume? It looks a little lighter, but those dark colours can be difficult can't they.
The side view of Cameo
As I was leaving Walmart a couple of years ago, I spied a tired wilted leaf spider daylily, with a single beautiful flower. I picked up the pot and there was a price sticker - $1.99. I am not a particular fan of daylilies, but have a few that I enjoy, but this particular one I thought would be great with my Callas, expecially Flame. It has the exact same tones of color and I thought they would play well with one another. If you look close, you can see a single Flame next to the daylily, along with a larger clump on the left. The daylily is too happy here and has over extended its allotment of space, so after its bloom, I will move at least half to another part of the garden.
Tussee
Tussee you saved that tired little plant, and look at it now! I do like some daylilies, but I am choosy. Spiders and the Unusual forms I prefer to many. I have some waiting in pots for a new bed!
Your Flame does echo the colours to a 'T', they both have the same centre and edge colours, from a distance anyway, but in different proportions. Oh yes I think you do need to move some, but they do play together well, one would surely miss the other if forcibly separated! Our plants are like children to us, they are sometimes naughty but give a lifetime of pleasure.
These callas blend into the night.
Same callas in the day with intimate butterflys.
Do you know the name of that one jmorth? It's beautiful and looks much like one I received from Home Depot with no tag.
jmorth, wow! Lovely night shot! Do you know the name of the calla? Lovely large spotted leaves too!
You did well to get the butterflies in a still positon, an amazing shot, and as Kenton would say, my jaw dropped to the keyboard! I took one of a pair about to be intimate amongst the dahlias, they then twirled away embraced into the sunset (over the hedge!). I tried a second shot as they got together and fluttered down into the greenery, but only had a limited card then and it was the last shot, so I deleted it to try for a better one as they rose up, but of course they went too quickly!
Snap!
The look like "White Peacock" butterflies.
I'd like to know the Zant. ID, too.
Are they the White cabbage butterfly? I took a pic today of one on a hebe, it had really lovely reverse wings. there is a smaller variety as well with slightly different black marks on the wings. I only saw the backs,
Now for a calla!
Crystal Blush has developed quite a blush, but is also going very green on the reverse so it's ready to seed.
Cameo has in the space of a day developed the beginnings of it's colour flush
I looked up my butterfly book and the one on the Hebe I think is a female Green-veined White. Once I would have just thought 'cabbage white'! Digi cameras and books, very useful tools.
Comment on Cameo:
Whoah Baby.
Did you see the waters drops? I didn't spray it, we actually had a reasonable shower of rain today!
I have one spathe on albomaculata, not got a current pic yet, hoping for more! Lots of nice leaves, it usually makes a few spathes.
Another Cameo angle
I'm sorry to relate I know neither the calla nor the butterfly's scientific name. If I get the chance I'll check some older garden maps to see if I designated the calla thereon.
jmorth, this is how it starts, first you have the flowers because you like them, then you get the butterflies because they like the flowers. Then you need a digi camera to take pics, you see the butterflies and snap them, and all of a sudden you realise there is a lot of butterflies out there you didn't know! So, what I did last year was get a hand book on butterflies! There is the internet but if it easy to flip through a book.
From there, all sorts of interesting things about butterflies emerge that you hadn't even thought about. You realise life is so marvellous, this year I am seeing butterflies I didn't see last year, I can't pin them down yet, every time I see a particular one I rush out and it's gone, or it doesn't settle! But I do see other bugs, so I take more pictures!
Zantedeschia albomaculata has a spathe open, another in the making.
Wally,
Is that what I have here?
Al
Says he casually! Oh yes it certainly does look like Z. albomaculata, how many bulbs have you got there? Mine is bulking up, but that is humongous!
Gotta go, don't tell anyone but it's (ssshhhhh) nearly 4 o'clock!
I don't know - 15-20 bigs ones and some smaller ones. I have never broken any apart to increase them. They are storage stars I tell you - easiest of anything I lift.
The question I always have is " I have some colored ones and the corms look more like gladiolas than the flattened potatoes - are the crossed with something to give them color?
Al
is that a.m. or p.m.?
Al, that is an incredible display of Callas - flowers and leaves are beautiful. Congratulations!
Tussee
Thanks - it really is easy.
Wallaby~
Love that sassy flip at the base of the spathe: like the apron of a kilt blowing open in a freshening wind. Whoo-hoo!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2476226
And that dark Cameo heart!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2471693
Enchanting!
bigcityal~
What a fabulous display. Just magnificent!!!!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2476673
I have some callas coming and I'll post pix when they're showing more color.
Robert.
Al, please put that great group in PF. A nice exhibition of use. Breeding determines the tuber shape. Albomaculatas tend to get big and stay as one chunk for longer, others divide up like Glad corms, the rehmaniis are like that.
I echo Al's comment about storage; they are extremely easy. I chuck most of mine in a cool cupboard. And for the record, they need a minimum rest of three months to bloom.
K, who is loving these pictures.
wallaby,
I think I follow your train of thought on the development of new frontiers to explore, and I absolutely agree. You closed with the observation of how these thought progressions self-perpetuate and how the camera aids in the quest. My use of the digital camera in the garden borders on addiction.
al,
My thought, after observing your pic, was 'Calla Congregation' That's a nice and strong grouping.
Al, it was "a.m." Now don't go telling me I'm a naughty girl and scold me! It takes so long to update on DG!
That was my other question, do you lift them, and the answer is 'yes', you must have at least 100 there! How many did you start with and how long have you had them?
Robert, nice to review each pic, saves going back and loading! The heart of cameo is a beauty, and what do I say about your description of albomaculata? Te he is all I can!
Robert, post your pics now, then when they develop more colour we can see the changes, please!
I agree with Kenton, it does show a fantastic way to use them, I was in a 'hurry?' to go to bed last night (this morning) and didn't dare get started, another half hour, then another, groaann...it will get so I never get to bed!
jmorth, I never imagined just HOW a digi camera would aid in this wonderfully interesting trail down the garden path, I get so excited when I see something new, and now I am always looking at flowers more closely and that is when you sometimes spot an insect you have never seen before! I will go out in the dark to take pics, the infrared takes great dark background shots. Bordering on addiction doesn't describe it for me, I am well and truly over the top! I thought I had taken a lot yesterday, close on 200, I had 259! Then they have to be downloaded etc.!
This morning I got a good shot of Cameo's progression, with a capsid bug inside!
I only have a picture of a leaf today, I thought it was interesting. This is the leaf on Maroon Sensation that I got this spring. I haven't ever seen one with spots and color so I thought I'd share. It may just be a fluke, the others don't seem to have it. I have two other calla's blooming now, but it was too bright to get good color shots so I'll try again later.
princessyfs, not only, you DO have a leaf-spathe! And it is a very pretty one at that. I love them, these are a mix up of hormones, it doesn't know which it wants to be!
I have 3 leaf-spathes on one plant which I posted on Robert's thread.
I saw some in tall glass vases with other leafy stems for sale at the supermarket, and some on growing plants there too. They are popular!
A good time to get a pic is when it's dull late in the day, close on nightfall. Please do post them!
This is my full plant of Z. albomaculata, I have a few young ones that I planted around the edge from seed germinated 2 years ago, they really should be transplanted as there's too much competition. I got it 3 years ago as a dormant bulb, some way to go to match Al's but when the young ones mature I'll have a huge bunch!
This message was edited Jul 7, 2006 9:11 PM
It is easy to get lost in that 'Cameo,' Wallaby. You have no choice but to put it in PF.
Do you mean the last pic K? I am going to post stages, perhaps the last one as well as what I have already posted. Do you think I should post the last one in PF?
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/116834/
Do you still have yours? Not lost to the dreaded Erwinia?
I found an article just for you, what can be done to help prevention..
http://www.hortnet.co.nz/publications/science/jvann2.htm
The last one is awesome, mind you, as hard as it is to imagine, it could get better with age. A composite of color change would be neat.
My two or three 'Cameo' had erwinia, wether they are still alive in the mixed surviviors bed, I don't know.
I had read about competing bacterium to slow erwinia, but not the full study of that article, thanks. I think aA plant in high-drainage mix (gobs of perlite) are better off, obviously. ( A friend of mine grows a couple callas in an extremely high-perlite mix and has not had problems) Now I wish I had done that this year...
K
Do you know what I think? I think the more organically grown tubers will have a much better resistance. It's the same with potatoes, some fertiliser is mostly needed, but the general health of the tubers will be improved. If you compare home grown spuds grown with organic compost to bought ones grown with fertiliser only there is a big difference, not only in taste but in the way they cook. Try chipping or roasting bought spuds and they burn easily, it's almost impossible to burn well grown spuds, they just keep getting more crisp!
I don't lift my Callas either, they get through in the greenhouse, and again that is helped by being healthily grown.
Want a top view of Z. albomaculata?
In my zone 5 here, in my garden where I clean them up to store I always get new plants coming up in the spring. So they must winter somewhat.
Al they are quite hardy, this one is hardier than most and if they are fairly deep and near a wall their chances are increased. Our winters are generally longer than yours might be even if not so cold, last winter we had many frosts -5 or -6C, one to -9C. The pot is not huge and they can freeze from the sides even in a greenhouse, but unless there is all day frost that isn't as likely. We did have many days close to freezing.
Cameo is another fairly hardy one, eventually I will put some in the ground but starting them and increasing stocks in pots is a good idea. First find the place to put them!
This is Dark Eyes. The color hasn't exactly darkened up yet, but I thought the form was really nice. I got it at a local nursery.
Here's an internal shot. Most of the purpley ones have looked this way with only the slightest variations of shades. I'm a little disappointed, but I was thinking maybe since it was their first year the colors weren't as strong. I have Lilac Mist, Heather Gem, Gem Lavender and this one that all have come out looking the same with very little difference in the color. You can see it, but you really have to look close. Is this normal in new calla bulbs? This is my first year growing them. Fran
