Zantedeschia, Calla Lily 'Naomi'

I find these don't increase very quickly. They are not ready bloomers. After three or four years with at least a dozen clumps, I've see...Read Moren one or two small blooms -- both pale pink. The only color in the leaves is at the very base of the petiole; the leaf stem and the flower stem are both green. Even after the initial disappointment of the misrepresentation of Park's, this calla continues to underperform all my others and continues to disappoint.

I'm pretty sure that this is an odd accurance, or maybe I'm wrong, but this plant survived my zone 7 winter.

I had planted...Read More these along my birdbath for a tropical look and forgetting what they were, I figured they were caladiums.

Today I noticed a perfect almost black flower amongst the white flecked leaves. I was really impressed with the almost black hue of the flower in contrast to the leaves.

My callas have had no special care except for being mulched and watered once in a while. I also fed them occasionally, a few times with bloom food b/c I had some leftover. Maybe that's what encouraged the sudden flowers.

I suppose my negative rating comes of sheer disappointment. Grab a cup of tea for storytime:

The major American vendor ...Read More(Parks Seed of SC) for 'Naomi' did some questionable things in its marketing: Firstly, it made the cultivar name reference to the model more obvious by calling it "Naomi Campbell." Second, it furnished a picture of it as a cutflower in a vase of its own spotteed leaves, which are bled into with the color of the flower, which is also depicted with a dark stem. This leaf mutation is a result of the over-application of a flowering hormone, and I imagine that a whole field of 'Naomi' was needed to supply that many of that particular form of the morph, let alone dark-stemmed flowers!

The real Zantedeschia 'Naomi' is a humble dutch (Sande Group) Calla that is one of many along-the-road results of long breeding programs to hybridize the blackest calla lily. (Others are 'Renoir,' 'Schwarzwaler,' 'Jewel of Night,' 'Eveline,' 'Chianti,' 'Captain Palermo,' and others.) It is a tall plant of not-too-sturdy stems (that are green, not dark, by the way) with broad, leathery arrow-shaped leaves. A mediocre to decent plant that can be appreciated after the hype is deflated.