Calla Lilies
Calla lilies are beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers that come in just about any color. Before hybrids were developed, the flowers of the original species were white. Calla lilies, like many other types of lilies are a flower of celebration. While once they were a traditional flower at funerals, timed in early Rome to flower at winter solstice, they are becoming more and more a flower for weddings and usually are bred to bloom in April and May.
Calla lilies are not hard to grow but they do like relatively warm temperatures. They do best as year-round outside plants in U.S. hardiness zones 9 and 10, which includes such areas as parts of Florida and Texas. In states where the temperature is going to drop below freezing in the winter, calla lilies are going to need to be dug up and the bulbs stored in a warmer place for the winter. They are grown from bulbs called rhizomes, although you can obtain young plants from nurseries. Each season calla lilies continually grow new bulbs which can be planted to make new plants or thrown away. The plant itself grows to be about three feet high.
As far as soil is concerned, calla lilies like it to be loose and well-drained. They like to be kept moist but not wet. And, they do best when planted in spots that get both full sun and partial shade. Calla lily bulbs need to be dried before planting and then placed in the soil about two inches deep and one foot apart. They grow to have flowers in approximately two months. In the fall they can be dug up and stored in peat moss in a cool and dry location until spring. In very warm locations where the lilies can remain in the ground throughout the year, care must be take to not let the plant spread until it takes over the whole garden.
The botanical name of the common calla lily is Zantedeschia aethiopica, and the plant was named after an Italian professor named Giovani Zantedeschi, who lived from 1773 to 1846. The word aethiopica is believed to mean south of Egypt and Libya. The calla lily originally came from South Africa, making its way to Europe and then the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. The flowers became a favorite of many artists, the most famous being Georgia O’Keeffe, who had the calla lily in so many of her works that she became known as “the lady of the lilies.”
While calla lilies are very beautiful, they are also very toxic, so they should not be planted anywhere that children or pets can come into contact with them. If anyone ingests one, get him or her to the hospital immediately and call the National Poison Center.