Calla Lilies - Types Of Calla Lilies | Calla Lilies Care | Buy Calla Lilies | Order & Send

Calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower—suitable to any occasion.

Calla lilies are favourites with many gardeners; although wonderful to look at caution should be practiced as these are poisonous plants. Calla lilies are grown both inside and outside the home and make wonderful bridal bouquets and flowers for the vase. Calla lilies are usually white but also come in a large variety of other exciting colours such as yellow, green, pink, purple (almost black in colour), and orange.

The biological name for Calla Lilies is Zantedeschia and belongs to the same family as Caladium and Jack-In-The- Pulpit.

Calla lilies have trumpet-shaped flowers, which are not really flowers at all but are modified leaves. These leaves are called spathes and have a central spadix, which is tapering and yellow in shape and colour, respectively. The wonderfully speckled green leaves of the calla lily look like arrowheads.

Here are a couple of fabulously different varieties of calla lilies:

• The exotic "Black Magic" variety has a yellow spathe which surrounds a deep and dark coloured throat.
• "Cameo" is a deep peach-coloured variety.
• "Solfatare" sports a rich butter-yellow spathe.
• "Pink Persuasion" is fragile pink in colour.
• The dwarf varieties are named "Childsiana" and "Little Gem" respectively.

Some calla lilies grow quite tall, especially if they are happy in the spot where they have been planted and can reach heights of up to 1, 5 feet tall. As with roses, calla lilies thrive in friable well-composted soils that have been fertilized and mulched.

Calla lilies make pleasing houseplants. Calla lilies should be kept in a sunny spot indoors, at a steady temperature. The plants must be kept moist and fertilised regularly. Tubers need a period of rest between two to three months without any moisture and need to be repotted and watered until new growth appears.
Calla lilies, as mentioned before, contain oxalic acid which is a poisonous substance, and if ingested, one should ideally seek help.

Calla lilies are easy to grow and every gardener will benefit by having a bed of these grand old dames; they look wonderful in vases, are brilliant as houseplants, and are simply pleasing all round. Everyone in SA should have a patch of calla lilies gracing a little patch in their garden.