How to Care for Calla Lilies

Maira Kouvara

Calla lilies are beautiful flowers available in a bevy of colors, from golden yellow and deep purple to creamy white and delicate pink. These lovely blooms can highlight a garden or brighten up any room when displayed in a cut flower arrangement. Easy to care for, calla lilies can produce numerous bulbs and seeds for planting, providing even more opportunities for growing these elegant and regal flowers in your garden.

Things You'll Need

• Fertilizer/plant food Mulch Potting soil

Instructions

1. 

   Grown primarily from bulbous roots called tubers, calla lilies are sturdy plants requiring minimal maintenance and do best in humid and warm zones and can bloom year round in these climates. In the colder northern zones, bulbs should be dug up once they are dormant and stored in a cool, dry area and replanted once all possibilities of frost and freezing have passed.

2. Planting the bulbs in well-draining soil and in a sunny to partially shady location is important to their health. The soil should be kept moist after planting but not drenched, as this may cause the bulbs to rot. Adding mulch to the soil mixture will help retain moisture in the soil.
   If the lilies are planted in containers or as house plants, they should be repotted and fertilized once a year after the dormant season to provide them with new soil that has needed essentials and to split the bulbs to prevent overcrowding in the container.

3. 

   Mature calla lily plants will produce additional bulbs stemming from the original bulb. These bulbs, once the plant is dormant, can be dug up, split apart, and replanted to create new plants. Allow enough room between plants to avoid crowding.
   If the bulbs are not split, this can cause congestion of the plants' root system and competition for the essential nutrients in the soil. Lack of enough nutrients can cause the plant to not grow to its capacity and have smaller and fewer blooms. Calla lilies generally grow 1 to 3 feet in height and 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

4. Splitting the bulbs can be easily achieved by simply breaking the clusters into a single bulb or in multiples of two or three bulbs that can be replanted in the garden or in containers that have a good draining system. When replanting the bulbs, mix the garden soil or potting soil along with plant food, place the bulb or bulbs and cover with the nutrient rich mixture. Water lightly and keep the plants moist.

5. Store bulbs during the dormant season by placing them in vented bags or open containers filled loosely with potting soil or vermiculite. Once the ground is no longer in danger of freezing, the soil can be prepped and the bulbs planted for anticipated spring blooms.

Tips & Warnings

• Calla lilies contain oxalic acid which is poisonous and should not be ingested. Keep plants away from children and pets.

Resources

• UBC Botanical Garden
• The Flower Expert