Gardening with Gary

Gardening Advice from an Expert

Calla Lilies

Q. I have had this calla lily for 3 years. I cannot get it to bloom. I have to bring the bulbs in for the winter. I plant them in pots and they get sun until mid afternoon. I keep them moderately moist and have never let them get dry. I have tried planting the bulbs deep and shallow with no luck at blooms. Any suggestions?

A. That is a hard one to call. I am going to pout my suggestions here and allow you to read through them and see if something stands out which you might not be doing. That could hold the key as I cannot sit here and say it is definitely this or that, but fertilizer and water come to the forefront in my mind. read on:

Plant in a 6" or larger container filled with potting soil. Sink the only rhizomes 1-2" deep in the soil. Otherwise, flowering will not happen. Then, moisten the planted container until water runs from the bottom. Set the pot in a saucer and allow the excess water to collect and be available for plant use. Part of the secret to calla care is to keep the growing plants moist.

Grow the plants with morning sun and afternoon shade or a full day of filtered sun. Water when the surface of the soil just begins to dry. Feed lightly with a 20-20-20 or similar fertilizer solution every other week. Protect from winds that could damage the foliage and blooms. Control chewing insects as needed with natural treatments.

Most calla lilies bloom in 8 to 10 weeks from the planted rhizomes. Some may need two years of culture to produce their first flowers. The blooms and foliage usually decline by early summer. Keep the rhizomes in their containers and on the dry side until ready to grow again during the fall and winter months. But, in Canada, you need to dry the pots, remove the rhizomes, shake off excess soil, cut off the dead brown tops and lay in a single line in a box in a cool, dark, dry place all winter, as a partially heated basement.

In the spring, the green buds will start to show. Plant them again outdoors after all danger of frost has passed. I plant mine directly in a garden bed and get blooms in the fairly early summer and then not much from thereafter until the next year. there are newer hybrids on the market which are more everblooming, so check garden catalogs for a variety well-suited for Canada. After a few years, callas no longer are very viable and it is best to replace them, or buy new ones each year.

Pam writes~
I have calla lilies which appear to have seed heads now that fall is coming and I have not cut them. Can I produce anything from the apparent seed/cone formation in the top of flower head?

A. You can try but the time to produce a plant and whether it will come true to the parent makes this process undesirable. The division of calla lilies is not very different from taking cuttings. Both methods of propagation are asexual [vegetative] rather than sexual, as is the case when propagating from seed. Two main benefits of vegetative propagation are: [1] New plants are already mature, or are capable of reaching maturity much faster than when propagated from seed [2] Some plants such as hybrids will not reproduce true to parent stock when propagated from seed, in fact, some of these kinds of plants will not even produce viable seed, meaning no seedlings will result. Asexual propagation in such cases is the only way to get new plant starts.