Calla Lily Care: Essential Planting Tips

Known botanically as Zantedeschia, calla lilies are a favourite flower in summer gardens and cut-flower bouquets. They grow well in borders, containers or even indoors as a houseplant. They come in many different colors and can be quite the attention getter in your garden or patio. Explore this guide for tips on how to plant calla lily bulbs, growing calla lilies indoors and outdoors and identifying pests and diseases.

What Is a Calla Lily?

Calla lilies are smooth and have freckled, sword-like foliage. Their foliage is stunning all season and looks wonderful in a vase as a cut flower or in your garden outside. Calla lilies are easy to grow. They look great in any garden, as container plants, or as cut flowers. When planting calla lily bulbs, you can choose from many colors. These include pink, lavender, dark maroon, yellow, and orange!

Growing Calla Lilies in Containers

If you want a jump start on the blooms you can plant in pots indoors in the winter or early spring and then bring them out to the warmer weather. Calla lilies perform very well in pots and containers. Plant the bulbs about 3 inches deep and mix them with some annuals for a dramatic display. Use fertilizer in your containers monthly.

When to Plant Calla Lilies

Calla lily bulbs are tender bulbs, so you'll want to plant them in spring after the last frost has passed. If you live in a cold area and worry about your calla lilies, plant the bulbs when the soil is at least 65°F.

How to Plant Calla Lilies

Plant your calla lilies 3 inches deep and about 4-6 inches apart. Once planted it may take a couple weeks for them to sprout. Once they sprout, they will grow quickly. Water liberally and feed them monthly with fertilizer during the growing season.

Growing Calla Lilies Indoors

Not only can calla lily flowers add tremendous colour and form outside your home, they're also fantastic to grow indoors, beautifying any room they occupy. Potted calla lilies should be placed near a window but avoid placing them directly in the hot midday sun because this could burn the leaves. We suggest proximity to an East-facing window, where they will get morning sun, or a Western window that lets in late-afternoon sunshine. Plants perform best at temperatures of 65-75°F.

Use any regular potting soil, keeping it humid but making sure no standing water gathers inside the pot. In fall, when the growing season is over, allow the calla lily to go dormant. Discontinue watering, letting the foliage die off and then move your plants to a dark area. Store them for two to three months at 40-50°F, then it will be time to restart the growth cycle. Consider repotting bulbs in fresh soil.

Calla Lilies as Cut Flowers

The calla lily flower is perfect for bouquets, lasting up to two weeks in a vase. Plant your calla lily bulbs in containers or in a raised bed for cut flowers. They look great paired with other lilies, roses, lily of the valley, and many other flowers in your garden.

Overwintering Calla Lilies

Calla lilies are only hardy in the ground in the warm zones 8-10. In northern cooler zones 3-7, they should be lifted in the winter, or you can just treat them like annuals. If you are familiar with lifting dahlias, you will take the same steps storing calla lilies for winter. You will need to lift them after their leaves start to turn yellow and die back. To dig them up gently lift them with your spade and try not to cut into the rhizome. Lift them out of the ground and shake off all the soil on the rhizome.

How to Store Calla Lily Bulbs

You can store your calla lilies in a vented cardboard box or a paper bag. Place them in the box and add peat moss, vermiculite or wrap them in newspaper. Store them in a dark cool place around 50°F. Check to make sure they are not molding throughout the winter. Once spring arrives and there is no chance of frost, replant them in your desired space. If they have mold or are too soft and wilted, you may need to buy new rhizomes. Breck's will offer calla lilies each spring. They will ship in the spring at the right time to plant for your zone.

Common Calla Lily Pests and Diseases

There are some common calla lily diseases to be on the lookout for. Bacterial soft rot is a disease that infects calla lily rhizomes through injury. Botrytis is a fungus that causes greyish mold. Powdery mildew is another disease that makes calla lily leaves curl and look whitish. This disease is common in humid weather.

When it comes to calla lily pests, there are a few that could cause harm to your lilies. Pesky aphids, spider mites, and thrips are a few pests you'll want to avoid in your calla lily garden. Slugs and whiteflies are common pests of calla lilies. They can create holes in the leaves and ruin your garden's look.

Popular Calla Lily Varieties

Calla lily flowers are available in all colours of the rainbow. Here are some popular calla lily types that you can add to your home or garden.

Our most popular calla lily is the Frozen Queen Calla Lily. It is the most unique variety on the market. Frozen Queen has wine-red blooms with translucent, silvery white leaves irregularly outlined in green brush strokes elegantly twist and curve as they climb skyward. 

If you want a colorful calla lily, our Red Alert Calla Lilies are a great choice For orange calla lilies, plant the Beatrix Calla Lily. We also offer purple Rio Calla Lilies.