Calla lily

My 10 year old son bought this calla lily for his mum for mother's Day 2022. It was quite small when we bought it, but full of yellow blooms.

I read that many people simply throw them away once they've flowered but also read that you can cut them right back to soil level and store somewhere cool and dark to over winter them, and that is what I did.

I took it out of storage about 4 weeks ago and it was basically just soil in a pot, no shoots showing, nothing. I watered it and put it on the window sill. This is it today. It is about three times as big as it was when we got it! It's like a triffid, lol.

Flowers are appearing on it now as well. I absolutely love it. The only thing that's puzzling me is how it's grown so big, and still growing, yet it was a very small compact plant when we got it. Is there a trick to keeping them small, but still get lots of flowers on them?

 

Probably a bit "drawn" due to the fact its indoors.
Looks good though.

 

The vast majority of my plants are all in my fish room, which is a north facing room. Plenty of light on that windowsill, but no direct sunlight whatsoever. Do you reckon that's why it's so big, because it's leaves are stretching for proper bright light? And would that extra sunshine promote more flowers too?

 

My first thought was that is being drawn too. That coupled with the warmth of the room is probably the cause.

 

I think if it was grown in sunshine outside it would be half that height, as for more flowers, not necessarily, I have a feeling the flowers this year are dependant on the growing conditions last year.
So a few feeds with tomato fertiliser during the summer would be good.

Dont put it outside now though, wait until June.

 

I see they are tender perennials. How would you store them over winter @pete ? Take them out of compost completely?

 

I'm a novice so if I can overwinter one of these anybody can, lol. Granted, mine was bought as an indoor plant last year and around Oct/Nov I took the scissors to it and butchered it right back to the soil, put a bag over it, and put it in a dark cupboard for 4 months or so.

I'm guessing an outdoor one would need to be lifted and stored in similar conditions to my indoor one.

Mine will remain as an indoor plant, it'll be interesting to see how many years I get out of it.

 

Rather than taking scissors to it at the end of the summer it might be better to slowly dry it out when it will naturally go dormant for the winter.
Maybe then a repot next spring before watering it.

 

My son & daughter-in-law gave me a plant of Calla Lily but with deep purple, almost black spathes (the technical name for the flowers!) for my birthday 5 or 6 years ago. It was a first for me & when the leaves turned yellow in the autumn I cut them off & put the plant in the coldest, darkest place in our flat to overwinter. It was also totally dry. In February the following year I noticed it was sprouting again so I took it out of the cupboard to our very well illuminated kitchen. There it grew happily & flowered again. So I repeated the previous year's treatment & got it through to its third year!
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I'd decided it needed repotting before starting its 3rd year of growth. Lots more flowers that summer & I went through the same procedures as the previous 2 years. It came through another winter & as it was getting rather big now I decided that as soon as I noticed the first sprouts at the beginning of its 4th year I would divide it up into 2 pots which is what I did. But I was very surprised to find that instead on one big tuber, like a Dahlia, each stem ended in a tuber or corm like a Gladiolus! That made planting them in two pots so much simpler! They then spent that summer (last year) outside on our balcony. Both pots had lots of spathes with which I was very pleased! Then there was another change! I had no room in the flat for 2 big pots to overwinter! I had to leave them outside all winter but the terrible frosts of December 2022 & then January 2023 make think they had surely died, even though I had put them in the most protected place & had kept them bone dry but still in their summer flowering pots. But no, they came through the winter still alive! I emptied them out of their pots to examine them & they were fine so I put them back in the same pots again.

Just this afternoon I was digging down a little in the bigger of the two pots as they haven't shown any signs of life yet. I didn't discover any shoots, On Monday I will investigate a bit deeper!

 

I have numerous types of zantedeschia, both the smaller mixed colour 'tender' types and aethiopica and it's cultivars.
I grow 'em all outside!

 

I think you can do either although if left in the old compost in the pot over winter you could get vine weevil problems.
To be honest I'm not sure if they are susceptible to vine weevil.

 

Basically, treat them like Dahlias

 

I think it would be too cold here to grow them outside all year round. Nevertheless I noticed this afternoon that the plants in 1 of the 2 pots are now pushing through the surface of the compost. The others in the smaller of the two pots should do the same in a few days.
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