Callas are showy plants with bright green foliage and dainty flowers. To admire this splendor at home or in the country, it is important to know the intricacies of planting, caring for, growing these flowers. Calla has several names. This plant is called zanteksia, rishirdia. This flower is native to South Africa, but an analogue of calla also grows in Russia - this is calla. It can be seen in swampy places, on the banks of rivers. In English, these flowers are called - Calla.
Calla is one of the most beautiful flowers. At the top of a tall slender stem is a graceful flower, which consists of a coverlet and a cob. The leaves are located at the bottom of the plant. They are green with white splashes.
Calla varieties
To determine which zantexia you like best, check out the representatives of this family. Here are some varieties of calla lilies, some of which can be grown as a pot culture, others as a garden.
- "Chameleon" - this variety is low, so it can be grown not only in the garden, but also in a pot. The bedspread surrounding the cob pistil has a beautiful peach color with golden tints;
- "Indian summer" - red, shimmery with a garnet shade;
- "Evening" - calla lilac with satin tints;
- The variety "Vermeer" the coverlet is slightly wavy, marble-white outside, lilac-cherry inside;
- "Yellow Corner" lives up to its name. The bedspread is sunny yellow;
- "Black-eyed beauty" - This rishirdia is creamy-creamy lemon color.
Growing calla lilies in the garden - planting
If you want your summer cottage to have islands of lush greenery, among which elegant flower stalks rise, then you just need to grow calla lilies. For everything to work out, you need to create comfortable growing conditions for the plant.
It is important to find a place where zantexia will feel good. The soil there should be fertile, and the place should be open. Since calla lilies naturally grow in humid places, in the heat in a place unprotected from the scorching sun, the leaves can wither. Therefore, calla lilies should be planted where in the afternoon there will be shading from bushes or trees that will save zantexia.
Calla is one of the few plants that prefer acidic soil. If it is not possible to make it this way, add special tools that will turn it at least into slightly acidic. To do this, you can use deoxidizers, peat - it will also help to achieve such a reaction. In addition to it, add to the flower garden where feces, sand, leaf humus, fertile soil, taken in the same proportion, will grow. If your soil is sandy, then sand is not applied. At 1 m? you need to add 40 g of mineral fertilizer.
It is better to prepare the ground in advance. Since calla bulbs are planted in early May, the soil is dug up and refined in the second half of April. Planting material is also prepared in advance. First, the bulbs must be examined, if there are rotten places on some, they are cut out, and the wounds are covered with brilliant green and allowed to dry. Before planting, the tubers are dipped for 30 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate or Maxim.
The hole is dug so deep that when you lower the bulb into it, there is a space on top equal to two times the height of the bulb. The distance between the holes is 30 × 40 cm. Water the holes, lower the tubers, cover with light soil.
For 10-14 days, do not water the plant until it has enough moisture, so it will be easier for the kalle to form roots. After all, until they grow back, the aerial part of the flower will not appear. It usually takes 15-30 days.
If you want zantexia to bloom early, germinate it. Having planted in early April in small individual pots, sprinkle with soil 3 cm on top. Water the seedlings periodically, and 1–2 weeks before planting in the garden, start hardening by bringing them out to the glazed balcony or opening the window.
Sprouted calla lilies are planted in the garden in mid-May, and tubers - at the beginning of this month, since at best 2 weeks pass from planting to the appearance of growth, but this can take a whole month.
Calla lily care
Calla is quite hygrophilous, so the soil around the plant must be watered periodically. After the evening watering, in the morning you need to carefully loosen the soil around the flower. If the soil in your area is not acidic enough, sometimes add a little vinegar or citric acid to the water for irrigation.
As mentioned above, zanteksia, in natural conditions, prefers to grow near swamps, near rivers. Therefore, if you have an artificial pond on your garden plot, you can plant calla lilies on its banks. But do not forget to water it enough, since such a reservoir only contributes to an increase in air humidity, but not soil.
If, when planting calla lilies, you introduced the necessary mineral and organic fertilizers into the soil, then you do not need to do additional fertilizing. If you have not done this, then dilute fertilizers for flowering plants in water according to the instructions and water zantexia 2 times a month. Pay attention to how they affect the plant. If the effect turns out to be the opposite - the leaves are stuck, their edges are withered, then you have overfed the flower with fertilizer, applied it on dry, and not on wet soil, or your calla is placed in the sun itself.
Rishirdia must be dug up for the winter. In this regard, it should be noted that calla lilies are root and club. If you have planted a rhizome garden, in mid-September it must be dug up and, together with a lump of earth, placed in a cool room, where it will be stored until spring. Tuberous garden calla lilies are dug out at the end of September and placed in a cellar, basement or other place where the temperature is +5 ° C. The foliage and stem are only cut off after two weeks to allow nutrients to pass from these parts of the plant into the bulb. After this time, the stem and leaves are cut off with a sharp knife, stored at a temperature of +3 - + 5 ° C, for example, on the lower shelf of the refrigerator. They must be periodically inspected to ensure that they do not dry out and rot. In the spring, the roots and bulbs are planted again.
Growing potted calla lilies
A calla root tuber or rhizome is planted in a pot, sprinkled with soil on top of 4 × 5 cm. In winter, the temperature should be low - +8 - +14 ° С, in summer +22 - +25 ° С. During the flowering period of zantexia - +12 - +16 ° С.
If you want to provide the plant with early flowering and so that the cover surrounding the ear is of a rich shade, place the feces on the lightest windowsill, where the night temperature is +16 ° C. Since forcing takes place in winter, additional lighting is necessary so that the daylight hours of the plant lasts 10-11 hours.
Caring for home calla lilies is pretty simple too. Water it so that the earthen ball is always moist, 2 times a month give a liquid fertilizing with water-soluble fertilizers for home flowering plants.
If you are growing a potted rhizome calla, in early July you need to dig up the plant, remove old leaves, offspring and transplant into a new pot.
Calla Ethiopian reproduces by dividing the bush. To do this, before transplanting the plant into a new pot, carefully separate the offspring of the calla lily and plant it in another container. Garden rhizome calla is propagated during digging, in autumn, and offspring and mother bushes are planted in the ground in spring.
The rest, bulbous varieties, can be propagated by carefully separating the “babies” from the main bulb.
Calla lily propagation by seeds
This method is more complicated and painstaking, but it is worth talking about it. Calla seeds must be soaked before planting. To do this, place them between cotton pads or paper towels, moisten with water, remove for 3 days in a warm place. Plant the hatched seeds in a container, lightly sprinkle them with earth, wait for germination.
Leave the strongest shoots, just pull out the rest. A month after the sprouts have appeared, they must be cut open, deposited in separate bowls. If the plantings are not thickened, you can grow them until mid-May in a common container. Within the indicated time frame, plant the calla in a permanent place at a distance of 30 × 40 cm from each other. You need to care for calla seedlings in the same way as for plants grown from a tuber or rhizome.
Video with tips on how to grow calla lilies:
Pictures of calla flowers:
