Updated at: 11-05-2022 - By: Sienna Lewis

Even though you won’t die if you touch the leaves of calla lilies, they all contain oxalic acid. When touching the plants, be sure to wear gloves and keep them out of the reach of children and pets, who may be irritated by the sap. Tuberous rhizomes produce spring-blooming stems that bear cup-shaped blooms all season long. USDA plant hardiness zones 8 through 10 are home to calla lilies.

Deadheading Calla Lilies

Deadheading a calla lily, in contrast to many other flowers, has no effect on the plant’s ability to produce new flowers. One, two, or even six blooms can be produced by each calla depending on its genetic makeup. Until the next spring, the plant will only exhibit its leaf once the flowers have faded away.

How To Prune Back Calla Lilies! - YouTube

So, why bother deadheading calla lily plants if it won’t result in new blooms? There are two reasons for this: In the first place, a clean green plant is more appealing than one with drooping, dead petals. It makes sense to keep your flowers looking their best because you plant them for their beauty.

Calla lilies need to be deadheaded to ensure that their rhizomes grow into healthy plants for the following year’s blooms. Seed pods formed from spent flowers are a waste of resources that could be used for other purposes.

In order to properly utilize its energy, the plant would benefit from focusing on developing a huge, hardy rhizome rather than blooming. Taking care of the dead blossom will allow the plant to concentrate on preparing for next year.

How to Deadhead Calla Lily

Detailed advice on how to deadhead calla lilies may be found here. You want to make the plant more visually appealing by removing the blossom. To remove the stem, use a pair of garden shears or scissors.

Leaving a short stub of stem around the base of the plant is fine, as long as no bare stems are visible through the foliage.

The ideal technique to extract calla lilies for use in bouquets is to cut them in this manner, and the plant will still be healthy.

How to Prune Cala Lillies

Zantedeschia lilies, which produce calla lilies, are not lilies at all. They flourish on soil that is deep, damp, and rich in nutrients, which is where they were originally found in South Africa. Partially shaded plants can still thrive, but blooming plants require full sun. Bridal bouquets and wedding arrangements frequently use calla lilies, which are stunning blooms. These plants have a big trumpet-shaped blossom that might be white or any number of other hues. Pruning is vital for both the health and beauty of the plant, so it’s important to do so.

After the bloom has faded, only then should you begin the pruning process. Don’t prune in the fall or early spring since you’ll sabotage your plants’ ability to produce flowers. Get your pruning tools out once the blooms have bloomed and discharged their strong aromas. Pruning should be limited to a third of the shrub’s stem each year as a general rule of thumb. Eight to 12 stems of varying ages with diameters of 1 to 2 inches are ideal for the shrub.

  • Zantedeschia lilies, which produce calla lilies, are not lilies at all.
  • Pruning is vital for both the health and beauty of the plant, so it’s important to do so.

Remove any branches that are dead or dying. As a starting point, this is the simplest form of pruning. Remove any dead branches in the spring that appear to have succumbed to the severe winter. There is no need to remove the entire branch; only clip off the dead section. To avoid damaging the good branches, use a sharp knife to remove the dead stems. Remove the entire branch or principal stem if it is dead. The new ones will grow in no time.

  • As a starting point, this is the simplest form of pruning.
  • Remove any dead branches in the spring that appear to have succumbed to the severe winter.

Give it the right form. After the dead stems and branches have been removed, the calla lily’s general shape should be attended to. Sometimes branches grow in a way that causes them to rub against each other, necessitating the need to shape them. Pruning the branch that has grown out of proportion to the rest is necessary. A acceptable length is achieved by snipping above the node. The primary goal is to improve the overall appearance of the plant.

Robot Check | Pink calla lilies, Bulb flowers, Zantedeschia

Remove the blooms that have been grown. Deadheading calla lilies greatly improves their blooming ability in the first few years of growth. Unless you remove the wasted blooms, the plant’s energy will be focused on seed production if you do not remove them. However, if you remove these deadheads, the plant will ensure that it produces new buds for the upcoming season, resulting in an abundance of new flowers. When the blossoms begin to fade, simply cut them off.

  • After the dead stems and branches have been removed, the calla lily’s general shape should be attended to.

Water Needs

In order for calla lily plants to thrive, they require a lot of water. Make sure they get enough water to keep the soil moist to the depth of an inch. When watering plants in pots, do so until the water dripping from the bottom of the pot reaches the bottom of the pot. When watering, do not get water on the flowers or leaves; instead, give them a light mist. The white calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) is a semi-aquatic plant that does well near to a pond, but it is considered invasive in other regions. It requires constant wetness to survive.

Fertilizer Needs

As soon as calla lilies begin to emerge in the late winter or early spring, they require monthly fertilization. Take 1 tablespoon of the water-soluble fertilizer, 10-10-10, and dissolve it in 1 gallon of water once a month. Replace one watering with the solution, using the same amount you typically would. Fertilizing should be discontinued once the blooms have finished flowering.

Pest and Disease Control

However, fungal infections, such as rhizome rot that could destroy callas, can occur. Foliar yellowing or browning, fallen leaves and fragile roots are all symptoms of fungal infection. It is possible to reduce these by not over-watering the plant and by using only well-draining soil. Keep the area around the plants well-ventilated by removing any extra mulch or plant debris. Cut away any sick or dead foliage with a clean pair of pruning shears, and then get rid of the cuttings in a compost pile. Before and after pruning the calla lilies, sanitize the shears by dipping them in isopropyl alcohol and allowing them to air dry. Pre-mixed multipurpose fungicide spray can also be beneficial. Once a week, until the illness is gone, thoroughly spray the diseased plant till it drips. Do not handle the plant or any of its fallen debris without gloves.

CALLA LILY PROPAGATION FROM SEED 6-28-12 - YouTube

Pruning Needs

There is no need to prune calla lilies on a regular basis, but you should remove the faded blossoms when they appear. Removed sections of the plant should not be fatal. Avoid irritating sap by wearing gloves when doing this. To remove the stems, use disinfected pruning shears or your fingertips to pinch them just below the flower’s base. Digging and storing calla lily bulbs isn’t necessary in USDA zones 8 and up, although the plants might be ugly as they start to die back in the late fall. Make a clean sweep of any plant detritus and they’ll return next spring.