Gardening for You: Black Calla Lily conjures Halloween mystery
Black and orange are Halloween colors. Orange is seen everywhere in the pumpkins, squash, and gourds. But the color black, in a living organism, is rare. The black calla lily makes a spooky, timely Halloween decoration.
In the language of flowers, calla lily means magnificent beauty while black symbolizes elegance and mystery. Black for Halloween conjures up mystery.
The name calla lily means beautiful, after the Greek calla, and calla is linked with the Greek goddess Hera. According to legend Zeus brought Hercules, his son from another woman, to Hera, his wife, while she was asleep to drink her milk. When Hera awoke, she pushed Hercules away flinging drops of milk across the sky, creating the Milky Way. Drops that fell on the ground grew into beautiful lilies (ftd.com).
Yet the name "calla lily" is misleading as it is not a true lily. It was designated as a lily by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus but later corrected when assigned to the genus Zantedeschia in homage to the Italian botanist Francesco Zantedischi. The botanical name for calla lily is Zantedeschia aethiopica (zan-te-DIS-kee-a ie-thee-OH-pi-ka), referring to its native Africa.
Still the common name for the calla lily persists. The botanic evidence that Zantedeschias are not true lilies is that callas are propagated from rhizomes, rather than bulbs, as are all true lilies.
The alluring mystique of a calla lily is its trumpet-shaped inflorescence. There are two parts to the inflorescence: a spathe, the colorful outer section and the spadix, the yellow spike in the center that is clustered with tiny flowers. The thick and fleshy spathe is not a petal, rather, it is a modified leaf.
Colors of the graceful blooms vary from pure white, yellow, coral, pink, fuchsia, deep burgundy to almost pure black. The vibrantly colored spathes stand out against the bright green foliage speckled with white. Other common plants with spathe flowers are Peace lily and Anthurium.
Calla lily is a tender, semi-hardy tropical herbaceous perennial. Callas are adapted to USDA hardiness zones 8 through 10. Calla lilies go dormant and die back in the summer. In mild climates they reappear each year, but when grown outdoors in hardiness zones colder than 8 they need to be dug for the winter or purchased new every spring.
Plant callas in well-drained soil in the spring, blooming from mid-summer into autumn. As tropical plants, they grow well in warm environments, protected from wind. They need bright light for vibrant blooms and speckled foliage, but in areas with high light intensity grow callas in partial shade. To promote blooming, keep moist.
The cultivar of the black calla lily in the photo is ‘Night Watch’ (milgro.com); other eerie callas are ‘Black Hero’, ‘Night Club’, ‘Black Forest’, ‘Black Panther’, ‘Starry Night’, and ‘Jewel of the Night’ (callalilies.com).
Ellen Peffley taught horticulture at the college level for 28 years, 25 of those at Texas Tech, during which time she developed two onion varieties. She is now the sole proprietor of From the Garden, a market garden farmette. You can email her at gardens@suddenlink.net
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Gardening for You: Black Calla Lily conjures Halloween mystery
