Callas bloom beautifully. Fresh flower stalks appear after cutting flowers, decorating a garden or room. Everywhere feces looks very exotic due to the unusual shape and bright color of the flowers.
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Types and varieties of flowers
Calla lilies with white flowers that grow from the rhizome are also called the Butterflyfly. The homeland of the plant is swamps and moist lowlands of temperate and tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. White callas well tolerate winter frosts, hygrophilous, unpretentious to the soil.
Another plant from the Aroid family is also called callas - Zantedescu. It differs from the Wing of the Swamp in the structure of the root (it is tuberous) and in the color of the flowers. The birthplace of Zantedesia is Africa. The plant does not tolerate frost at all, likes moderate watering, is demanding on soils, needs peace in winter.
In the infield, you can plant tuberous calla lilies for cutting, most often they are cultivated, like indoor and greenhouse plants. They bloom beautifully. Hybrid tuberous varieties are created on the basis of two types - Remann and Eliot.
Famous varieties of callas Remann:
- Chameleon - a low-growing variety, the color of the bedspread is golden orange;
- Evening - black calla lilies;
- Indian summer - maroon flowers.
The cultivation of tuberous and rhizome plants is different.The first type is more whimsical and demanding in care, it is about him that we will go further.
Growing Calla Lilies in the Garden
To grow exotic flowers on a personal plot, it is necessary to fulfill certain requirements. Choose a suitable place, properly water and feed, dig up tubers for the winter and grow in the spring, before planting in open ground.
Tuber garden callas begin to be planted in February at home. The tuber, placed in fertile soil, put in a bright place and regularly watered. In mid-May, calla lilies are planted in the garden; it will grow there all summer. In October, before the onset of frost, they dig it out and transfer it to the room from the garden.
Choose planting material and place of landing
Calla tubers for planting choose dense, elastic, without visible signs of spoilage. Planting material brought from the store must be etched in a warm fungicide solution. The processing time for different drugs must be viewed on the packaging.
A tuber of at least 4 cm in diameter can bloom in the year of planting, so you need to look at the size of the planting material.
For landing, choose a bright place, protected from the wind and well warmed by the sun. It is advisable that part of the day, callas obscure the branches of trees or buildings from the sun. Wide green leaves get burns from direct sunlight. But, planted in dense shade, the plants will not bloom.
Garden plot preparation
Before planting callas, the garden plot is dug up. Add leaf humus, peat and sand in equal parts to the soil, and mix well. The land should be light and fertile. You can make a complex mineral fertilizer, about 30-40 g per 1 m2.
Planting tubers in open ground
When planting tubers, you must correctly place them in the ground. Buds with sprouts should be directed upwards.
When the green shoots have not yet hatched, the buds from which they will grow look like small tubercles - they are easily confused with the roots. The tuber should be planted with tubercles up, and with the smooth, convex side down.
If you mix and plant the tuber incorrectly, the shoots will rot and the tuber will not germinate. The layer of earth above the surface of the tuber should not exceed 4–5 cm. With a large deepening, the tubers develop poorly, and the plants are weak. Sprouts will appear in 2 or 4 weeks.
It is better to plant already grown tubers with leaves in open ground so that the plant blooms earlier.
Garden Calla Care
In the garden, callas can be planted directly in a flower pot, but the soil will dry out quickly, and you need to water such flowers often. If you plant a plant in open ground, it is good to choose a place near a pond. Callas like high humidity, but the soil should be fertile and light, without stagnation of water.
How to care in winter
- You need to dig up the calla before the frost, without waiting for the leaves to fade.
- The plant is transplanted into a flower pot and brought into a room where frost is not afraid of him.
- When the leaves are dry, they can be removed - they will transfer nutrients to the tubers and will not leave wounds on them. Leaves are separated by hands.
- Tubers are stored in sphagnum by putting in a box, which is taken out in a cool room, for example, in a dry basement. A small number of tubers can be stored in the refrigerator in the vegetable compartment.
Outdoor Calla Diseases and Pests
In open ground, the plant can be affected by pests, viral and fungal diseases. Weakened plants that do not receive mineral nutrition are especially susceptible to diseases, grow in an unsuccessful place where there is little light or there is stagnation of water in the soil.
They deal with various rot by spraying with fungicides, insect pests are destroyed by insecticides. Heavily affected plants are dug up and burned to prevent the spread of the disease.
Features of growing calla lilies at home
Tuberous calla lilies are heat-loving plants; therefore, they do not have enough summer days in central Russia for their full development.
To flowering garden varieties came faster, they are grown in pots on window sills. Often tuberous calla is grown exclusively as a houseplant.
Pot and soil requirements
The pot is taken medium in size so that the root system of the seedling is well developed. The tank should have large drainage holes so that excess water leaves - tuber calla lilies do not like stagnation of moisture.
A thick layer of drainage is placed at the bottom of the flower pot. Then fill with nutrient soil from the store, having a slightly acid reaction. Suitable land for violets, for example, "Saintpaulia" from the Garden of Miracles series.
Calla care at home
Calla care begins with planting the tuber in a flower pot.
- It is important to plant a tuber correctly in depth. It is slightly buried in the soil, since the roots grow over the entire surface, even from the base of leafy buds. The topsoil should be small so that the buds sprout faster.
- After planting, the tuber is watered with a solution of phytosporin to prevent disease.
- When the earth settles, the upper tuberous buds should be no more than 2 cm deep.
- The first sprouts appear after 2 or 3 weeks. The pot is placed in a well-lit warm place, sprayed from the spray guns.
- An adult plant is fertilized once every two weeks, and watered when the topsoil dries by 2 cm.
- Placed on the eastern windowsill, where there is no bright midday sun.
Pest and Disease Control
Indoor pests call insects much less often than those that grow in the garden. Plants are often sick from excessive watering or lack of fertilizing. When fungal diseases appear on leaves or roots, plants are treated with fungicides, transplanted into fresh soil and reduce watering. Callas are fed with fertilizers for flowering indoor crops once every two weeks.
Calla reproduction methods
Propagate the flower with tubers, seeds and division of the bush. Division of the bush is suitable for rhizome callas. Seedling is the hardest to grow seedlings.
Bush division
Rhizome callas propagated by dividing the bush in early autumn. For this, the plants are dug up, the overgrown rhizome is carefully divided and the parts obtained are placed in pots with the ground. They are grown in room conditions or in a greenhouse, and in the spring they are again planted in open ground.
Tuber flower propagation
During the season, calla tuber grows “children” around itself - small nodules. You cannot immediately separate them, you need to wait until jumpers form between the mother tuber and the children. When the jumper diameter reaches 4 or 5 mm, the baby is carefully broken off.
If done earlier, the tuber will have a large wound surface, and it may die.
Seed way
Calla seeds only appear in the year of collection. Last year's seed germinates very poorly. To improve germination, you can soak the seeds before planting for 5 hours in a solution of potassium glutamate (biostimulant growth).
The seed method of reproduction is used only by breeders, it is unpopular in simple gardeners.
Why are callas called flowers of death?
From time immemorial calla was considered a home charm that kept happiness in the house. In those houses where this plant grew, there were never quarrels and scandals.
In the language of flowers, callas mean the highest degree of admiration and admiration. But in European countries, white is associated with death, and therefore white flowers bring to the graves. Among Slavic peoples, white is a symbol of innocence, and it is customary to give callas to brides.
Calla is a beautiful, delicate flower that admires with its graceful, strict lines. Some difficulties in care are more than paid for by the long flowering and juiciness of green leaves.