Growing Calla Lilies in Containers - SUCCESS! Planting Calla Lily Rhizomes in Bulb Crates and Pots

Hello everyone and welcome back to the garden. Today I am going to be showing you the calla lilies in containers. Now you may have already seen the other video about planting the calla lilies this year in these bulb crates, but I wanted to make a more kind of conclusive concise video now that the calla lilies are actually blooming and I have more experience with growing with this technique. The first thing that I did this spring, well actually it was more like late winter, was purchased some calla lily bulbs. The calla lilies that I'm growing in this video is a lovely variety called strawberry blush. It's just a very pretty white variety with kind of blush markings of a kind of pinkish red color. Very very lovely as you will see here. Calla lily bulbs I believe are actually technically called rhizomes. They're not true flower bulbs in themselves. They are usually hardy to zone. USDA zone 8 usually is what I most often see for calla lily bulbs and I'm actually here in USDA zone 6 slash 7 kind of on the border. So growing calla lilies in containers is actually a really good choice for me because they will not dependably overwinter in the soil here where I am. If I were to live somewhere a bit warmer of course I could leave them in the soil over the winter and most likely they would not have too many problems overwintering. However, since I do need to dig them here in my garden, that's one of the main reasons that I've chosen to plant these in containers. Another very big reason that I've chosen to plant these in containers or in a bulb crate in this case is that they do not do well with competition from weeds. Here in my urban yard I have some very very invasive lawn weeds. These creeping charlie vines and bittercress and all this stuff will quickly come in and take over a flower bed even when I do my best you know to keep the weeds at bay with hand weeding. So planting these in a bulb crate has been a major asset for me in terms of being able to control their growth and to make sure that they have the best growing conditions possible. The first thing I did in this instance was fill my bulb crate with a high quality potting mix. This is just a regular potting mix that I got at the home improvement store. Nothing fancy, nothing special. I just wanted to make sure that it drained well. Once I had done that I have about six inches of soil here in this crate for reference in case you're wondering. It's about six inches deep. I arranged my calla lily rhizomes in the container. In this container I got about just under 20 rhizomes I think is how many I got here. You can see that the spacing is actually very very close. I've spaced each of the rhizomes about two to three inches apart from each other kind of equidistant apart from each other and I wanted to make sure that the growing tips were pointing up. In a lot of cases you can see which side of the rhizome has the most pointy little growing tips. Usually you can see the circle on the rhizome. There's a circle there if they're not growing yet and also you can see sometimes there are remnants of roots to kind of give you some guidance as to which side is up. Overall I try not to worry too terribly much about what side is up and what side is down just because the plant wants to grow up. It knows what direction and in most cases I find that most of my bulbs that I plant of all types seem to orient themselves the right way with a little time. So once I have got those calla lilies arranged in my container what I just did is I went back and I covered it up with more potting soil. I added about an inch to two inches of additional potting soil to these calla lilies. With calla lilies you want to make sure that you're not burying them too deep. That's very important. Sometimes in the past I've had experiences with calla lilies where I've buried them a little bit too deep and they struggle to grow or some even fail to grow. I like to avoid planting them deeper than about two inches. I say about one inch is pretty good for me here in my yard and again we don't really have to be super concise with the planting in this container because this container is going to be at the end of the season the bulbs are going to be lifted out of the container. So really not too much to worry about in terms of being meticulous at planting time just making sure that they are covered very very well. After I have covered all of my calla lily rhizomes with soil I am just going to give this container a good watering. Water it very very well and then I am not going to water it until I begin to see growth emerging. Only in very rare cases when we haven't gotten any rain and the soil has dried completely might I consider watering these again before they sprout. I just really want to make sure to avoid having soil that is over saturated because I don't want those to rot before they have a chance to really start to grow. Here in my yard I actually planted these out into the garden about two to three weeks before my last frost date. Here in the spring it had already started to warm up quite a bit and we only had a few days where a few nights where there was a frost so I didn't really worry about that as long as the calla lilies had not started to grow yet. I hadn't really worried about whether or not they needed protection from the frost. As soon as they did start to emerge from the soil if there was a frost projected I did cover them with a frost blanket so just just something to keep in mind as you kind of consider whether or not to protect that tender new growth in very early spring. But once my last frost date had passed these things simply burst into life and they have done great. The foliage is thick and beautiful. The plants are growing extremely well even at this very very close spacing. As the weather warmed the days got a lot longer. They were quick to fill out. The leaves were quick to open and broaden and very very quick to begin producing those beautiful classic elegant looking calla lily flowers that I think everyone has come to know and love. I know a lot of cut flower farmers don't necessarily grow calla lilies and I do think they have kind of a reputation as like a funeral flower things like that but I think they are absolutely gorgeous and just so so lovely. So once the flowers were produced I did cut the flowers for cut flower arrangements and for donations and things like that but I wanted to make sure to leave all of the foliage intact and let that grow for as long as possible. I did add a bit of fertilizer. I added mine just before flowering initiated. I'm not quite sure the timing of the fertilizer but as those plants grow I do want to make sure that I'm leaving as much foliage as possible so that they can collect as much energy from the sun as possible throughout the entire growing season. This foliage will stay beautiful and lush and green up until the arrival of the first frost and arrival of fall. It is then once that has all started to die back naturally that I am going to actually start to dig up these corms and store these in a cool place a cool dark place over winter and then I can plant them again the following spring and repeat the entire process. As with most calla lily bulbs you will find when you dig them up in the fall that many of them have produced more smaller rhizomes that you can save as well and allow to get larger and larger and gradually increase your stock of calla lilies over time. Some varieties are more prolific than others I find but it definitely is possible to gain calla lily plants using this technique. Overall I think this is just such a great way to grow calla lilies especially if you're a small grower or you just want to grow in some containers near your house or something like that. I think they are absolutely gorgeous and such a welcome just beautiful ornamental flower here to have in the cut flower garden. One thing before I go that's totally important to note since these are in containers you do have to kind of watch the water level and make sure that they are not drying out through summer especially when it gets very very hot here in my yard. I have to make sure I'm paying attention so I am watering these on a semi-frequent basis about once or twice a week depending upon the rain. That's really about it for this video. I hope that it was somehow helpful. I'm not quite sure if it was or not but I did want to show you what I'm doing and the success that I have with calla lilies this year because this is the very first time that I've ever planted calla lilies in containers or let alone planted calla lilies in bulb crates in this manner so it was definitely a learning experience for me and I just kind of wanted to let everybody know if they were unsure whether it would work or not the experience that I had. As always feel free to leave your comments down below your own experiences with calla lilies down below. I do try to read every single one of the comments and get back to people. I do my best but I'm admittedly way behind. As always links to all my stuff my blog and everything and Patreon and free garden planners all kinds of stuff is down in the description below so be sure to check that out. If you're interested go ahead and follow me on Instagram if you want. I'd love to have you just say hello over there. A lot of times I'm better at answering comments over on Instagram. Thank you so much for your support and for watching this. I genuinely mean it when I say it would not be possible without you so I'm so thankful to you. I hope that it is sunny and beautiful wherever you are and I hope you're having a really great day. Bye!