garden

plant palette
COOL CALLAS
Jewel-colored calla lilies are hot additions to vases, pots and gardens
24 GARDEN DESIGN APRIL 09
STORY BY TOVAH MARTIN ■ PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB CARDILLO
THE SEDUCTION OF CALLA LILIES IS
inescapable, and the list of calla conquests includes
everyone from Georgia O'Keeffe to Diego Rivera.
Coquettish and cloaked in sensuality, these South
African bewitchers are graceful, suggestive and
delectably obtainable — but they're not really lilies.
Like Jack-in-the-pulpit, Zantedeschia is in the
Araceae with an inflorescence of many flowers
sharing a long, slender spadix caped discretely
by a wraparound spathe. And callas are as easy
to cultivate as their kindred philodendrons, with
a lot more reward — there's nothing unrequited
about callas. Formerly, their domain was domestic,
holding the florist trade captive. And once
upon a time, that symbol of pearly white purity,
Z. aethiopica, was the only game in town. With the
spate of new spathe colors on the horizon — think
mango, cinnamon, ember, molten, vermilion,
sunset, flaxen, canary, fire engine or smeared lipstick
— callas show no sign of slowing tempo as
cut flowers. But now, you can also ignite your garden
with their sensuous color range. Since 1985,
the new siren call is that callas are slipping into
garden beds and containers. The new generation
of tuberous callas can be coaxed to blossom
eight weeks after planting, according to Paul
van Leeuwen of Wageningen UR/Applied Plant
Research in the Netherlands. But flower thrills
are not a calla's only gig. To keep you baited while
flowers unfurl (and after they've faded), there's a
crop of arrow-shaped foliage to speed your heart
further. These callas were photographed at worldclass
breeder Kapiteyn (Captain) in Callas and
at Keukenhof in Lisse, both in the Netherlands.
SEE SOURCEBOOK FOR MORE INFORMATION. PAGE 88
< 'TREASURE'
When callas were first gaining their vibrancy 25 years
ago, Treasure' was one of the groundbreakers going for
the gold. Achieving headline status for its fiery moltenlava
shades bleeding into saffron in a graceful sheath,
it began the trend for color-soaked callas, with morerecent
newsworthy cultivars drawing out the drum roll
with lingering blossoms and increased bud count.