How to Grow Calla Lilies

Calla lilies (Zantedeschia) bring an unmistakable sculptural elegance to summer gardens and containers — those smooth, curled funnel-shaped spathes rising on tall stems above glossy, often spotted leaves. Despite the name, they aren’t true lilies at all; they’re tender rhizomes from southern Africa, more closely related to arums and peace lilies. That tropical origin is the key to growing them well: calla lilies love warmth, moisture, and rich soil during the growing season, but they cannot survive a freeze, so in most of the country they’re planted in spring and either treated as annuals or lifted and stored over winter. This guide covers planting depth and timing, light and water, the lifting-and-storing routine that lets you keep tubers for years, and how to overwinter them indoors.

Choosing a Spot: Light and Soil

Calla lilies are flexible about light. In cooler climates they flower best in full sun, but in hot summer regions they appreciate some afternoon shade to keep the blooms from fading and the soil from drying out. The sweet spot for most gardens is morning sun with relief from intense late-day heat. The white-flowered species calla (Zantedeschia aethiopica) is the most shade-tolerant and the most moisture-loving — it will even grow at the margins of a pond — while the brightly colored hybrids in yellow, pink, orange, and near-black prefer more sun and slightly better drainage.

Soil should be rich and able to hold moisture. Callas are heavy feeders and thirsty plants during active growth, so work plenty of compost or well-rotted organic matter into the bed before planting. They tolerate damp ground far better than most bulbs and rhizomes — the white species in particular thrives in consistently moist, even boggy soil — but the colored hybrids dislike sitting in cold, waterlogged soil during dormancy and prefer ground that stays moist yet drains. A slightly acidic to neutral pH around 6.0 to 6.5 suits them well. They’re excellent in containers too, which gives you full control over the soil and makes overwintering simple.

When and How Deep to Plant

Timing is everything with these tender plants. Wait until all danger of frost has passed in spring and the soil has warmed to around 60°F before planting calla rhizomes outdoors. Cold, wet spring soil is the fastest way to rot a dormant rhizome before it ever sprouts. In cooler zones you can get a head start by potting rhizomes indoors a few weeks before the last frost and moving them outside once the weather settles, which brings the blooms on earlier.

Plant calla rhizomes 3 to 4 inches deep and space them about 12 inches apart to give the foliage room. Unlike a tidy onion-shaped bulb, a calla rhizome is a knobby tuber, and orientation matters: look for the growing eyes or small bumps and plant that side facing up, with the smoother, rounded bottom down. If you genuinely can’t tell, plant the rhizome on its side and the shoots will find their way to the surface. Water thoroughly after planting, then ease off until you see growth emerge — soggy soil around a not-yet-sprouted rhizome invites rot. Sprouting and the first blooms typically follow within about eight to twelve weeks. For more on combining these with other summer bulbs, see our broader Plants & Flowers guides.

Watering and Feeding

Once calla lilies are up and growing, keep them consistently moist. These are not drought plants; their lush leaves and large flowers demand steady water through the growing season, and the soil should never dry out completely while they’re active. In hot weather, a thick mulch around the base helps conserve moisture and keep roots cool. The white species tolerates outright wet feet and is a natural for the soggy edge of a water feature, but even the colored hybrids want regular, generous watering — just paired with soil that doesn’t turn into cold sludge.

Because callas are hungry plants, feed them to fuel all that growth and flowering. Mix a balanced or slightly phosphorus-rich fertilizer into the soil at planting, then feed every few weeks through the growing season with a liquid fertilizer, easing toward a bloom-boosting formula once buds form. Avoid pushing too much nitrogen, which encourages leaves at the expense of flowers. Deadhead spent blooms by cutting the flower stalk down to the base; this keeps the plant tidy and channels energy back into the rhizome and future flowers rather than seed production.

Will Calla Lilies Come Back? Hardiness Explained

Whether your callas return on their own depends entirely on your climate. They are reliably perennial only in the mild USDA zones 8 through 10, where the rhizomes can stay in the ground year-round and re-sprout each spring, often multiplying into larger clumps. The white species is the hardiest and can sometimes survive in zone 7 with a deep winter mulch. In zones 7 and colder, the ground freezes hard enough to kill the tender rhizomes, so they won’t survive winter outdoors.

That leaves cold-climate gardeners two options. The simplest is to treat callas as annuals — plant inexpensive rhizomes each spring, enjoy the summer show, and let frost end the season. The more economical and rewarding approach is to lift the rhizomes in fall and store them indoors over winter, replanting them the following spring. Stored well, a single calla rhizome will give you years of blooms and even bulk up into multiple plants, which is the standard routine for dahlias, gladiolus, and other tender summer bulbs covered across our small-space gardening guides.

Lifting and Storing Calla Rhizomes for Winter

In zones 7 and colder, lifting and storing is how you keep your callas going. Done properly, the dormant rhizomes overwinter easily in a cool spot and emerge ready to grow again in spring.

1. Wait for the first frost. Let a light frost blacken the foliage in fall — this signals the plant to move energy down into the rhizome and begin dormancy.
2. Dig carefully. Use a fork to lift the rhizomes, digging wide and well underneath so you don’t spear or slice them. Shake or brush off loose soil.
3. Cut back the tops. Trim the dead foliage to about an inch above the rhizome.
4. Cure them. Let the rhizomes dry in a frost-free, airy spot out of direct sun for a few days to a week so the surface and any cuts callus over, which prevents rot in storage.
5. Store cool and dry. Pack the cured rhizomes in a box or paper bag with dry peat moss, vermiculite, or sawdust, and keep them in a dark, dry, frost-free place around 50°F for the winter.
6. Check periodically. Look them over once or twice during winter and discard any that turn soft or moldy so rot doesn’t spread.

In spring, once frost danger has fully passed and the soil warms, replant the stored rhizomes 3 to 4 inches deep and start the cycle again. If you grew your callas in pots, you can skip the digging entirely: just move the whole container into a cool, frost-free garage or basement, stop watering so the plant goes dormant, and let the rhizomes rest in their dry soil until spring, when you resume watering to wake them up.

Common Problems and Pests

The most common calla lily failure is rhizome rot, almost always from planting into cold, soggy soil or from rhizomes sitting wet while dormant. Plant only after the soil warms, ensure decent drainage for the colored hybrids, and cure rhizomes well before storing. If leaves yellow and the plant collapses during the growing season, check for rot at the base. Note that callas also enter a natural rest period — in their native climate they often go dormant in dry season — so some yellowing and dieback toward the end of summer is normal and not always a problem.

Pests are relatively few. Aphids can cluster on tender new growth and spread disease; rinse them off or treat with insecticidal soap. Spider mites may appear on stressed or indoor plants in dry air. Slugs and snails sometimes chew the lush foliage in damp gardens. One important caution: calla lilies are toxic — every part contains insoluble calcium oxalate crystals that cause burning and irritation if chewed, so keep them away from pets and small children, and wash your hands after handling cut stems or dividing rhizomes.

Calla lilies reward a little seasonal care with weeks of sophisticated, sculptural blooms. Plant the rhizomes 3 to 4 inches deep in warm spring soil, keep them rich and consistently moist through summer, and feed them well. In mild zones they’ll return on their own; in cold ones, lift and cure the rhizomes after frost and store them cool and dry for next year. Mind the toxicity around pets, and you’ll enjoy these elegant tender bulbs season after season.