Calla Lily Annual or Perennial Plant

You may be wondering whether the Calla Lily plants are annual or perennial plants, as this plant is often used for wedding bouquets. So, if you often create a bridal bouquet from Calla Lilies, you probably should look for another flower if at the time of need, this plant does not flower.

The term ‘annual’ means the plants only grow for one season in a year, while the term ‘perennial’ here means the plants will grow  more than two years. So, which one is the Calla Lily plant? Is It annual plant or a perennial plant? So, let’s find out the true fact of the Calla Lilies from our post below!

Are Calla Lilies Annual or Perennial Plants?

The Calla Lilies actually grow as perennials in USDA plant hardiness zones 8 to 11. However, over the past year, many people treat the Calla Lilies as an annual plant, as they often use the Calla Lily as the gift bouquet for wedding bouquets.

When people have purchased the potted Calla Lilies flowers or when they get them as a gift, they tend to throw them away after a season. They actually think that the Calla Lily is the annual plant. In fact, the Calla Lilies will grow and bloom again next year. Sure, it also depends on how you treat your Calla Lilies to be either an annual plant or perennial plant.

Read more: The Meaning Behind Calla Lily Flower

Generally, the Calla Lilies are perennial, but they can also be an annual plant in some conditions. Why? That’s because the Calla Lilies are not frost-tolerant. Many people will get rid of them after the spring or bloom season is over, without knowing that you can save them until the next season.

What Factors Do Affect Calla Lilies To Be Annual or Perennial?

As we’ve mentioned, the Calla Lilies can be either annual plant or perennial plant depending on how you treat them. Sure, there are a number of factors that can affect them to be either an annual plant or perennial plant.

One of the influential factors that affects your Calla Lilies being annual or perennial is the climate factor. The climate factor here is temperature that will help or also hinder your plant. In this case, your Calla Lilies will grow well when you expose them to moderate temperature. However, the extremely high temperatures will harm the rhizome of your flower.

Aside from temperature, winter is also the factor that affects your Calla Lilies to be either an annual or perennial plant. Need to know, during winter, you should keep your Calla Lilies indoors. In this case, the extreme cold will be able to destroy the rhizome of your flowers and you will not see them come back the next year.

Keeping Calla Lilies year round may be possible, but how you treat them to get blooms again next year depends on your hardiness zone. In this way, you can rely on the hardiness of Calla Lilies through zone 8 or may be 7 at a stretch.

If you live in a colder area, you should bring your Calla Lilies indoors for the winter. All you have to do is to always keep your Calla Lilies potted. You can also take your plant outdoors for a patio plant in the summer and then bring it in again before the first frost. You can allow your plant to go dormant for the winter by simply not watering your plant until the spring.

Alternatively, you can place your Calla Lilies in the ground in your garden in the summer of spring, after the last frost. You can also remove them before the first frost of the fall or winter. To remove your Calla lilies, you can dig up the plant and then keep it dry until the leaves brown. You should also remove dead leaves and place the bulb in dry soil or sand.

When you want to replant the bulb outdoors in the spring, make sure to always check the temperature around 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 21 Celcius). If you store your Calla Lilies year round in a pot and it starts to decline and produce fewer flowers, you probably have a case of crowded rhizomes.

Every few years, you can divide your Calla Lily plants into three or four sections to place for the winter. For the next spring, you will have a larger quantity of healthier plants as well. The point is  you can enjoy your pretty Calla Lily flowers year after year with just a little extra effort. Calla Lilies are perennials plants, not annuals.

How to Treat Calla Lilies as Annual Plants?

Calla Lilies may also be annual plants depending on how you treat them. If you want to decide your Calla Lilies to be annual plants, you just simply treat them as annual.

In fact, there are a few Calla Lilies varieties that cannot survive in harsh conditions. You can really treat your plants as annual and simply replace them every year, assuming you are concerned about the climate condition in your zone.

For more information, some Calla Lily varieties may not survive in wet winter weather areas with low temperature. In this case, the overly cool, wet soil will result in root rot, so the rhizomes cannot survive winter to regrow in the spring.

If it happens, you surely can treat the Calla Lilies as the annual plant by replacing them each year if it is a concern in your climate. Alternatively, you can dig up the roots once flowering and place them indoors for winter.

In this way, you can let the roots dry and remove the dead leaves. You can also place the Calla rhizomes in peat moss in a dry, 55 degree Fahrenheit location until you replant them in the spring.

Additionally, the Calla Lilies will grow as perennial plants that can remain in the ground year-round when grown in mild climates within their zone range. Certainly, your Calla lilies may even remain green year-ground that depends on winter temperatures and also sun.