Double Calla.

Exactly.

Kenton, take a pic when it's getting dark so the flash goes off and it should show the 'you know what'! It might not work the same in daylight if you fix the flash to on.

..Or when the sun is strait overhead...

Are you guys in a private room over here? ;o)

The door is open!

Room Service!

Oh yes!

Very cool!

Yeah, that's the ticket!

Thanks, K.

Robert.

Oh ho, I have a strange looking thing growing on my strange looking thing!

Cameo is doing the business!

(Who is the foliage in background, please?)
Golly, get a paper bag to put over that thing. Great colors, though.

Wallaby1~

Has it been around the Amorphophallus bunch? Some unearthly influence......planet Gibberellium?

Robert.

This pic doesn't do justice to the wonderful soft yellow of Sangria (which should pick up some rosy hues as time goes by).

I love the curl: it's nearly twice around!

Robert.

Ooooh Robert, I haven't seen that one! It's gorgeous! The leaves even seem to mimick the twirling nature.


It does look a bit of an Amorphophile, the strange little one! Gibberellic acid? You could be right! It says here that too much can have the opposite effect..

http://www.greatvistachemicals.com/agrochemicals/gibberellic_acid.html

The new 'thing' looks like a leaf spathe, we shall see if it has a spathe to go with it! It was the 10th when I first posted the pic of it, it has lasted well! The other part of the plant, the one with the 2 small normal leaves in another pot, looks to be making 'something'.

I have 11 two year old plants I grew from seed off Z albomaculata and 3 of those have all tall thin leaves, while the others are making normal leaves with spots. It could be a trait of these plants either chemically induced or natural. The plant itself doesn't have any.

Kenton, why did I know you would ask that? It's Potentilla alba, low growing and has nice little white flowers. Spreads to a nice big clump and has interesting leaves.

Hi guys, I hope you don't mind me asking a call question here. I've been reading along with ya'll on this thread and was wanting some advice. My calla's don't seem to be opening all the way. Is this because they are new this year? I didn't know if the first flowers maybe weren't the best, but on all the calla bulbs I have only a few have fully opened. I didn't know if it could be the heat or something else I was doing. I even have had a double too, I just haven't posted it yet, I will soon though. Thanks for any help. Fran

Fran it might be just one of these strange things that happen with Callas! I don't think anything you are doing can make a difference to their opening.

I'm not sure if you mean that all flowers on one Calla are opening but not on other plants, or you have a mix on the same plant. I find that some do take some time to open properly.

It does depend on the cultivar also, they all have different shapes.

Why not post some pics so we can see what they look like?

Some of the blooms on my callas didn't seem to open as fully as others. I really didn't pay much attention to it, you know, just took it as one of those things that happens now and then.

We've had such a hot June that I kinda thought, as you did, that the change from more moderate temps to the highs we usually have in July and August has affected them. I know it slowed their growth. I can't say for sure, but maybe those blooms that got caught in the heat wave were the ones that seemed to halt in their expansion. It makes sense. A

I was reading in a guide to greenhouse production of callas (those other than aethiopica), that they grow best in temps of 75F during the day and 65F at night. That may be why they seem to grow so well in the spring. Our current temps have been much higher in the day but not much higher at night, so mine are getting part of what they'd prefer.

We've just had a return to 70s and lower 80s and the blooms that have emerged seem to be forming fully again. I'll just have to see what happens with the bulbs that I started a few weeks ago do and the one I just started yesterday that is assuredly of blooming size.


Robert.

Ok, thanks for the tips. I'll post some pictures this week. It's been so hot here, mid to high 90's with no rain so they probably don't like that too much. I don't have a digital camera so I've been taking pictures with a regular one so I have to get my film developed. I think I took some on this roll. I'll post them soon. Thanks.

Fran, I think some varieties don't totally open in the heat.

Wallaby: I have read that strappy leaves can be a common birth defect (self pollenation?). In fact, I think it was a new law or something that barred breeders from using genetics from them in hybridizing programs.

Robert, I thought 'Sangria' was a blush type? Is it getting more color? It has a nice form.

Horrible news: I found a spot of soft-rot on my prized Zant. 'Black Star' yesterday morning. I was late for work (I have my priorities, eh?) so that I could cut out the infected spot of petiole, spray it hard with a water hand-sprayer, and liberally dust the spot with wulfur. Cross you fingers, say a prayer!
I petition we outlaw Erwinia from the planet. Anyone in favor?
K

Offering prayer to Maria Callas for your touch of the rot........

I hope what I have IS Sangria. Yes, the pic showed it yellowy with a red-rosy blush. So far, it's still pale yellow (paler now than when it first opened). Too delicate a shade for the cam to render, sorry.

It has a wonderful silken-waxy texture. Mmmmmmmm......

I imagine the blush will develop in the final stages. I hope.

Robert.

The next two are especially for Kenton, who loves striations of color. ;-)

These are Sangria.

Robert.

This message was edited Jun 28, 2006 10:53 PM

Only one lip, but what a lip!

Glorious! I once impulse-bought a Clematis, even though it was a non-clinger, (fancy that, me, a vine addict.) because it had dark veins. Luscious, lascivious, dark veins...

Where did you get your 'Sangria?' I am fascinated to see it bloom- but with unspotted leaves to boot. Golly, it looks like 'Mint Julep.' Just excellent form. That is what I think is the ideal form for a Zantedeschia, non of this open-based spathe riff-raff!

Somewhere I cought wind of block-vareigated Zants. (Think red-splashed on gold flowers) Unfortunately, it was when I was quite down on Zant collecting after my little stint with softrot, and did not follow-up on the rumour. I'm still not really 100% "rooted" as a Zant specializer. I won't be unti I can figure out how to check the erwinia in my climate. I stil ahve experiments to do. I used to be so serious, I would re-bloom my silly bulbs and all. Some day I'll find that genera that calls to me, and I'll hybridize until the cows come home and learn to knit...
Kenton

Love that yellow stripe!

Well, I don't know what all the garden shop had in the way of callas this spring, but as we've discovered, my "Gem Lavender" wasn't so this one could be a mix-up too.

Today I noticed that it seemed to have taken on a pale greenish tint to the yellow, but I thought it was just me. But now that you say it might be Mint Julip, that impression would seem right, right?

I bought the bulbs at a local garden center (where anything can happen in a bulb bin!)

Robert.

Kenton, LOL on the addition of "and learn to knit". I want your first scarf! I know what you mean about the desire to hybridize. I am truly fascinated by plant genetics, and have gotten pretty obsessive about aquiring parents of various hybrid groups in lilies. It does'nt sound overly complicated to me from what I've read. I have to be careful not to get over-abitious and set myself up for failure. I'm bad enough for having several projects going at once, lol.

Have any of you moved callas during pre-bloom growth before? I have this clump of Z.aethiopica that were among that 10cents a bag bulb haul I made from Lowes last year. I stored the already somewhat dry looking bulbs in open, plastic bags of peat and planted them in April. Many were so dry and shrunken, I only expected maybe half of them to show. Well, here they are now, and I think all of them survived. I'd like to spread them out some if it would'nt set them back. Any thoughts?

I'de hate to move them with that much leaf. (Nice Caladium, by the by. And mossrock.) Aethiopicas will be OK to be mildly crowded- they look like (unless they are miniatures) they are in that robust-youth growth stage. They're rhizomatous, they'll spread themselves out just right.
I've moved plants at that stage successfully by taking a lot of soil with the roots, but have not divided them. Too risky, a real setback.
Do you have Z. albomaculata?

I would just like to -not necessarily hybridize, but know- a genus, deeply, like a good friend. Frankly, if it is a mess as it can be now with Zant, they will be too stressful on me! Some folks do "DLs" or Iris or Dahlias, Lilium, etc... Passifloras are getting more appealing. No major problems to decimate the weak mind.
We had a frantic and nasty wind today that broke off a leaf from my poor Z. Black Star- like it needs another setback now!

And I woudn't be the one knitting- the cows would, you see...
Kenton

Well the cows do come home if they are not fetched! Learning to knit will never happen! Looks like you will be forever hybridizing...as some people do when the passion takes over their lives!

I think it would be a very single minded person to find and concentrate on a single plant family, my mind keeps jumping around wanting to know what is around the next corner. If I like it I will collect what appeals to me until I've exhausted the best, then I will go onto the next exciting plant, I may return briefly if something pops it's head up that is interesting.

I'm not sure about wanting to know a genus too deeply, I like to know its little habits, but if you delve too deeply sometimes the excitement is lost, there is nothing left to find out and be surprised by. Like a good relationship, there must be a sense of mystery still, and no-one ever really knows a 'good friend' that well.

Neal, if you could put your plants in pots and keep them sheltered and well watered I would do it. I have some Z a. Crowborough that had struggled in the ground for a few years and looked to be expiring, I lifted them and found many small bulblets. I put them all in pots in a greenhouse and they are still there, the larger ones getting some decent size on them now. They start growing early and outside they just didn't get the heat they need, although this one it is supposed to be hardy, it is in the greenhouse, it needs good care here.

Robert, my Crystal Blush is still white and has your green striations!

I think I will wait to spread them out. The main reason I'd like to is to fill in some areas in my expanding tropical garden, which I can wait till next spring to do. I should hold back anyway (always tough for me), because while the space looks empty now, when the elephant ears, cannas and castor beans get some size to them it will be quite full.

Kenton, are you refering to the ones in front of the rock when you asked about Z.albomaculata? Those came from the flower shop last year in a pot, just labeled callas. They look like crystal blush when they bloom.

No, I mean "do you have any at all?"
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/115649/

Maybe I just want to hybridize, to know a genus through as much as I can (they will always suprise, of course). I like the idea of the excitement of seeing how new, individual seedlings come out. But there is no escaping the new-plant-experience all of the time craze as described by Wallaby.

Holy Macaroons! That reminds me! I have fresh Z. 'black star' and 'Picasso' hybridizing material to work with right now! Gotta go, Kenton

I don't have Z.albomaculata any more. Seeing the pic I now remember. The dreaded rot that attacked some of my callas last year got it.

While kenton is off hybridising,

This is my Crystal Blush, with green striations just like Robert's Sangria. But mine is pure crystal white. I can see the slightest blotches of pink on one edge, as if the rain had splodged some spashes onto it. Looking carefully at one of the pics I took as it was getting dark, and with infrared, there appears to be the finest pink edging also.

When I went shopping today, I spied pots of these things in the supermarket. There was two tall vases with cut leaf/spathe combos, then I spotted pots of them growing on the other side. Some yellow with red throats, open bottom spathes, open leaf-spathes with a red blotch in place of a throat, rusty orange/brown ones, some had very small spathes that looked like Gem Lavender, but half the size. I didn't buy one!

Now look very carefully , and you will see a fine pink edge around the bottom, and some blotches on the rear curve.

Did ya see it?

Pink Mist has finally pinked. It's bigger this year, the stem is taller, I think even the flower is more elongated. it also appears more 'pink' but from the outside, the spadix is also pink! The throat is a very tasteful pink, rose` wine...well, I like it...

Dig that shape

''

The whole picture shows how big it is, look how it dwarfs the bath tub. That's one of those old, deep tubs.

AAaaaahhhh! Janet, I LOVE Pink Mist! Your wonderful shots of it have convinced me I must have it. And like you said, such a tasteful pink. I'm envisioning them with clumps of Japanese painted ferns at their ankles.

Oh yes, and I did indeed see the subtle pink edge developing on Crystal Blush :)

Well Neal, I do have several germinating, I also have both colours seed off lathyrus vernus, so if ya want them....

I bet Kenton likes it too, he says he doesn't like pink, come on K. tell us you don't like this one!

Ooooh, I like that idea!