Calla lilies...sun or shade?

Last year I planted some Callas in the "wet" bed that I have that is part sun. I say wet, because it is pretty moist most of the time and ferns and colocasia and cannas and cardinal flowers all love it there. Everything I read about them said full sun so I put them at the sunniest part of the bed -about 4 hours of mid-day sun. They stopped blooming almost immediately, disappeared by late summer, and were not seen again.

Ii gave into temptation today and brought home a "Fire Glow" zantedeschia. Too beautiful to resist. They are labelled "part sun". So here's my question. Anyone growing these down this way, and if so, I'm wondering if 4 hours of sun is too much. I'm tempted to put this one into mostly shade.

Any thoughts appreciated!
Deb
PS/ This is it by the way. Sigh.

i say shade!!!!! i core think mentioned something about them on the blooming in april thread, and he said shade. do youhave anywhere that is always shady, but is bright shade? if so i'd put it there

Yes, I can just move them further back in the same spot. It's on a north facing wall...so the closer to the wall the more shade. I'll go back and look for what CoreHH said.
Thanks, Dhrd!
Deb

ur welcome

I got a bunch of the colored callas in the coop, but I haven't got a clue about hardiness of any of them. Has anyone in my zone had success with keeping them in the ground over the winter? Please tell me I didn't just get a bunch of more tropicals that need overwintering.....lol

tigerlily, every calla I've planted has come back....doesn't mean all yours are positively 100% surely hardy, but I would bet money that it's cool to put them all in the ground

I hardly bother to mulch mine too

even the red and purple ones? That makes me happy :) The thought of any more tropicals having to be overwintered makes me cry! lol

I don't have any red ones but my anneke and purple haze, picasso, etc. come back fine. I have every other color but red..lol, so I'm assuming they'd be fine. If you wanted to play safe you could mulch the first year. I love callas, I think they're slightly underrated personally, totally low maintenance and the foliage looks good most of the growing season, especially the spotted ones..cool aroids

I'm not sure why the hardiness info I've read about callas and glads seems totally wrong, they've always come back and bloomed for me even where I didn't want them to

Mine do fine but don't like the sun at all. I planted them in a few hours od sun and they didn't bloom for me and burned a bit. I moved them to pretty much all shade and they grew like crazy and no problem blooming.

actually I think this is one of those times where the SC zone difference comes into play, lol. I had put my callas originally in full shade, no blooms. Now most of them are getting a few hours of strong afternoon sun a day & a bloom like crazy. They're planted next to xanthosomas, alpinias, cannas, colocasias, etc so they are getting a fair amount of sun, but plenty of water and probably enough shade, too

tigerlily, your yard is great for them, just not full blazing sun and plenty of water, they all should come back

I've decided on a spot where it will get about 30 minutes of actual direct sun. So far, so good. But it's only been 4 days, s o we'll see ! LOL.
Deb

(Last night.)

nice... where'd you get it

L----'s.
:)

hmm i might need help with that one... just a wild guess, but Lowe's maybe?

yeah they and home depot have been gett in a lot of those for some reason....never really saw them there before and then...poof racks and racks of callas

You are correct, It was Lowe's. Great big rack of them.

Yep, Lowes is all over calla's this year.

is there any particular reason for it, or does it just suit their fancy for some reason? anyone know?

Deb, they do well in full sun down here--actually, they return better if they are in full sun.
=)

DMJ: You're killin' me! I had just settled on shade! LOL. What I have done is kept it in a pot but sunk the pot in the ground. That way I can move it if things go south, so to speak. Hedging my bets. ;>
Deb

You can also pull the pot out to dry in garage in the winter--which does mine a lot of good! Some of mine get some shade during the day--just mostly sun. They bloom better in subsequent years the more sun--just my opinion--but I grow a lot of bulbs.
=)

You have lots of gorgeous bloomin' bulbs, as I've seen! That's why I don't know what to do now. :) Houston is everybit as hot and humid as we are in summer, so if yours are good in sun, mine ought to be, too.

I'll do the old "watch it closely" thing. :)

By the way, my Lousianas finally woke up and bloomed.
Deb

I new they would--I've still got a few blooming, but most are done for the year.
=)

Well. I lied. I opened thsi thread saying the Canna I planted in sun last year were never seen again. Wrong. Look who's up and blooming already.

Meanwhile my "new" Canna is still blooming but the blooms are flopping over a bit. Anyone have a suggestion? Is that not enough water, perhaps? Or am I back to the not enough sun/too much sun thing?

Deb

You do mean calla, right?

picky picky picky....

Uh...yeah. Hey! I had a long hard day at work! Calla. That's what I meant. :)

That all right it's like talking to my wife. I have to kind of fill in the lines and change the bad info she gives me. LOL.

To da moon, Core! To da moon!! ;->

Deb,

Okay, I read back thru again and if I'm correct, you have the calla planted in a place where it gets 1/2 an hour of direct sun? and how often are you watering?

well I lied too Deb. The first one to bloom for me so far this year is not a very impressive one, but its in almost full and complete shade. go figure. I guess I should be thankful it has returned, not all of them have and we had a dry winter for here. Mine have re-emerged in a real staggered rate also, I still have some just poking up (perhaps my mulch too deep?)

Debbie

PS I'm about ready to start digging those LA Iris, you still want to trade for that Dixie Deb? I need to do my trades first.

Trop: It's actually getting about 90 minutes of direct sun, bright shade the rest of the time. I've still got it in the pot, which I've sunk into the ground and I've been keeping it moist but not soggy.

Debbie: Ready when you are! I had planned to start dividing in June when I get back from my little vacation, but I may get impatient and start digging this weekend. Just let me know when you're ready!

Deb

June would be better, late June was what I was aiming for.

OK. Perfect. I'll dmail you.

Debin - I have mine in a 12" pot, on the side of the playhouse which gets sun from noon to around 3 or 4, will keep you informed on how these bloom, right now they are a bunch of pretty spotted leaves LOL

core - your wife know you talk about her like that...cause I would jack you up if I were her...LOL

Well, hey ladies! so many familiar faces, lol

DebinSC, I'm not sure they're getting enough sun. Mine were in too much shade and I only had one floppy bloom out of several callas. I moved them to a spot where they get a few hours of afternoon sun and they bloomed after that.

rednyr, my blonde guess is that yours do well

rednyr--weren't you wanting some LA Iris to trade for camelia's? I thought you wanted some of the orange ones--right? I need to sort my trades out prior to doing an auction or putting on my website. They are thick as thieves and simply must be thinned out this year.

Sorry for being off topic Deb--I think you will forgive me, right? ;)

Maybe I'll move the potted one forward a bit so it gets a bit more sun.. I'll see if that cures the floppiness.

I'll let you know how my sun situated ones do--so far, just a lot of spotted leaves on them here too.
=)

mine are just now coming up, except the ones that were in the GH. I almost forgot about a few of them and planted over them...that's what things get for being slow around here

maybe they are daylength related Tropic as to why they are coming up at the same time for both of us? I have to admit--I'm not up on calla's like other bulbs.