How to Transplant Calla Lillies

Calla lilies are beautiful flowers that are easy to grow. They grow from rhizomes, fat knobby roots that store energy when the plant goes dormant during the dry season. Wait until the end of the dry season to transplant your calla lilies. Once you water your transplanted lilies, they will emerge from dormancy and begin to grow again.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

• Sand
• Manure
• Peat moss
• Garden fork
• Garden trowel

1. Prepare the soil. Add sand, well-rotted manure and peat moss to the soil where you will plant your calla lilies. Work the materials into the top 6 to 8 inches of the soil and rake it smooth.

2. Dig up your calla lilies. Insert a garden fork into the ground a few inches away from the main stalk to avoid damaging the rhizomes. Remove the rhizomes from the ground. Divide large rhizomes into two or more new plants. Each new plant should have a bud growing off of its portion of rhizome.

3. Dig individual 4-inch holes 12 inches apart with a garden trowel. Lay one rhizome on its flat side in each hole. Cover the rhizome and gently firm down the soil on top.

4. Water your calla lilies well and keep them evenly moist. Provide supplemental water (if necessary) so your flowers get the equivalent of 1 inch of rainfall per week.

5. Fertilize your calla lilies every other week with a balanced, liquid fertilizer.

Tips & Warnings

• Calla lilies are best divided and transplanted near the end of their dormant period in late winter.

• Calla lilies are tender plants that will not live outside in areas colder than Zone 10. In these areas, dig your lilies up before freezing weather arrives, and store the rhizomes over winter in damp peat moss in a frost-free place.