This one is always beautiful.
Hot Chocolate Calla shows up and shows off every June.
This is the plant that I give to everyone.
Anyone who sees it, who wants it.
The best part of all is that it requires only water during dry periods.
Maybe a stake when the spathe develops and gets heavy.
Then I cut the blooms and leave these gorgeous leaves.
Flow loves her Hot Chocolate.
This plant is an easy-pleaser.
It has thrived wherever I plant it.
I love the blooms and the foliage.
All it needs is enough water to stay vertical.
‘Hot Chocolate’ wins the prize for the best calla.
Flower
I wish all my flowers were as easy to please as my Hot Chocolate Callas.
No matter where I plant them, they thrive. They do best in sun and moist soil.
No trimming, no staking, no spraying…
I do have favorite flowers. This is one of my top three. Stay tuned for another top three.
This one is officially Zantedeschia ‘Hot Chocolate’ PP15294.
I left most of them out for the second winter. They all came back.
It’s description says cold hardy to 10 degrees F, so I do bring in a few over the winter.
I wish they were all this easy!
FLOWER
It happened again this morning. A new daylily bloomed with an unusual color.
Its name is South Seas, but that color…
Time to pull out the cheat sheets.
I used to use my colored pencil collection, but this got rather cumbersome…
carrying around a box of pencils…holding each up to the flower…
Now, I whip out my color charts from the internet.
I happen to know that by the time it gets through my printer and the photos and the internet,
there is bound to be some change in tint, tone and hue.
I know someone is going to tell me there is a APP for that. There is an APP for everything.
I can only use “lipstick” so many times (twice) before it gets redundant.
So now you know. The FLOWER is a cheater. (Blushing scarlet.)
I’d like to think of myself as a color-reader over-achiever.
FLOW
P.S. South Seas looks candy with hints of blush and a honey throat. (i.e It’s red and yellow. )
I am all about the plant. I plant them where they will thrive. If they don’t do well in one spot, I move them.
I do this over and over. So when a lovely combination occurs, it is usually serendipity rather than skillful selection.
Here are some combinations that I find fortuitous. I can’t take any credit for the mixes and matches. I will, however, take full credit for the health of each plant. They are my babies, along with the bunnies.
FLOWER goes with the flow.
This is one of my very favorite plants in my garden.
Zantedeschia ‘Hot Chocolate Calla’.
I have many clumps of them around my gardens. Most are located in partial sun with good drainage. I leave them out over the winter here in Zone 7.
I did dig up dozens of round rhizomes last fall to share as gifts at a Christmas gathering.
The deep, dark burgundy blooms look almost black in low light.
The bright green leaves have clear streaks that appear silver.
Their 2′ to 3′ height means they fit in well as the second or third line back in a bed.
The spathe and spadix blooms have a lovely shape from any point of view.
The blooms rise above the leaves and stand out on their tall stems.
I have several other callas which will bloom later.
Hot Chocolate is by far my best bloomer.
FLOWER
These Zantedeschias are stealing the show away from the daylilies this week.
Calla is the Greek word for beautiful. They are living up to their name.
The bloom is really a spathe(bract)
and spadix with tiny blooms.
The point on the spathe holds a drop of dew in the morning.
The variegation of the ‘Hot Chocolate’ leaves looks silver and is really clear spots in the leaves.
The colors of the spathe of ‘Captain Romance’ shift from green to pink.
These are not really lilies and they don’t come from bulbs.
Their round rhizomes are poisonous, so be careful where you store and plant them.
I always take a few in over the winter, but leave most of them out. I am in zone 7.
Follow the FLOWER.
Morning light is different.
The low angle of the sun’s rays causes the subject to cast vertical shadows on itself.
It gives a three-dimensional effect that you can’t get any other time of day.
I got up early this morning and let the sun’s rays spotlight what I should photograph.
I paced up and down the eastern side of the garden waiting to see what lit up next.
It was like being lead on a treasure hunt.
Look closely for rays and shadows.
Let the light guide you.
FOLLOW the FLOWER.
floweralley 