Why won’t calla lily bloom, is a worry that you may find yourself asking this same question when it’s springtime already; you’re probably not the only one. Regardless of this being a common occurrence, there are easy remedies and solutions you can do to get your easter lily to bloom.
These pretty flowers have their own growing needs, and if you’re able to provide you’ll probably experience blooms year after year. Let’s see some of the reasons your lilies won’t bloom and how to deal with them.
Why Won’t Calla Lilies Bloom?
Calla lilies won’t bloom because of nitrogen issues, drainage issues, sun problems, and mixed seasonality. In addition, this matter could also be due to poorly timed pruning, underdeveloped bulbs, having too many bulbs, incorrect planting depth, and lastly, going through insect infestation.
– Lack of Nitrogen
Potted calla lily will are not as pick, which means that when you are growing them, they won’t need too many things. Nevertheless, fertilization is one of a few things to keep in mind if you want to ensure flowering. This is when they can sometimes be slow to bloom or not have any blooms at all when you would normally expect them.
Foliage growing too quickly or brown leaf segments can indicate excess nitrogen in the soil, hindering the plant’s ability to produce flowers. Growing your flowers in an outside setting usually won’t come with this problem, so potted plants that require fertilization are in focus here.
Calla lilies flourish in nutrient-rich soil and don’t require additional fertilizers. However, if you go with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer in the early spring, you’ll probably encourage the plant to concentrate on growing leaves rather than flowers.
– Drainage Issues
These beauties will require moist, well-drained soils, but won’t fare well in prolonged droughts. If they’re faced with a lack of water, the bulbs will manage for some time, but wilting leaves won’t have too much kick in them to support the blooming.
Sandy and highly porous soils are primal reasons why your calla lily may be struggling — these don’t retain moisture well and tend to dry up quickly in the sun and heat. Similarly, these plants will suffer if the soil is overly moist too. Place your finger in the soil to quickly check on the situation and see how it feels.
Quality compost and mulch should be applied if you aren’t in the season when you can safely transplant your bulbs. In this case, know that what happens is that the Calla lilies that beautiful flowers native to South Africa but can be grown throughout the world, and many gardeners enjoy their beautiful variety and colors in spring and summertime. Still, with this issue, as they are clogged with water, you won’t see them thriving as such.
– Sun Problems
If getting these plants to bloom is challenging, they may need more sunlight, or the proper amount is not reaching them. Note that calla lilies require a high amount of sun exposure to bloom; with it, they will produce those show-stopping flowers that we all adore.
This is particularly true for lilies planted in shady areas. If that’s the case, you should transplant them to an area where they will be placed in at least six to seven hours of direct sun to reach it each day.
So you would notice how these plants enjoy raised garden beds or containers that can be moved to the sunniest possible location, and if they lack it, they slowly weaken and stop blooming.
– Mixed Seasonality
If you’re growing your lilies indoors, and they aren’t producing any flowers, you’ve likely confused them, where they don’t know the season. These flowers love the outside air and conditions where they will enjoy their winter dormancy as a crucial part of their life cycle.
These flowers need the cold winter period. If calla lilies are deprived of this valuable dormant period, they may not have the energy to push blooms and only ask to get some period to regenerate in a bulbous state.
– Poorly-timed Pruning
It can be tempting to prune the foliage of your Lily after it has bloomed to tidy up your garden. However, it’s crucial to exercise patience and wait until the leaves turn brown and wither away naturally during the Fall.
When you cut the plant’s foliage prematurely, you hinder the plant’s ability to store enough energy in its bulbs to produce beautiful flowers in the following spring, which means that if you do such a thing, you will see how the plant would be too weak in having the energy to bloom. The leaves of the Lily still have a vital role to play even after the plant has finished blooming.
During the remaining part of the summer and the fall season, the calla lily plant uses its leaves to store essential nutrients and the sun’s energy, which it will use to produce stunning flowers in the following year. So, resist the urge to prune your plant’s foliage too soon and let nature take its course.
– Undeveloped Bulbs
It could be that you’re dealing with bulbs that are either too young or too small. Small bulbs do not have enough energy to produce flowers in their first year. Instead, they redirect their limited energy to growing their plant structures and establishing themselves in their new environment.
These bulbs will eventually grow enough to produce flowers, but you’ll have to be patient. Therefore, if you’re shopping for new flowering plant bulbs, select the largest, healthy-looking ones, not those that look weakened or harmed.
– Too Many Bulbs
One possible issue is overcrowding bulbs because calla lily, like many plants, needs room to grow. When bulbs are planted too closely together, they must fight for resources like nutrients, sunlight, space, and moisture. This competition can result in stunted growth, weak stems, and smaller flowers.
If you suspect that your bulbs have not been planted at the right depth, it’s worth taking the time to adjust. With the right care and attention to the detailed needs, you can help your lilies thrive and produce those blooms.
– Planting Depth
If your calla lily bulbs were planted too shallow, they might have succumbed to the ravages of frost, stunting their growth and preventing them from producing beautiful, vibrant blooms. It’s like a delicate balancing act, which is when you are planting bulbs at just the right depth is crucial for their optimal growth and health, and if you skip doing so, you will check how the growth will be unstable.
The bulbs are somewhat particular regarding planting depth — if not nestled snugly in the soil, they may struggle to establish strong roots and perish altogether. Burying them too deeply can lead to weak and underdeveloped growth.
If you suspect that your bulbs have not been planted at the right depth, it’s worth taking the time to adjust. With a bit of care and attention, you can help your lilies thrive and produce those blooms.
– Insect Infestation
Sap-sucking insects like aphids and their nymphs will love any kind of greenery to deprive it of life, including your calla lilies. The insects latch onto leaves, use their mouths to penetrate plant tissue and suck on nutrients traveling through the plant. In short, if your infestation becomes unbearable for the plant, eventually, it will be unable to produce any flowers and will push its resources to survive and repel those nasty insects.
How To Get Your Calla Lilies to Flower
To get your calla lilies to flower, you must first choose the right container, and adjust the surrounding temperature. Then, place it in a sunny location, and make sure that the soil is well-draining, induce winter dormancy, and try to test the
– Choosing the Right Container
You should always plant calla lilies where they feel the best! And the right container will mean the world of difference when growing your calla lilies indoors. If you’re planting a single bulb, a five to eight inches pot should suffice, and if you’re planting clumps of bulbs, you should go for somewhat bigger pots.
Be careful, though, because when you place them in pots that are too large, the water won’t dry evenly, and you may develop moisture and bacterial issues. The material of your containers will also count, and for this, clay-made containers are best because their walls can drink the excess moisture, thus preventing any issues from befalling your plants.
– Adjust For The Temperature
Calla lilies love mild growing conditions between 55 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, but the temperature they can grow in is a wide range. They won’t mind going in the warmer side of that range when it’s the blooming season; you just have to ensure the soil doesn’t overheat.
On the other hand, if the climate gets too warm, add some mulch on the topsoil cover to offer protection. Wood chips, pebbles, or sawdust are perfect for topsoil cover and protection against extreme heat. Although lilies like a spot that has good enough airflow, you should keep them away from where they can be directly hit by win — growing them next to air conditioning and heating vents is a big no-no.
– Get Sun In
Now you should be detailed about the placement of the plant as calla lilies are sun lovers and will enjoy sitting in a full-day sun. If you’re able to provide a good six hours of non-midday sun, they’ll definitely reward you with those beautiful flowers, so ensure that you do not deprive them of their energy source.
Of course, the midday sun is also preferable, just don’t make it direct. If you can move your lilies to a bit of a shaded spot, but that’s still well-lit in midday, you should be golden. Hence, getting those extra hours of light shouldn’t be hard if you have east or west-facing windows or balconies, where you can enable that morning goodness, or those few golden hours at the day’s end.
This means that while your outside-grown calla lilies won’t likely have any problems as long as you place them in full sun and some loose soil, container-grown plants will need some of that aftercare to produce stunning calla lily flowers every year.
– Well-draining Soil Is a Must
These lilies are flowers that natively grow next to bodies of water, like streams and ponds, so they’ll appreciate sitting in moist soil that never dries out completely. Nevertheless, no plant should sit in waterlogged conditions, and calla lilies are the same — developing fungal and bacterial conditions if left to swim rather than sitting in the soil.
Ensure that your soil does keep moisture, but should be able to drain well. If your soil is too much on the clay side or feels compact, you can mix some sand inside or pieces of fired clay, which should allow for some aeration and drainage.
The bulbous rhizome of a calla lily can produce up to six flowers in the season and a few beautiful and wavy leaves when they aren’t sitting in compact soil. These plants are one of the simpliest to grow, requiring plenty of sunlight and preferring well-draining, but rich soils, and just as you fix this issue, you will see that the plant would stop stressing.
– Induce Winter Dormancy
Calla lilies love their winter sleep; if they get it, they’ll produce blossoms the next growing season. It’s all about preserving and releasing energy at the right time. That’s why you should look to induce that winter sleep for your indoor-grown flowers.
Prune them after blooming and just before the first frost hits the outdoor space. This will send the sleeping notification to your plants and make them store the energy in bulbs for the spring. Next, you should put the containers in a darker room at 55 degrees Fahrenheit to induce those mild winter conditions. In short, after the last winter frost has passed, you can return them to their usual, bright and warm spot and watch them grow and bloom!
– Test The Soil and Free From The Bugs
Some blooming difficulties can stem from the soil your lilies are sitting in. If it’s the blooming season and your flowers still don’t show, it’s time to test out the soil. If lilies are sitting in soil that doesn’t have a pH between 6.0 and 6.5, it’s time to change things up.
For instance, aluminum sulfur and sulfates are perfect for lowering the pH instantly, while limes, or dolomite lime, and agricultural lime, are perfect for bringing it up. Deal with different pests as soon as you spot them going up and down the leaves.
Neem oil has been found to work perfectly well at keeping those pesky aphids away. Simply mix two to three tablespoons of this oil in a gallon of water and cover plants thoroughly by spraying them with the solution.
Conclusion
Calla lilies are perfect flowers for any living room, balcony, or garden bed, and these are fairly easy to grow too, yet they do not always produce flowers, now let’s remind ourselves why this is:
- The most common problems with your flowers not blooming are connected to how the flowers are being grown and the conditions.
- Always remember that these need full sun, and love their water; with a sufficient amount, they will thrive.
- Other issues may come from their overwintering needs to be met, or if there are issues with feeding and insects, so ensure to inspect your plants to determine what’s going on.
- For best results and perfect blooms every year, always take care of your flowers properly, and don’t forget to get them rested over the winter.
Now that you are aware of getting your calla lilies to bloom, we’re sure you’ll see some extra flowers this year, and you can freely start growing calla lilies as they are the perfect choice for garden design enthusiasts.
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