Zantedeschia aethiopicaGreen GoddessThe Green Goddess calla...

Zantedeschia aethiopica

Green Goddess

The Green Goddess calla lily

Rhizome; blooms all year; grows to five feet

Green flowers are gaining in popularity with gardeners because they are unusual and offbeat, and because they fit almost anywhere in the garden. One of the most sought after is the Green Goddess calla lily. A subtle presence in the garden, it does not shout for attention like other flowers. Each spathe is intriguing, having a different variegation, creamy white on medium-green, as though every one were hand-painted. The leaves are the same medium-green.

Green Goddess is a rhizome, considered by some to be a perennial, as Huntington gardens botanist Kathy Musial says, because “it reseeds itself all over the garden.” Some gardeners even refer to it as a weed, that is how easy it is to tend. “It doesn’t look tough, but it takes a lot of abuse,” Musial says. It is perfect for shady, dry, neglected spots.

A good place is under trees. Green Goddess probably looks best with tropicals; at the Huntington Library it grows beneath a cassia. It can be grown in big clumps, but not as a perennial border.

From South Africa, where the summers are wetter than ours, it lives in marshy or sandy places in sun and shade. In Southern California it will flower almost all year, despite the cold, because most gardens here are irrigated year-round. Blooms last two weeks in the garden. However, Green Goddess can be forced into dormancy by not watering it, and it will come back, unlike bulbs.

Sun or Shade

In the shade, it grows lush and very big--to five feet. In the sun, it will get to about half that size and tends to burn. Along the coast, full sun is fine.

Green Goddess is available at the Huntington, where volunteers dig up clumps from the grounds and pot them in one- or two-gallon containers. Visit or telephone (818) 405-2163; many will be sold at the annual Huntington plant sale on May 15. Desert to Jungle Nursery in Montebello sells one- and three-gallon containers.

A healthy plant will be firmly situated in its pot, not falling over. Signs of infection--such as mushy, brown spots--should be absent. Once you get it home, keep it in the pot until planting time; spring or fall is best. It never needs to be fertilized but watch for snails and slugs.

Green Goddess makes an excellent cut flower. Stalks can get to be an inch thick, so they are usually used in larger arrangements.