When Are Calla Lilies Best To Be Dug Up?

This text provides guidance on how to dig up and replant Calla Lilies in late fall or early winter, depending on your climate zone. It covers selecting a new location, preparing the soil, and watering for a successful transplant. Calla Lilies require extra water throughout the summer, and if you need to overwinter them indoors, they will need more water as they get older.

To start, select a healthy-looking plant, such as a mature Calla Lily, and ensure that it has the right conditions for overwintering. In zones 8 to 11, colorful hybrids and the evergreen Z. aethiopica can be left in-ground to overwinter, but in zones 7 and lower, the cold-sensitive Z. aethiopica must be dug up and stored indoors for winter. If you live in a hard freeze zone, dig up the rhizomes, store them indoors, and plant them out again in the spring.

Calla lilies are tender perennials, and their rhizomes must be dug up in fall and stored indoors over the winter months. After a killing frost, cut off the foliage 1 to 2 inches above the soil surface. The ideal season for transplanting calla lilies is from mid-spring to early summer or late fall to mid-winter, as this ensures optimal growth.

After the foliage withers away, wait until spring, and dig and divide your calla lily. Start preparing by stopping fertilization and gradually decreasing watering in August, then in early October, dig up the rhizomes.