You’ll never hear me call a Calla a Lily because it is not in the family of Lillium. It is, in fact, a Zantedeschia. I love Callas so much that I had a cat named Calla and a snake named Deschia. Calla the cat lived in my shop, loved to sun bathe in the front window and had many visitors whom she greeted enthusiastically before plopping down and rolling over to show her belly. While I also love Lilies, I’ve never had a pet named for them.
Callas mean magnificent beauty according to The Knot and are popular in bridal bouquets and in modern floral design for their stately beauty. They are used as a line flower to draw your eye into the arrangement and create a focal point.
The colored part of the Calla is not actually the flower, they’re inside. Florists call the colored part the “show”, but it’s really the spathe. The flowers are very small and are along the spadix, the long, finger shaped yellow thing in the center. Callas don’t have a fragrance, so they are a good choice for people sensitive to scents.