Calla Lily Colors: What Each Shade Looks Like in the Garden

Calla lilies come in a narrower color range than roses or dahlias — and that is exactly why they work. There is no muddy in-between: a calla is white, or it is a saturated jewel tone. That makes them unusually easy to design with, whether you are planting a border, filling pots on a patio, or cutting for a vase.

Here is what each color actually looks like in the garden, and where it earns its place.

White calla lilies

The classic. Creamy white spathes with a butter-yellow spadix, held on tall clean stems. White callas are the wedding flower for a reason: they read as formal without being fussy, and they photograph without fighting whatever is next to them.

In the border, white is the colour that makes everything around it look deliberate. Pair it with dark foliage — heuchera, purple basil, black grass — and the contrast does the work for you.

Pink calla lilies

Pink covers a wide range here, from a soft blush that is almost white to a deep magenta that reads as raspberry. Blush pinks are the most useful: they soften a hot-colored border and they cut beautifully.

Magenta pinks are bolder and pair well with lime-green foliage. Avoid putting them next to red — the two fight.

Purple calla lilies

This is the group that surprises people. At the dark end you get spathes so deep they look black in shade and reveal an aubergine sheen in sun. Lighter purples run to violet and lavender-pink.

Dark callas absorb light, which makes them look dramatic up close and somewhat invisible from ten feet away. Plant them where people walk past, not where they view from the kitchen window.

Orange calla lilies

Orange is the most reliably “warm” calla — apricot through to a deep tangerine. It is the colour that carries a late-summer border once the early perennials are done, and it looks extraordinary against bronze or dark red foliage.

Orange and yellow planted together give you a gradient that reads as a single block of color from a distance.

Yellow calla lilies

Clean, saturated yellow with no orange bleed. Yellow callas are the brightest thing in a summer border and the easiest to place wrongly — next to pink they go discordant, next to blue or white they sing.

Mixed plantings

A mixed pack is the most forgiving way to start. Callas flower in sequence rather than all at once, so a mixed planting keeps color coming for six to eight weeks instead of one flat fortnight. It also hedges your season: if one color sulks in your soil, the others still perform.

The trade-off is control. If you need a specific color — for a wedding, a gift, or a matching row along a path — buy single colors instead.

Does the color come back true?

From rhizomes, yes. A purple rhizome produces purple flowers, year after year, because it is vegetative growth — a clone.

From seed, no. Callas cross-pollinate freely, so seed collected from a mixed planting can come up any color in the parent mix, or something in between. This is why named colors are always sold as rhizomes.

Choosing by use

Frequently asked questions

What colors do calla lilies come in?

White, cream, pink, magenta, purple (including near-black), orange and yellow. There is no true blue or red calla.

Do mixed calla packs bloom all at once?

No — flowering is staggered, so a mixed planting usually gives six to eight weeks of color rather than a single flush.

Will purple callas stay purple?

From rhizomes, yes. From seed, no — seedlings can revert to any color in the parent mix.

Every color above is available as a single-color pack in our pick-your-color calla lily listing, or as a mixed pack if you would rather be surprised.

Related reading

• How to grow calla lilies: planting and care
• When do calla lilies bloom?
• All calla lily bulbs