Zantedeschia Habitat

The genus Zantedeschia naturally occurs in the African continent and is most common in the Southern African States including the Cape Province, Lesotho, Natal, Orange Free State, Swaziland and Transvaal. They are also found further North in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. The natural habitat of the summer flowering varieties is a warm temperate climate with rain fall mainly occurring in the Winter. Conversely the Z.aethiopica group is more commonly found in regions of summer rain fall, the plants often occurring in wet land areas.

Zantedeschia in New Zealand

Zantedeschia first came to New Zealand in the early 1900's, largely as seed of both main groups and was commonly sold by a number of seed merchants as early as 1904. This seed included the five original summer flowering varieties and it was from these that the first hybridisation commenced. As well as early work completed by Luther Burbank in California, several New Zealand hybridisers entered the scene. In the early 1930's, our most well known calla breeders emerged as the driving forces behind the range of coloured Callas we now have today. They included:

• Tony and his son Trevor Brljevich
• Richmond Harrison
• Jim Mathews
• David Mudge

Three main groups of the coloured hybrids emerged and although they had much in common, these have formed the basis for the range of colour offered by BLOOMZ today. BLOOMZ continues this hybridisation work, the team now led by Jaap Spaans, who's most well known success to date, Schwarzwalder, is now achieving success on world cut flower markets. The current seed crop is extremely exciting with over 3,000 new variants under consideration this year.