Reviewed By COLIN SKELLY
Colin is a Horticulturist and Horticultural Consultant with experience in a range of practical and managerial roles across heritage, commercial and public horticulture. He holds the Royal Horticultural Society’s Master of Horticulture award and has a particular interest in horticultural ecology and naturalistic planting for habitat and climate resilience.
IN THIS GUIDE
- 1) Z. aethiopica
- 2) Z. ‘Crowborough’
- 3) Z. ‘Crystal Clear’
- 4) Z. ‘Mint Julep’
- 5) Z. ‘Golden Chalice’
- 6) Z. ‘Flamingo’
- 7) Z. ‘Crystal Blush’
- 8) Z. ‘Eyeliner’
- 9) Z. ‘Captain Palermo’
- 10) Z. ‘Cantor’
- 11) Z. ‘Captain Chelsea’
- 12) Z. ‘Captain Romance’
- 13) Z. ‘Captain Safari’
- 14) Z. ‘Mozart’
- 15) Z. ‘Bingo’
- 16) Z. ‘Fire Glow’
- 17) Z. ‘Odessa’
- 18) Z. ‘Picasso’
- 19) Z. ‘Green Goddess’
- 20) Z. ‘White Giant’
Arum Lily is a herbaceous perennial though it may be deciduous, semi-evergreen, or evergreen depending on a given region’s climate.
It is evergreen in sub-tropical climates when it gets year-round water and is deciduous in temperate regions, but which have relatively mild winters that it can weather.
These rhizomatous plants lack a central stem as the stalks and petioles emerge directly from the rhizomes.
The leaves are sagittate or arrowhead-shaped and are typically 35-40cm long, glossy and of a rich green hue.
Some cultivars’ foliage is flecked or liberally speckled with white.
This exotic plant is not only a stylish, unusually chic one, when planted in optimal conditions it will turn out to be very low maintenance.
“Arum Lily’s make great plants for pots, working well in modernist settings,” says Master Horticulturist Colin Skelly.
“They will need a large pot to retain the moisture and nutrients necessary to keep them in good condition during the summer months.
“This does mean that there will be a greater number of cultivars to choose from as pots can be protected from frosts during the winter months more easily than those in the ground.”
The flower not only looks lovely in a vase indoors, it is also long-lasting as a cut flower.
Arum Lily and its various cultivars reach heights of 60cm to about one metre.
Their spreads are typically within a narrow range of 40-50cm.
In the Northern Hemisphere, they flower from June through July but sometimes start as early as May.
The different cultivars vary in the colours of their ‘flowers’ but some also have flecked or speckled leaves, and a few top out at 60cm while some can grow taller.
We present a top twenty list below:
1) Z. aethiopica
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
AKA: ‘Arum Lily’
The ‘mother species’.
The spathe is pure white and the spadix is a cheery yellow.
2) Z. ‘Crowborough’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
- RHS AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT
Has ‘flowers’ that are the same colours as the species but the spathes are just a bit smaller, are wavy, somewhat furled, and display a pleasingly irregular appearance.
3) Z. ‘Crystal Clear’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
Is not infrequently entirely pure white.
Pure white spathes encircle spadices that may be creamy yellow, off-white, or white.
4) Z. ‘Mint Julep’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Have yellow spadices with spathes in shades of creamy white to a rich cream.
5) Z. ‘Golden Chalice’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
Have spadices and spathes in matching colour, this being a bright, buttery yellow.
The leaves are heavily speckled.
6) Z. ‘Flamingo’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
One of the most delicate varieties, ‘Flamingo’ has rich and warm yellow spadices encircled by spathes that range from pink-suffused white to pale pastel pink.
7) Z. ‘Crystal Blush’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Has a yellow spadix which is smaller and less prominent than most.
The spathe is a delightful blush pink for the most part but can be gradated from pinkish-white through candy pink.
8) Z. ‘Eyeliner’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Has a dark, brownish-yellow spadix and a spathe of a rich crimson-maroon verging on black with orange edging.
9) Z. ‘Captain Palermo’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Is perhaps the winner in the Captain Series of Arum Lilies and must be considered a top contender for the best Arum Lily variety.
It has the customary yellow spadix encircled by a spathe that ranges from a delicious rich purple to a smoky blackish maroon-violet, making it unquestionably a superlative choice for an accent plant.
It has white-speckled leaves.
10) Z. ‘Cantor’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Gives heavy competition to ‘Captain Palermo’ as a top pick for best specimen Arum Lily.
It has a purple spadix encircled by a spathe that is gradated from purple near the lips down to near-black at the base and into the throat, or it may be a riveting violet hue.
It has liberally and heavily speckled leaves.
11) Z. ‘Captain Chelsea’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Has a yellow spadix with a multicoloured spathe.
On the outside it is flushed with light maroon on a yellow ground while on the inside it has a thick border of bright yellow and is maroon in the throat, with a progressively darker hue.
12) Z. ‘Captain Romance’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Features a deep yellow to yellowish-orange spadix encircled with a candy pink spathe that is flushed greenish-yellow near the base.
13) Z. ‘Captain Safari’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Has a yellow spadix and a spathe that is predominantly rose pink but flushed with yellow and deeper pink.
14) Z. ‘Mozart’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
Has an unusual orange spadix; also unusual is the spathe.
It is multicoloured and gradated, wearing flushes of colour in yellow, pink, and peach; these colours may occur anywhere on the spathe.
The leaves have some white flecks.
15) Z. ‘Bingo’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
- RHS AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT
Have yellow spadices wrapped around by spathes of a rich purple-pink gradating to yellowish-cream at the base.
Leaves are liberally speckled with white.
16) Z. ‘Fire Glow’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
- RHS AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT
Have orangeish spadices encircled by spathes in a gorgeous hue of vermilion-to-red, flushed along the sides and in the throat with bright yellow.
Leaves are speckled with white.
17) Z. ‘Odessa’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
Flowers have very short spadices that are barely visible.
The spathe is an amazing hue of near black maroon-violet.
The striking flower makes this cultivar an outstanding choice for a specimen plant.
On top of that, the leaves have small white flecks.
18) Z. ‘Picasso’
- HARDINESS RATING: H1C
- RHS AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT
Has yellow spadices encircled in a bi-coloured spathe that have broad white borders and are light purple with the hue getting progressively deeper nearer the base and deeper in the throat.
19) Z. ‘Green Goddess’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
- RHS AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT
A very popular cultivar but a green ‘flower’ may not be to everyone’s taste.
While the spadix is the default yellow, the spathes – which are bracts, of course – are green with white throats.
20) Z. ‘White Giant’
- HARDINESS RATING: H4
As the name indicates, this variety is an outlier.
It attains a height of 2m and the foliage too is different as the leaves are liberally speckled with white.
White spathes encircle yellow spadices.
