hi this is yolanda vanveen from vanveenbulbs.com and in this segment we're going to talk about how to store calla lily bulbs now calla lilies are a beautiful addition to your garden and they're native to South Africa so in South Africa they go dormant when there's no rain in the summer and then they just die down to nothing and then when it rains in the fall they come up and bloom so when you're growing them in different parts of the world you can still grow them even somewhere where it freezes as long as you keep them away from the freeze and keep them in a warmer temperature during the winter so you treat them just like you would a Dahlia or any other tender bulb in a cold climate and it's pretty easy so this calla lily is done blooming and the foliage is starting to turn yellow it doesn't look very good so at that point I like to cut it down to the ground and then turn around and take it out of the pot now theoretically - and a lot of times I will just leave it in that pot cut it down to the ground leave it in the pot in the garage basement laundry room somewhere where it's going to stay above freezing because if that gets wet and freezes solid you're going to lose it if you live in a mild climate where doesn't freeze very hard you can also leave them in the ground as long as you put some mulch on top of them and they'll survive pretty easily so once you've got them out of the pot I like to separate them out so there's many ways that you can store them when I dig them up I just leave them loose in these black crates so that they get air and they just stay loose like you would pack a potato or onions and it's a great way to keep them stored you can put them in a paper box as well that's really easy another easy trick is just to wrap them in newspapers just like you would dahlias and then that way a lot of times they'll keep a little bit of moisture kind of wrap them up and I'm a firm believer - you don't want to keep them too dry at the same time so a combination is great so a lot of times I'll wrap them in newspaper and then put them right into a plastic bag and keep the bag open just a little bit so that it can breathe so the trick with storing calla lillies is to just check on them if they look really really dry just give them some moisture and you can always add moist soil to them too a lot of times I'll just leave them in some soil right in a bag as well and then just check on them and so as long as it's not too wet or too dry they'll store and I found calla lilies three years later and planted them and they've still come up because they store really easily and they're really a great addition to your garden