Calla Lily

4: Calla Lily, Peter Masters 2014
 
The Calla Lily is one of my favourite flowers. I actually planted this one and several like it in order to photograph it. Which is the first and only time I’ve done such a thing. But I love them so much. I think they are really beautiful. I love the creamy texture of the flower, the bright yellow stamen to set it all off. But particularly the really deep green of the leaves. Put the three together and you get this gorgeous green, off white and bright yellow picture that come up in gorgeous shapes. 

Not everyone loves Calla Lilies. They were associated with funerals in the Victorian era of England. And some people have tended to associate them with a rather darker idea than they really deserve. To me they symbolise and always have symbolised birth and renewal, which is why they were used in funeral carts in the 1890s. But they have also been associated with the Virgin Mary over time for much the same reason - birth and renewal. There’s no death without birth and renewal so I think they are a beautiful, beautiful plant and we should see more of them.

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Newcastle Libraries · Calla Lily