Zantedeschia aethiopica 'Green Goddess'

Zantedeschia aethiopica 'Green Goddess' is one of the most well-known cultivars of the Arum Lily, Zantedeschia aethiopica. Its spathes are splotched and streaked with green, toning down their pure whiteness and giving them a subtle foliage-like quality. There is a somewhat indefinable beauty to these inflorescences; they seem understated, self-effacing, drawing back into the shadows. If the normal cultivar of Zantedeschia aethiopica is familiar and ubiquitous, its majestic white spathes standing out proudly above the green of the foliage, unafraid of displaying its serene and majestic beauty, 'Green Goddess' is just the opposite, its spathes are half-hidden, camouflaged, shyly peeking out yet somehow managing at the same time to be regal and dignified. It's charming modesty and lack of self-promotion seem so at odds with the modern world and all the latest hybrids and cultivars that scream 'look at me'. Zantedeschia aethiopica is a species that inescapably reminds one of a Victorian or Edwardian bygone age when the pace of life was slower and the world less tainted with the horrors of industrial war. This sense of nostalgia and the many visual associations of days gone by are somehow epitomised by 'Green Goddess' with its very graceful yet subtle beauty. Like its pure white parent, it has a very calming and restful influence and it is a plant I never tire of advocating for its important use in horticultural therapy.