I’m sentimental about lilies. Every year at Easter, my Dad gave my Mom a beautiful potted lily. I still remember the wonderful fragrance and elegant beauty of those long-ago gifts.
Perhaps your special someone gave you an Easter lily this year. To prolong the bloom, keep the plant in indirect light, remove the flower heads as they fade, and water only when the soil is dry to the touch. It’s also a good idea to remove the yellow anthers from the flower centers to help prolong the life of the blossoms and prevent the pollen from staining the blooms and anything else it contacts.
Once the flowers have withered, the potted lily doesn’t add much to your home decor. Lilies will not survive as a houseplant, but you can transplant your lily into your garden.
Keep in mind that Easter lilies have been forced into bloom for the holiday, which puts a great deal of stress on the bulb. Success with transplanting will depend on a number of factors, such as the care the grower took in production and storage. But why not give it a try?
Keep your plant indoors until all danger of frost has passed. Then look for an appropriate site outdoors, preferably a location that receives filtered morning sun and afternoon shade.
Lilies also require well-drained soil. Dig some organic material into the planting hole, then set the bulb in the hole at the same depth it was in the pot. Keep it well watered, and after the new green shoots emerge, add a generous side dressing of a complete fertilizer.
Your newly planted lily will not bloom again next Easter. In your garden, it will revert to its natural cycle, and with a little luck you may have blooms the following summer.
The lily was considered the symbol of peace during the Middle Ages. In some religious communities, the lily was thought to be the flower of the Virgin Mary and represented purity.
Gardeners everywhere love this elegant, aristocratic flower. Why not have more of them in your garden than just a transplanted Easter lily? New breeding techniques have produced a dazzling array of lilies that are easy to grow.
Conventional wisdom is that lily bulbs should be planted in fall. But according to the North American Lily Society, suppliers are now able to maintain the health of the bulbs during winter, so we can plant in spring as well. Plant the bulbs 12 inches apart in groups of three to five of the same type. Cover large bulbs (three inches in diameter) with four to six inches of soil and smaller bulbs with two to three inches of soil.
Unfortunately, gophers consider lily bulbs a gourmet feast. If you have these destructive critters in your yard, consider planting your bulbs in wire baskets. It’s easy to make the baskets yourself using half-inch mesh hardware cloth.
Water bulbs well after planting. Because lilies never go completely dormant, they require some water all year long.
Healthy lily plants will produce dozens of large blooms, so they will need plenty of nourishment. Apply a balanced fertilizer when the new shoots emerge in spring. For larger blooms and bulb production, add a supplemental feeding higher in phosphorous and potassium later in the season.
You will need to stake tall lilies. To avoid damaging the bulb later, experts advise putting the stake in when you plant. Because I don’t like the look of a tall forest of bare stakes, I put a small stake in the ground at planting time as a place holder and then replace it with a tall stake when the plant reaches staking height. Newly emerging shoots are fragile, and the little stakes serve as a useful marker so I don’t accidentally damage the plant by stepping on it or digging it.
Lilies make a lovely cut flower. Never take more than one-third of the stem. Deadhead spent flowers by removing only the seed pod, and leave stems and foliage in place. When the plant yellows in the fall, cut it back to the ground. The following summer you should have a whole new display.
I love the note of regal elegance the lily adds to my garden. And it’s somehow comforting to have a peace symbol in the garden, too.