Easter Lily

The Easter Lily, also known as the Bermuda lily, is a bulb plant identified by white, trumpet-like petals symbolizing beauty, hope and life throughout the Easter season. Easter lilies can be grown indoors or in the garden. Areas along the California-Oregon border are often called the Easter lily capital of the world, producing 95% of all bulbs planted for Easter sales.

In most climates in the United States, Easter lilies will not naturally bloom until summertime. They were only popularized during the spring after an American tourist brought one of the plants back from the then-Easter lily capital of the world, Bermuda, where the warmer climate produced the blooms much earlier.http://www.uvm.edu/pss/ppp/articles/eastlily.html The Bermuda lily and its blooms soon became a symbol for the Christian holiday of Easter, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, largely due to the pure white color of the blooms. But, in order to achieve the blooms during the Easter season, Easter lilies must be tricked into blooming--usually through the use of indoor cultivation or greenhouses. Many greenhouses and florists will do this work for you, making Easter lilies a popular commercial purchase right before the holiday.

Once your Easter lily bloom is spent in the spring, many gardeners choose to move the plant outdoors and plant it in the ground, where it is cold hardy (even though, again, it will not naturally bloom until the next year's summer).http://www.thegardenhelper.com/easterlily.html Alternately, a gardener can choose to keep the bulb indoors and tend to it over winter until forcing its bloom again the following spring.

Specialists recommend picking a Lily that has nice tight buds or a just partially opened flower. Your foliage should be dense all the way down the stem with a healthy, rich green color. As always make sure your plant is free of insects, this means look for eggs, webbing or even chewed up leaves. Lastly make sure your plant has not outgrown it's pot, you want it about two-times as tall as the actual pot.

To help your Easter Lily last as long as it can be sure to follow these steps. Never place plant in direct sunlight, it should be bright but not direct. Always protect your plant from extreme heated places or cold drafts. Removing the yellow anthers from the center of the flower can prolong its life. Daytime temperatures between 60-65 is ideal for your Easter Lily, this can be a little cooler at night. Do not let your plant go completely dry for a long time, water when the soil becomes dry to the touch. As older petals and flowers wither and fade, remove them. This will extend the life of the other flowers.

Easter morn with lilies fair

Fills the church with perfumes rare,

As their clouds of incense rise,

Sweetest offerings to the skies.

Stately lilies pure and white

Flooding darkness with their light,

Bloom and sorrow drifts away,

On this holy hallow’d day.

Easter Lilies bending low

in the golden afterglow,

Bear a message from the sod

To the heavenly towers of God.

-Louise Lewin Matthewshttp://www.appleseeds.org/easter-lily.htm