How to Grow and Care for Easter Lily

Easter Lily Care

Here are the main care requirements for growing Easter lilies.

• Plant bulbs in full sun to partial shade. Indoors, keep Easter lilies by a window with bright, indirect sunlight.
• Place them in rich, well-draining soil and keep them evenly moist.
• Remove spent flowers by cutting them off with a sharp pair of clean scissors.

Light

Easter lilies prefer to grow in full sun to partial shade, with protection from the strong afternoon sun during the heat of the day. Bright light tends to scorch the foliage. If possible, position your Easter lily so the top portion is in full sun, but the leaves and soil stay shaded, allowing the roots to remain cool. You can also plant shorter plants, or a groundcover, around a lily bed, or use a layer of mulch to keep the soil temperatures down.

Soil

Easter lily flowers prefer well-drained soil that’s rich in organic matter, although they’ll grow in a variety of soil types as long as the drainage is sufficient. Lilies prefer a slightly acidic to neutral soil pH, but they can tolerate slight alkalinity, as well.

Water

Easter lilies like evenly moist soil, so water whenever the top inch of soil feels dry. Never allow the plants to sit in water, but also don’t let the soil dry out completely. It’s ideal to water in the morning, giving the foliage time to dry in the sun. Otherwise, the plant might have problems with mildew.

Temperature and Humidity

Easter lilies grow and flower best in mild temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with nighttime temperatures dipping no lower than 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They like a relative humidity level of 30 to 50 percent. This plant doesn’t grow or flower well in hot and humid climates.

Fertilizer

Use a slow-release, balanced fertilizer in the spring, at a rate of 1 tablespoon for each large stem on the plant, once new growth appears. If your soil is depleted, it’s beneficial to fertilize your lily again in the summer, too. Organic fish fertilizer, used in a ratio of a 12 ounce of fertilizer to 1 gallon of water, provides the perfect nutrient source for lilies. Combine this with a 2-inch layer of mulch over the top of the soil to keep the plant happy.

Types of Easter Lily

The traditional Easter lily yields large white flowers, but other varieties offer variations in blooms, which range from cream to pink, including the ones below:

• L. longiflorum ‘White Heaven’: The classic pure white Easter lily grows 2 to 3 feet high with 7-inch-long flowers.
• L. longiflorum ‘Nellie White’: This cultivar is typically forced to bloom during the appropriate holiday season. It is the most popular Easter lily cultivar grown and sold by commercial growers.
• L. longiflorum ‘Deliana’: The flower color of this variety can vary from bright yellow to creamy yellow to green, depending on its soil content. Stems are 3 to 4 feet long with fragrant blooms on top.
• L. longiflorum ‘Elegant Lady’: This is a Dutch hybrid lily and features fragrant pink flowers. It is sometimes known as the “pink Easter lily.”
• L. longiflorum ‘Triumphator’: This eye-popping variety has bright white flowers with rosy pink centers and typically blooms in July.

Pruning

Pruning lilies midseason consists of deadheading blooms and cutting back brown foliage. To do so, use sterilized garden shears to clip off flower stalks at their base. Clipping at the base will allow the plant to put its energy towards producing more flowers. Remove the entire stems of mostly brown leaves, but you can leave the yellow ones alone, as they will not compromise the health of the plant.

Propagating Easter Lily

Easter lilies are propagated from bulbs planted in the spring. After several seasons of growth, you can dig them up, separate the bulblets, and replant them, should you want to enjoy lilies in another part of your garden. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Gather a spade shovel, hand trowel, and compost.
2. In the fall, dig up your lilies to expose the bulblets (small bulbs) and divide them in half or thirds. Or, purchase bulbs at your local nursery.
3. Plant bulbs in your garden by digging holes that are at least 6 inches apart and 4 to 6 inches deep. Place the bulblets stem side (the pointed end) up into each hole.
4. Mix the removed soil with compost and backfill the holes containing your bulbs.
5. In the spring after the last frost, gently water your bulbs and allow them to sprout. It may take two to three years for your lilies to reach maturity and bloom.

Potting and Repotting Easter Lily

When keeping an Easter lily in a pot indoors, you’ll want to make sure it has access to plenty of bright light. Protect the plant from cold drafts and heat sources, like vents, fireplaces, and appliances.

Because roots can become easily waterlogged, make sure to choose a container with drainage holes. Remove any decorative foil around the pot for watering and water until you see it coming out of the bottom of the pot. Allow the pot to drain fully before putting the foil back on.

Keep the soil moist, but make sure it doesn’t become overly wet and develop root rot. Once the flowers have finished blooming, you can choose to move it outside and plant it in your garden. Transplant outside after blooming has finished and once the last frost has passed. Repotting is not recommended for Easter lilies that have already bloomed.

Overwintering

Lilies grow hardy in zones 8 and below, but can still fall victim to a hard winter freeze, resulting in flowers that won’t come back in the spring. For this reason, some gardeners prefer to cut back their flowers and greenery, dig up the bulblets, and store them in a root cellar, basement, or garage with temperatures that remain under 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, they replant bulblets in the spring, instead of the fall.

If you prefer to leave them in the ground, avoid watering your lilies in the late fall. This will help the plant go dormant to endure the winter ahead.

A potted Easter lily kept indoors during the winter and then moved back outside in summer is unlikely to rebloom on its current stem. You can, however, dig up the bulb after the plant is done blooming and store it in a cool and dark place until about two weeks before the first frost. At that point, the bulb can be planted.

Common Pests & Plant Diseases

Occasionally, a lily plant may suffer from an aphid infestation, which can degrade the foliage. Aphids can be controlled by simply hosing off your lilies with strong water blasts to decrease the population. You can also use insecticidal soap to kill off the offenders.

The lily mosaic virus (spread by aphids) can move into your lily patch and cause leaf discoloration and degradation. Unfortunately, there is no cure for this disease, so you must dig up and destroy the affected plants before it spreads.

Several types of bulb rot can also affect Easter lilies, along with botrytis blight, leaf scorch, and stem rot. To prevent these conditions, tend your Easter lilies daily, and perform remediations immediately. Stem rot and blight tend to move in during overwatering, and leaf scorch can happen during the heat of summer.

How to Get Easter Lily to Bloom

You likely want your Easter lilies—potted or not—to bloom on Easter. However, this is not an easy feat. Lilies grown in greenhouses and transported to the store for sale are of a certain variety that is forced to bloom on or near Easter. Also, the lighting conditions the plants are given before transport mimics the conditions needed to bloom.

Bloom Months

Easter lilies grown in the garden typically bloom in July.

How Long Do Easter Lilies Bloom?

Easter lilies typically hold their blooms for about two weeks after flowers open. To maximize this time indoors, place a potted Easter lily away from sources of heat, like a heat vent or radiator. You can also snip off the anthers as they emerge and this will make the flower last a bit longer. This step also prevents any possible staining from the bright yellow pollen grains that tend to fall from the flower.

What Do Easter Lily Flowers Look and Smell Like?

An Easter lily bloom is a large white, pink, or yellow trumpet-shaped flower with long yellow anthers. Easter lilies are one of the most fragrant lilies. When in bloom, these flowers have a strong sweet scent that can fill an entire room or permeate the garden.

How to Encourage More Blooms

If you want store-bought lilies to bloom for Easter, choose a potted variety with a few already-opened blooms, and then select a sunny area in your home for its location. At night, move your plant to a cool room, and then bring it out again the next day to extend its life.

In the garden, all you can do is wait for the right blooming conditions (lilies can be thrown off by unusually warm, cold, or cloudy conditions). If you transplant a store-bought lily to your garden after it’s done blooming, don’t expect it to bloom again until the following year.

Common Problems With Easter Lily

When planted outdoors, Easter lilies are hardly a nuisance. Indoors, the plant won’t bloom again, but the foliage can still be saved and transplanted outdoors. where just like unpotted bulbs, they may face a couple of hurdles along the way. With care, your newly planted Easter lily will bloom next season in the summer.

Yellowing Leaves

Easter lilies grown in a garden can suffer from plant crowding after a few seasons. Crowding will cause the lily to grow higher, while the lower leaves yellow and die. To prevent this problem, divide your lilies in the fall and plant them elsewhere, store half of the bulblets, or gift them to another gardener. Come spring, your lily bed will have ample room for healthy blooms.

Stunted Growth

Easter lily root rot is a known problem in the gardening world and can move into a bed that’s been overwatered. Symptoms of root rot include small leaves and flowers, a reduction in the height of the greenery, yellowing at the base, and eventually, plant death. To prevent this, make sure you only water them when the top inch of the soil feels dry.