Updated at: 14-11-2022 - By: Sienna Lewis

A classic Easter decoration, trumpet-shaped blossoms of the Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum) signify the coming of spring. Large, fragrant white or pink blossoms bloom on this perennial bulb. The plant’s stem is robust and rigid, and its long, thin, dark green leaves cover the entire plant. It’s easy to see why this plant is a popular choice for gardeners around, thanks to its lush leaves and showy blossoms.

The Easter lily, like many bulbs, is sown in the fall and emerges in the spring, developing at a rapid pace. Since Easter falls during the summer, gardeners have created lily kinds that bloom sooner to correspond with the holiday. Lilies may not blossom until their second year in the ground, so don’t expect to see flowers from bulbs you planted in the fall. Easter lilies, both indoor and outdoor, are harmful to cats, so it’s crucial to keep this in mind. 1

Easter Lily Care

Easter lilies can be grown as a backdrop to a perennial garden, while others like to grow them in containers throughout the Easter season if they prefer. Transplanted potted plants require a lot more attention than garden-planted bulbs. This fall, plant bulblets about a foot apart at a depth of 4 to 6 inches in the ground. Until the first frost, keep the soil surrounding the bulbs moist, and be sure to amend it to provide adequate drainage and prevent rot. Easter lilies, as they grow taller, may require staking in the garden to keep them erect. When the leaves turn yellow in the fall, cut the stems to the ground and discard them.

How Long Do Easter Lilies Last - Krostrade

Keep your indoor lilies out of direct sunlight and away from cold drafts and heat sources, like as vents, fireplaces, and appliances. For Easter-themed plants, remove the ornamental foil from the pot before watering to allow the container to completely drain. This kind of flower will die if it is overwatered.

Light

Full sun to partial shade is ideal for Easter lilies, as long as the afternoon sun is kept out of the way. The leaves can be damaged by bright light. As a general rule, keep your Easter lilies out of direct sunlight, but keep the leaves and soil in the shade to keep the roots from overheating. A layer of mulch or shorter plants can also be used to keep the soil temperature down around a lily bed.

Soil

As long as the drainage is adequate, Easter lilies can thrive in any type of soil, as long as it is well-drained and rich in organic matter. However, lilies are tolerant of minor alkalinity in the soil and prefer an acidic to neutral pH.

Water

Easter lilies want soil that is evenly moist, so water the plants as soon as the top inch of soil begins to dry out. Keep the plants out of water, but don’t allow the soil to entirely dry up. Ideally, water in the morning, allowing the foliage to dry up in the sun before re-watering. Otherwise, mildew problems may arise on the plant.

Temperature and Humidity

Warm temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with nighttime temperatures no lower than 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal for the growth and flowering of Easter lilies. They prefer a humidity level of 30 to 50%. In hot and humid regions, this plant does not grow or flower properly.

Fertilizer

Apply 1 tablespoon of balanced, slow-release fertilizer to each large stem of the plant in the spring, as soon as new growth develops. If your soil is depleted, fertilizing your lily again in the summer will be useful. A half-ounce of organic fish fertilizer to one gallon of water is the ideal nutrient solution for lilies. To keep the plant happy, cover the soil with a 2-inch layer of mulch.

Types of Easter Lily

Other types of Easter lilies, such as the ones shown below, produce blooms that range from cream to pink.

  • ‘White Heaven,’ the iconic white Easter lily, may reach heights of 2 to 3 feet and bears 7-inch blossoms.
  • L. longiflorum ‘Nellie White,’ a cultivar that blooms only during the holidays, is a good example. Commercial producers say it is the most popular Easter lily cultivar.
  • Flower color can range from bright yellow to creamy yellow to green depending on the soil quality of L. longiflorum ‘Deliana’. With fragrant blossoms on top, the stems can measure up to four feet in length.
  • Longiflorum ‘Elegant Lady’: This is a Dutch-bred lily with fragrant pink blossoms that are both beautiful and fragrant. The “pink Easter lily” is another name for it.
  • Trimphator: This eye-catching cultivar boasts beautiful white flowers with rosy pink centers and normally blooms in July. L. longiflorum ‘Trimphator’

Pruning

Deadheading the blossoms and trimming back the dark leaves are the two main components of midseason lily pruning. For this, use a pair of disinfected garden shears to cut the stems of the flowers. By removing the lowest branches, the plant will be able to focus its resources on creating more blossoms. Removing all brown leaves, but leaving the yellow ones in place, will not harm the plant in any way.

How To Take Care Of An Easter Lily Plant After Easter - Indoors or Outside

Propagating Easter Lily

Bulbs sown in the spring are used to propagate Easter flowers. If you wish to enjoy lilies in a different part of your garden, you can dig them up, divide the bulblets, and replant them. Following these steps can help you:

  1. Compost, a spade shovel, and a hand trowel are all that is needed for this task.
  2. The bulblets (little bulbs) of your lilies should be dug up in the fall and divided into halves or thirds. Purchase bulbs at a local nursery instead.
  3. At least six inches apart and four to six inches deep are the ideal depths for planting bulbs in your garden. In each hole, insert a bulblet stem-side up (with the pointed end facing up).
  4. Make a mixture of compost and soil to fill in the holes where your bulbs are.
  5. Your bulbs should be watered in the spring after the final frost and allowed to sprout. Your lilies may not bloom for two to three years after they are planted.

Potting and Repotting Easter Lily

It is common for home gardeners to buy Easter lilies as plants around Easter rather than grow them from bulbs. Is there anything to do when the flowers have faded? Some gardeners use their leftover holiday flowers as seedlings for the next season. Wait for the last spring frost before completing the following steps:

  1. For a few days, take your plant pot outside to “chill it off. “
  2. Next, locate an area of the garden that receives indirect sunlight and excavate a hole large enough to hold the pot.
  3. Your potted lily can be transplanted immediately into the ground, backfilled with compost and mulched.

Even if your lily produces a lot of leaves the first year, don’t count on it to bloom again until the following year’s spring.

Overwintering

Even though lilies are hardy in zones 8 and up, a severe winter cold can kill them and leave them without flowers the following spring. These reasons are why it’s a good idea for some gardeners to remove all of their plants’ foliage (including the bulbs) and store them in a basement, cellar, or garage where temperatures are kept at or below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Afterwards, they transplant bulbs in the spring, rather than in the fall as previously.

Avoid watering your lilies in the late fall if you want to leave them in the ground. This will help the plant prepare for the next winter by allowing it to fall into dormancy.

Common Pests & Plant Diseases

It is possible for an aphid infestation to impair the foliage of a lily plant on occasion. The population of aphids can be reduced by simply hosing down your lilies with vigorous water blasts. It’s also possible to get rid of the pests by spraying insecticidal soap.

Leaf browning and degeneration can be brought on by the transmission of the lily mosaic virus (aphid-transmitted). Dig up and destroy the plants that have been infected by this illness before it spreads.

Botrytis blight, leaf scorch, and stem rot are just a few of the other diseases that can strike Easter lilies. Keep an eye on your Easter lilies every day and take care of any issues as soon as possible. Overwatering is a breeding ground for fungal diseases like stem rot and blight, while summer heat can cause leaf scorch.

How to Get Easter Lily to Bloom

Everybody wants their Easter lilies, whether they’re in a pot or not, to bloom on Easter morning. This, however, is not a simple task. Certain varieties of lilies that are cultivated in greenhouses and shipped to the store for sale bloom around Easter. Additionally, the lighting conditions that the plants are placed in prior to shipping resemble those required for blooming in nature.

The best place for a potted lily to bloom for Easter is a bright, sunny spot in your home, such as a window sill or porch. To lengthen the life of your plant, place it in a cool room at night and bring it back out the next day. It’s impossible to trick Mother Nature outside the garden, so all you can do is wait for the ideal conditions for blossoming (lilies might be thrown off by extremely warm, cold, or foggy conditions).

Common Problems With Easter Lily

Easter lilies aren’t much of a bother when they’re planted in the ground. Plants that have been kept indoors will not produce new blooms, but the foliage can be saved and replanted outside. un-potted bulbs may encounter a few roadblocks as they make their path to maturity.

Yellowing Leaves

After a few seasons in a garden, Easter lilies can get overcrowded. When a lily is overcrowded, it will grow taller, but its lower leaves will turn yellow and eventually die. Divide your lilies in the fall and save half of the bulblets, or give them away to a friend or family member. Your lily bed will have enough of area for strong blooms when spring comes around.

Stunted Growth

Overwatering can cause Easter lily root rot, which is well-documented in the gardening community. There are many signs that a plant is suffering from root-rot: small leaves and blooms; a decrease in plant height; yellowing at the base; and finally, death. If you don’t want this to happen, only water them if the top inch of soil is dry.

Tip

Easter lilies can be kept in their pots for a long time provided they are given proper care, which includes a period of winter freezing.

Flowers for Easter

It’s normal for Easter lilies to bloom in the spring and early summer, but producers compel the blooms to open in time for Easter. It’s not uncommon for Easter lilies to bloom again the following year, albeit not necessarily on Easter Sunday. It is possible to leave the pots of Easter lilies out in the cold all year round, but if you want them to bloom, you will have to let them go through a period of dormancy.

Easter Lily Care Indoors

If you want to extend the life of your potted flowers, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension recommends snipping the anthers, which are the yellow structures inside the blooms that contain pollen. Remove the dead flowers by snipping off the dying blossoms at the base of the flower, allowing the new buds to grow and bloom.

Indoor planted Easter lilies can be kept between 60 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit in order to extend their blooming period. When the top of the soil in the pots begins to dry out, give them a good soaking. The pot should be allowed to dry completely before being placed back in its usual location after watering has been completed.

Easter Lily Plant Care Post-Bloom

Permit the leaves to mature through the summer and fall after the final blooms have faded. Set the pots outside in the sun or move them to an out-of-the-way area as long as they get at least six hours of direct sunlight each day.

As soon as the leaves turn brown, they appear to have died, however this is a key time for the following year’s blossoms. It’s important to keep the soil moist so the bulb doesn’t dry up.

 

Easter Lily Plant Care Outdoors

Plant Easter lilies outside in full sun or part shade once the spring and early summer flowering season has past, and at the same depth as they were in the container. The foliage should be left in place until late fall and early winter, when it is entirely dry and dead, before being cut to the ground. In the spring, look for new shoots, which are followed by the appearance of blooms. For indoor use during the flowering time, you can re-pot the bulbs in spring.

Essential Winter Chill

Easter lily bulbs require a period of cold weather in the winter. To ensure that they are ready to blossom again, bulbs go into hibernation. Set the containers outside in USDA zone 8 and let the natural winter temperatures suitably chill the bulbs. Keep the pot at 40 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit for at least six weeks or up to 16 weeks in USDA zones 9 and higher to simulate the natural environment.

Do Easter Lilies Bloom Each Year?

FAQ

How long does a potted Easter lily last?

Easter lilies purchased in pots can last for up to two weeks if they are cared for properly. Transplant the bulb 6 inches deep into your garden if you want to prolong the life of the plant. Every year after it is established, it will blossom again.

Where are commercial Easter lilies grown?

Only a few producers in Oregon and California produce the majority of the world’s Easter lilies and bulbs.

When can I expect my transplanted Easter lily to re-bloom outdoors?

After it’s finished blooming, don’t anticipate a store-bought lily to blossom again in your garden until the following year.

Are Easter lilies deer resistant?

Easter lily bulbs and flowers are a favorite snack of deer. The tiger lily and blackberry lily are among the few lilies that are immune to deer.

Conclusion

Easter lilies, despite their name, are not a seasonal plant. What’s the shelf life of Easter lilies? Easter lilies can live for several years if they are kept in the right conditions.

Removing the anthers and storing them somewhere cold and away from drafts is another approach to keep them flowering. Grow them in a greenhouse and even compel them to bloom for Easter use if your region has an unforgiving environment. The most important thing to remember from this is that the length of time your Easter lilies live is determined by their surroundings and care techniques.