Care for your Easter Lilies

Happy-EasterIt’s almost Easter and we want to help you care for your beautiful Easter Lilies to keep them blooming this Spring!  Here are a few tips:

LIGHT
These plants do best in bright, indirect light

WATER
Easter lilies do best in moderately moist soil. Water them thoroughly when the soil surface is dry to the touch. Do not allow the plants to stand in water.

TEMPERATURE
Display the plants in rooms that are kept at 65 F to 70 F during the day and 50 F to 60 F at night. Avoid placing the plants near drafts or heat sources. Easter lilies can be stored from three to five days at 33 F to 35 F; extended storage can cause leaf yellowing. After removing the plants from coolers, allow them to warm up overnight in 55 F rooms. Water the plants with lukewarm water (100 F to 110 F) after they are removed from coolers.

HUMIDITY
Mist the leaves occasionally.

REBLOOMING
After flowering, keep the plants in well-lit locations and continue watering them as the foliage matures. In late spring, plant Easter lilies in the garden. They may reflower later in the summer, but most likely, new blooms won’t appear until the following summer.

CAUTION
Lilies’ pollen can stain clothing and furniture. To protect against staining, remove the yellow anthers (pollen-bearing pods) found in the center of each flower as soon as each bloom opens.

More about the Easter Lily

BOTANICAL NAME
Lilium longiflorum
(LIL-ee-um lawn-ji-FLOR-um)

COMMON NAMES
Easter lily, Trumpet lily, Bermuda lily

DESCRIPTION
This bulb plant, with its white, trumpet-shaped blooms, is a traditional symbol of Easter. The stems can grow to 3 feet high and carry three to eight flowers each, on average. The blooms are 5 to 7 inches long. The fragrance is moderately sweet.

COLOR
White.

DECORATIVE LIFE
These plants usually bloom for one to two weeks.

AVAILABILITY
Easter lilies are available primarily in the spring. Bulbs are harvested in the fall and shipped to commercial greenhouses, where they are planted in pots and forced, under controlled conditions, to bloom for the Easter holiday.

WHAT’S IN A NAME
The name “longiflorum” means “long flowers.” It is the Latin form of the Greek “leiron” (used by the ancient Greek philosopher and botanist Theophrastus for the Madonna lily,
L. candidum).

FAMILY
These plants are members of the Liliaceae family. Common relatives include Fritillaria, Gloriosa, hyacinth, lily-of-the-valley and tulip.

HOME SWEET HOME
Easter lilies are native to the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan.

HISTORY
U.S. production of Easter lilies began when Louis Houghton, a World War I soldier, brought a suitcase full of hybrid lily bulbs to Oregon in 1919 and distributed them to horticultural friends and neighbors.

Source: Super Floral Retailing

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