With Proper Care, an Easter Lily Can Bring Beauty Beyond the Holiday

The pastel colors of the holiday's sweet candies and fancy clothing may be manmade, but the popular Easter lily is a natural spring beauty with its white, trumpet-shaped flowers and intoxicating fragrance. Long considered a symbol of purity, virtue, rebirth and joy, the white lily of Roman mythology was believed to have grown in places where Juno's milk dripped while nursing her son Hercules. Christian religions decorate with the lily at Easter, believing that white lilies grew where drops of Christ's sweat fell in the Garden of Gethsemane as symbols of his resurrection and everlasting life. Native to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, the Easter lily (or Lilium longiflorum) was discovered and identified by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1777, who then sent bulbs to England in 1819. By the mid-1800s, bulbs were being commercially propagated in Bermuda, leading to the nomenclature "Bermuda lily." However, while the lily bloomed in the spring in Bermuda, it waited until summer when brought north to the U.S., a delay that didn't sit well with consumers until a florist discovered that the bulbs could be forced to bloom for Easter. After a virus wiped out production in Bermuda, production returned to Japan, until an American soldier was able to smuggle out bulbs during World War I when most importing came to a screeching halt. He brought them to a welcoming plant mecca in Oregon, an area which later became known as the "Easter Lily Capital of the World" where 95 percent of all Easter lily bulbs are now grown. The numbers are staggering. There are more than 1,200 growers in the larger total area, although only 10 growers make up today's Pacific Bulb Growers Association, which produces more than 65,000 boxes of bulbs for worldwide distribution annually. By the mid-1990s, more than 11.5 million bulbs were being shipped to commercial greenhouses every year for Easter sales. Do you know how to properly care for your Easter lily? They should bloom for two to three weeks at home if given proper care, which includes daytime temperatures of 65 to 70 degrees and slightly cooler nights. They should be kept away from drafts and in bright locations, but out of direct sunlight. They can be watered in the sink when soil becomes dry to the touch; water thoroughly until water flows from the drain holes in the bottom of the planter and then let drain. As it flowers, remove the yellow anthers before they lose their pollen to prolong the bloom's life. As they wither, remove the flowers. The Easter lily can either be thrown away when its season has passed, or it can be planted outdoors after the last frost. Experts recommend hardening the lily before planting by placing it in a shaded, protected area for two or three days and then gradually exposing it to longer periods of direct sunlight for a total of six to seven days. Plant the lily in a well-draining and full-sun location. Several lilies can be planted together in clusters about 12 to 18 inches apart and six inches deep for a beautiful garden display. The original plant's leaves will die back and can be cut down to the soil surface. There can be the emergence of new growth by summer that may possibly even include late-summer blooms. In New England, the red lily leaf beetle is a potential threat to the Easter lily, as well as certain other lily varieties. Watch for the beetles daily and remove by hand or spray plants with neem oil at the first sighting. With care and proper planting, the elegant beauty of a traditional Easter lily can last well beyond its springtime blooms. Type or paste story here