Planting your Easter Lilies

The arrival of Easter usually brings flower gifts of Easter Lilies. So I wanted to share with you how to plant them when Easter is done, so you can continue to enjoy them.

The Easter Lily is a vibrant trumpet shaped flower, with a sweet smell. And it is a perennial, so you can enjoy it year after year. They will come back every spring and summer as well.

So let me show you how to plant them. You will start by tilling your soil to 10 inches in your garden area that gets at least six hours of full sun.

Tilling helps to freshen your soil, and breaks up any roots or weeds you may have.

When you have finished tilling, you will want to add two to three inches of peat moss, and two to three inches of perlite, before planting. Then you will till again to mix it all together. You want to try and till to create a raised flower bed for your lilies, so they have good drainage. Lilies can get root damage from any excess moisture.

Being careful, dig your hole three inches deep and about one inch wider than your lilies bulb. You want to make sure you bury the bulb and backfill your hole. Making sure to pile the soil an additional three inches over your bulb. If you are planning to plant more than one bulb make sure they are 12 inches from each other, so the roots can spread.

You will then water your soil, right after planting. Your soil may shift, but that is okay. Just water until the soil is soaked, but before you get any puddles.

Also spread some mulch two to three inches thick around your lilies, making sure two inches are from the base. If to close the plant will burn. Placing mulch will keep weeds from growing and will also insulate your soil, and retain water.

When old flowers begin to die, make sure you cut them off. Cutting should be one to two inches from the flowers head. Making room for a second bloom to grow. Think about adding one teaspoon of slow release fertilizer to your water about every six weeks, to help promote summer blooming. Lilies blooming before Easter are doing so under artificial conditions. Cut your bloom back after the first one, to get new blooms in about three months later in the summer.

If you have a bed of lilies, cut them to the ground in the fall, before any frost. You can cover your soil with organic mulch to insulate for the winter. Doing this will let lilies to enter dormancy, and be protected at the same time. You will remove the mulch come spring, before shoots start to show. This will also let the soil warm up, and you will then start to water and fertilize again.