Can You Grow Your Easter Lily Outdoors? Here's What You Need to Know (2024)

Planting Easter lilies (Lilium longiflorum) outside allows you to enjoy their flowers every single year. Easter lilies are a type of lily that symbolize the spring season or the holiday.

But because Easter lilies don’t always bloom in time for Easter Sunday, many gardeners purchase them from nurseries and plant them in the ground after they finish blooming. In northern climates, the fragrant flowers won't appear until mid-summer.

Here is how to plant an Easter lily outside.

Easter Lily Symbolism

Easter lilies symbolize Easter due to their showy, white flowers. Symbolically speaking, white represents purity and rebirth, which are key themes of the Easter holiday.

Native to Japan, specifically the Ryukyu Islands, Easter lilies first landed in Bermuda. There, it was commonly called the "Bermuda lily." It was not until much later that the Easter lily became associated with the Easter holiday in the Western hemisphere.

Planting Easter Lilies Outside

Easter lilies will return year after year as perennials in the right USDA growing zones, specifically zones 5 to 8. Like other holiday flowers, such as the Christmas poinsettia, Easter lilies are "forced." This means greenhouse growers manipulate the plant's environment to trick it into blooming to meet consumer demand.

Below are some tips for planting Easter lilies outside.

When to Plant

Plant Easter lilies in the ground after they finish blooming, and once nighttime temperatures have reached at least 55 degrees. There should be no lingering threat of frost and the ground should be workable.

Where to Plant

Pick a spot that receives full sun and has good drainage. If your soil isn't naturally well-draining, that's okay; you can mix compost and sand to help the issue.

How to Plant

Acclimate your Easter lily to the outdoors before planting it. This involves taking the pot outside for a few hours for several days and slowly increasing outdoor time to allow the plant to acclimate to the temperature change.

Once acclimated, remove your Easter lily from its pot and plant it into the ground, keeping it at the same depth it was in its container. The bulb itself should rest at around 6 inches underground. Next, you'll want to water your Easter lily.

Finally, apply a 3-inch layer of mulch around it. Mulch will keep the roots cooler in summer and help the Easter lily throughout the winter. Just make sure to remove the mulch in the spring.

Allow the foliage of the Easter lily to grow throughout the summer and into the fall before pruning.

Spacing

Provide enough space between the Easter lilies and any other plants you may be growing, ideally 1 to two feet apart.

How to Care for Easter Lilies After Planting

There are several maintenance requirements to keep Easter lilies happy and healthy. Read on below to learn more about how to care for Easter lilies.

Water

Water your Easter lilies enough to keep the soil evenly moist. Even after the leaves have turned brown, do not forget that a bulb is left behind, underground. This bulb does not like to dry out, so continue to keep the soil evenly moist (not wet, but not dry).

Fertilizer

Fertilize your Easter lilies with a bulb fertilizer or an all-purpose fertilizer at the time of planting if you wish, though many gardeners experience successful growth for a few years simply by planing their Easter lilies in a well-draining soil that has fortified with compost. However, proper fertilization may increase your plant's lifespan.

Pruning

Prune your Easter lilies once the leaves start to brown. This typically occurs during the summer. This is when some gardeners cut the plant down to ground level (or nearly to ground level), promoting new growth later in the season.

Propagating

If you wish to divide long-established bulbs, do so in late summer or fall (after the foliage has browned). Dividing the bulbs can rejuvenate old plants.

Fighting Pests

In some areas, the red lily leaf beetle (Lilioceris lilii) is a potential problem for the grower of Easter lilies. It also attacks other members of the genus, Lilium ('Fangio' L.A. hybrids and'Stargazer' lilies') andthe genus, Fritillaria.

These beetles can defoliate a plant, up to the point even of killing it.You can watch for these beetles daily and pick them off by hand. You can also spray neem oil on your plants at the first sign of an infestation.