by Diane Sagers
GUEST COLUMNIST
Easter comes this Sunday, March 23. In 2009 it arrives on April 12 and in 2010 it doesn't come until April 24. What a fickle holiday.
The date for Easter is a roving one because it is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Since spring begins today, obviously this year the two have nearly coincided. If the full moon were to come just before the Vernal Equinox, you could wait a full month for Easter Sunday to arrive.
It is all pretty confusing, but for the most part, a good calendar solves any problems in knowing when to celebrate. If you are in the nursery business, however, the roving nature of this holiday keeps you on your toes. Easter lilies are a very popular nursery crop. There is something rather inspiring about these trumpet-shaped, white blossoms. The association with the holiday is very strong and it is already in place. It is just a matter of providing the prettiest lilies at just the right time to greet that Sunday morning. People get very excited about Easter lilies during the couple of weeks before Easter and are eager to purchase them. However, the day after the holiday, interest and sales become pretty much defunct.
Getting that timing right is tricky. For some odd reason, plants aren't interested in calendars. They are far more responsive to sunlight, temperature and soil conditions. In fact these growing conditions are fairly exacting. The object is to grow plants to the stage where they have one fresh bloom on them with other buds swelling to open during the week or 10 days before the holiday. Preferably none of the blooms will have come and gone too soon. Conditions for this growth must be orchestrated in the greenhouse. Given a natural setting in the ground, the plants we call Easter lilies, lilium longiflorum, will grow from one to three feet tall depending on variety and they display their fragrant, long, white, trumpet blooms sometime in July. If you transplant the flower you got for Easter, it may well bloom again in late summer or early fall.
Nurseries must recreate natural growing conditions in the greenhouse out of season. Counting backward from the calendar date of Easter each year, they must plant the bulbs the right week to allow enough time for the plant to reach the optimum stage of maturity. If the weather is sunny and warm, the plant will grow faster than if it is cloudy and cool and no one can predict the weather several weeks ahead. If Easter is in late April -- as it will be in 2010 -- chances are that the weather will be warmer and sunnier and the plant will grow quickly, but you can't be sure. April isn't always sunny and warm. With the use of a greenhouse, nurserymen have the option to turn up the heat and place banks of lights over the plants to hasten their progress. However, if the weather is warm and sunny, the plants mature faster than expected and the grower must find a way to cool the plants down and/or provide shade.
To create an attractive, lush shape, the plants require enough room so the pots must be spaced properly to allow that kind of growth. I heard one nurseryman comment that his crews had to move the plants around so much to provide the right spacing and light conditions that he felt like they grew Easter lilies in their arms.
Then there is the problem of light. Stem length is partially genetic and partially a response to light. With plenty of light, the stems will be stout and strong and the leaves will be thick and close together. If the light is low -- generally due to too many cloudy days -- the stems elongate and the leaves are spread further apart. There is an aesthetic consideration on plant size. If the plant is too tall, it appears top heavy.
Despite the challenges associated with growing these beautiful flowers for the Easter holiday, you will find them for sale every year. You have undoubtedly seen plenty of them in retail stores, florist shops and nurseries in the past couple of weeks.
When you purchase one, look for plants that are well-balanced, proportional in size (not too tall or short) and with dense, dark green leaves. If you can find one with just one or two open or partly open flowers and several unopened buds of different sizes, you can enjoy it for a longer time.
The yellow anthers that extend from the center are attractive, but if you remove them before the pollen starts to shed the flower will last longer. That pollen stains things -- the flowers, people's clothing, etc. -- so removing it is a practical way to avoid that concern. After a flower matures and withers, cut it off and enjoy the other blossoms as they open.
The ideal temperatures are 60 to 65 degrees in the daytime with cooler night time temperatures. Most of us prefer our homes a little warmer than that, but if you can keep it away from drafts, warm corners, heating ducts and similar sources of heat the plant will fare better for longer. Place it in a cool, but not cold area for the night. Provide a bright sunlit window, with indirect natural light, perhaps by a curtained south window or an east window.
Water the plant thoroughly as the soil dries out on top, but do not let it sit in water. The pot may come in a decorative container or wrapped in foil. If so, empty out excess water after the plant drains or remove the cover from the pot so the water can drain better.
The flowers will open and gradually all will mature and wither. Many people toss the pot at that point, but others want to put the plant out into the garden to bloom again. The plant is not hardy, so until it is safe to plant outdoors, keep it in a sunny window and water when it is slightly dry.
Choose a sunny place outside to plant the bulb. Remove the plant from the container and loosen the roots. They may tear but the plant will recover. Plant it a few inches deeper than it was in the container and cover it with soil. Water thoroughly and fertilize the plant with all-purpose garden fertilizer. After that, it will take the same care as other garden plants. The top will wither and die, but the bulb will send up new shoots that may flower in July or August. If it doesn't flower this summer, it will probably flower early next summer.
Easter lily bulbs are somewhat tender. They stand a better chance of weathering the winter if you cover them with at least four inches of straw in the fall. You also have the option to lift the bulbs as you would other tender bulbs like canna tubers and store them over the winter to replant in the spring.