Expert: C.L. Fornari - 4/26/2007

Question
Hi,
I hope you can help me. I received 2 beautiful Easter Lilly plants and I needed to know how to care for them...Can they stay outside? Can they be replanted and what do I have to do to keep them until next year.. I live in Staten Island NY..
Thank you

Answer
Carolyn,
Easter Lilly's will grow when planted outside, but in the future they will bloom later in the summer, not at Easter.  The key to keeping it going strong is to dig a bunch of compost or composted manure in the area where they will be planted, and to fertilize it three times with a liquid fertilizer, or give it around a quarter-cup of Osmocote Indoor-Outdoor time release fertilizer in early May every year.  Lilies need this amount of fertilizer in order to keep the bulb going strong.

Plant it outside in Mid-May - now is a bit too soon - after the 15th of the month.  Water it deeply once a week if it doesn't rain.  You can clip off the old flowers if you want, but leave the stem and the leaves all summer as long as they are green - once the leaves and stem yellow, you can cut it to the ground.

I hope this helps!

C.L.