Transplant Your Easter Flowers After the Holiday

Easter is one of spring’s holiday highlights, and Easter flowers set the mood of renewal and fresh beginnings. These five symbolic Easter plants often can do double duty, first as holiday centerpieces and then as ornamentals in your flower beds. Not all potted flowers will rebloom in the garden, but many times you can get another round of blossoms – and bragging rights – from your Easter plants. 

Long-Lasting Easter Lilies

White fragrant lilies, symbolizing purity, have been the quintessential Easter flowers in America since after World War II. You can find potted lilies in grocery stores, florists, and home and garden stores in the weeks before Easter. You will get more enjoyment from your lilies if you know how to care for them after the holiday:

• After your lily is finished blooming indoors, remove the faded flowers.

• Plant the bulb six inches deep in a sunny, well-drained part of your garden with the stem and leaves attached.

• With fertilizer and judicious watering, you may get more blooms in late summer.

• When cold weather comes, cut back the stem to the ground and mulch your lily until spring when new green shoots appear. (This works best in regions with mild winters.)

Delightful Daffodils

Daffodils, also called jonquils and narcissus, are popular Easter flowers in Europe that symbolize rebirth. They’re easy to grow from bulbs and are a favorite in American Southern gardens. Save your potted Easter daffodils until the blooms are finished and then transplant them to your garden. Mix in time-release bulb fertilizer and your daffodils should reappear and may even multiply in years to come.

Tulips For Easter and Next Spring

As with daffodils, you can move spent Easter tulip plants (representing hope) to the garden. Since tulip bulbs need cold weather in order to rebloom the following year, transplanting bulbs works best in areas with hard winters. Dedicated Southern gardeners sometimes dig up tulip bulbs for a few weeks and store them in the refrigerator. Only you can decide if it’s worth that much effort.

Hold onto Hyacinths

Hyacinths are another early-blooming bulb that’s popular for Easter arrangements. Once the colorful flowers have died back, trim them from the stems, remove the soil from around the bulb and roots, and plant the bulb about six inches deep. Mulch heavily in winter, as you would for lilies, and see what turns up next spring.

With a little planning, careful planting, and enough watering through the dry summer months, you may find that this year’s Easter flowers are reborn as spring blooms next year – a smart way to add landscape color and grow your own flowers for next year’s centerpieces. Start by shopping with your local florist.

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