Easter is here and our Easter specials have arrived!
Easter is here and our Easter specials have arrived!
At van der Meer greenhouses we have just gotten a whole load of beautiful flowers for Easter. I wanted to go through the flowers quickly to let you know the best way to keep care of them.
First up we have the beautiful and longtime favourite: Easter Lilies, also known as Madonna Lilies, or Lilium longiflorum. Easter lilies are best bought when they have fat buds just about ready to bloom so that you can enjoy their blooms as long as possible. Try to keep the plants in a bright but slightly cooler area of the house to keep those flowers around even longer. You can put the pot into a decorative planter if you like but try to make sure the pot has a hole in the bottom (remember if the pot doesn’t have a hole it's just a bowl) standing in water will rot your lilies roots leading to discolouration and wilting from overwatering. Trim off dying flowers to encourage new growth and enjoy these beautiful, white, trumpeted flowers!
Secondly we have the beautiful Hydrangea
To keep Hydrangeas happy and healthy keep them in a cool place with plenty of light. Just like the Easter Lilies try to keep them from constantly standing in water, however if you do not have a place that is very cool make sure you keep an eye on how wet they are as they drink a lot of water in their small pots. Hydrangeas at this time of year are forced which means they were given artificial light in order to bloom earlier than usual. This means if you wish to plant them in your garden you may find they do not bloom again for the rest of the year. They can be used as annuals for our climate but unfortunately Hydrangea macrophylla are a variety which cannot handle our winters. If you are interested in cold hardy hydrangeas check out our site for options as we are continually updating our selection.
Lastly but certainly not least, we have the ever classic Chrysanthemum.
With the widest variety of colours Chrysanthemums are a beautiful Easter decoration or gift. These lovely flowers will flower for around 5-6 weeks or more under good conditions and are extremely beneficial to have in the house because they have been known to act as air purifiers. Because they put in this hard work to filter the air they are often thirsty and need to have an eye kept on their soil so as to not let it dry out. Once the blooms are finished trim them off to encourage more blooms however do not be surprised if they do not bloom again. Chrysanthemums are forced to bloom for Easter and because of this they will not bloom again. Keep in a cooler area, most non-tropical house plants will prolong their blooms if kept in a cooler rather than hotter area. Unfortunately these varieties are not hardy to our climate. Although there are variations of Chrysanthemums that will happily survive our Zone 3 winters these are not them. Once they are finished blooming the best idea is to compost them. For mums that are cold hardy (but not blooming yet) as well as these gorgeous Easter Mums take a look at our website.
Have a Happy Easter and we wish you all the best with your flowers!