Hello from Canada!
So, an Easter lily is a trumpet lily. Trumpet lilies are part of the Oriental Lily family, and therefore are considered 'late bloomers', meaning they naturally bloom around mid-July to late-August.

We think of Easter lilies as blooming in the Spring--at Eastertime--but that's only because they have been unnaturally forced to bloom at that time.

It is very good that you did, in fact, allow your lily to wither in the pot (although watering it as it died down would have been optimum) because once a lily has finished blooming, it stores all its nutrients from its leaves and stem and flowers. If you had cut it down, the bulb below would have gotten nothing.

So now, what you do is, you look for absolutely the sunniest part of your yard. My lilies get a good 10 hours of sun everyday. However, it needs its bulb kept somewhat cool--so it's best to plant it in a place where other plants will shade its base.

And you prepare the site by digging a hole about 12" deep (or more--a nice, generous hole) and then putting in compost (if you have it), or a really good potting soil, because lilies like a good, rich soil. And they also need earth with pretty good drainage, so that when you water it, the water won't just sit around and rot the lily's roots.

Then you plant the lily with the roots down and the tip up, and it goes down 3Xs its size. So if the bulb is 2", you will plant it 6" deep. And you should mark the place where you planted it, because you won't see any action there until next year in the Spring. And even then, it will just look like a few shoots coming up. But always protect that spot, because if those shoots get damaged, the lily bulb gets weakened. ALL its nutrients come from its leaves, stem, and flowers.

You can give it a shot of a liquid fertilizer in the Spring (Miracle Grow, for example), but it will just do what lilies do, all by itself. And it will bloom again for you next summer, and even start making new bulbs, so that after a few seasons, you'll have 2 or 3 blooming plants, instead of just one.

Once it is finished blooming, just snip off what's left of the bloom because you don't need it to try to produce a seed. That weakens the plant. You just want it to gradually die away, get brown, and absorb its nutrients through its stalk and leaves.

I know this sounds like a lot of effort. But really, they are pretty carefree. Planting it now is perfect. Lily producers will be sending their customers bulbs in September, to be planted for next summer's blooming.

So even if you just took it now, and dug a hole and threw it in, and dusted off your hands, you'd get a lovely Easter lily next summer. But if you truly want to make it thrive and multiply, follow what I recommend above.

There are many other wonderful trumpet lilies (Oriental Lilies), some of which are scarlet red, and/or have enormous blooms, and grown as tall as six feet every year. And they're nice, because they bloom late in the season when not much else that dramatic is. And they look really nice planted against a fence, with floribunda roses in front, and Baby's Breath all around.

Good luck. And happy easter (belated)
Lance in Kamloops, B. C. Canada

Thanks, Lance!

I must confess I had to look up to see where Kamloops is located...it's rather far from Oklahoma...2000 miles! :)

Great advice on exactly what to do. I will amend my (kind of icky) red clay an extra bit, follow your instructions, and hope for the best!

Sharon

Thank you for looking up Kamloops! Though we are very far north, we are in an extremely arid region, with ancient, treeless mountains covered in sagebrush. The mountain ridge we live against even has its own native cactus, which bloomed this year for the first time in a decade.
We have many coyotes, magpies, partridges, and owls. Kamloops is the 'sunshine capitol' of Canada, with 100+F days in the summer, and very cold, snowy days in the winter.

So you may wish you didn't have that clay soil (which, BTW, roses absolutely adore!), but you surely wouldn't want to trade in for our stony, stony, stony non-soil. Even when I try to plant a small perennial I bought, it takes me a good fifteen minutes to dig out all the large rocks, and then the little stones. I have to augment absolutely every planting with compost, or it's game over.

Thank you for your nice reply.
Good luck with everything. Your state is very famous!
Lance

Good advice here, but in Zone 7, your Easter lily will probably bloom in June--at least mine does in Zone 6.

Kate

Kate...I agree - they might even bloom in May as hot as it gets sometimes, but that's fine with me.

Lance...amazing! Who would think you'd see 100 that far north? It's over 100 again today, but there is hope for rain tomorrow night, I think. That should help to bring us back into the 90s for highs again (and cooler than the 80s in the mornings!)
I'm amazed at the work you have to do to prepare your beds for planting - that would be discouraging, but gardeners do what they have to, don't they?
Thanks for your remarks about Oklahoma...I'm not sure exactly what we're famous for (some people think of Indians, cowboys, tumbleweed and horses, but there is more to OK than that, for sure)...tornadoes, for one thing, haha.

Enjoy your weekend, and thank you again,

Sharon

Sharon - you're famous for corn. We all know it's as high as an elephant's eye. And, of course, the wind comes sweepin' down the plain.

Flora,

Haha :) Actually, that's only when it comes right behind the rain and sadly...we haven't had enough of that in over a month! We're just about to drought conditions here in Oklahoma City :(
There IS hope, though...at least our string of 100+deg.F days has been broken and over the next few weeks we should start seeing more of a fall pattern beginning to develop with more regularity.
As for my corn...it failed miserably! It was so dry that the squirrels in my yard began stealing the partially-developed ears (this, after they could no longer steal my green tomatoes!) There truly is no consistency to gardening here - each and every year is an adventure!

Okay so plant turns yellow and withers after blooms and im still keeping the soil moist...I cam plant it outside in a sunny location and well drained soil. Do do I cut back the dead foliage at this point ( mid june)? A lot of articles im reading say the foliage will die back in fall but mine is already Dying back. Also how often do we fertilize it at this point? Wait till next spring? Some articles I've read say to fertilize every month until fall dormancy and then again when you see the first shoots of spring. ..heeeellllp!

I'd plant now. Lily bulbs do not store well and are best in the soil, either in a container or planted in the ground. You want to wait to remove the stalk and leaves until they are firmly brown and dry. I generally leave a couple of inches above ground to show where the lily is planted to avoid digging in the area and damaging the bulb.

Other than those in containers with generally infertile potting soil, I never fertilize lilies. If your ground soil is well draining and reasonably fertile (do other plants grow well?) and you leave the stalk and foliage to ripen and die off naturally, there is no pressing need to routinely fertilize. The bulbs supply all that the lily requires.

Hi, would you have any idea why my Easter lily has bloomed twice within 5 months?

Hi, would you have any idea why my Easter lily has bloomed twice within 5 months?

Easter lilies are forced by the growers to bloom at Easter time. Usually it will take a full growing season before they start blooming at their normal, late summer bloom time but sometimes that can happen earlier and you will occasionally get one that blooms at Easter when purchased and again in summer. Once established in the garden, it will only bloom in mid to late summer.