Where Are the Easter Lillies?

Written by Ellen Van Velsor > April 19, 2022

Anyone who attended Easter services at West Market surely noticed there were no Easter lillies for Easter!  Did you wonder why?

Well, in the course of learning to care for creation in many new and different ways, we discovered that Easter lilies are not sustainably produced.  Who knew?  It turns out they are native to Japan, not the U.S.  Because Easter lilies don’t bloom naturally in time for Easter, the bulbs producing the plants we would use come from the previous year and are put through a very energy intensive process to force them to bloom in time for Easter.

Moreover, this process is only feasible in one area of the country – a 12 mile stretch of the Smith River between Oregon and California. Easter lilies have been sourced from here for more than 60 years, so the pests that plague them are plentiful and pesticides are used in great quantities, polluting the Smith River and harming many species of endangered fish. Some of these pesticides are known to cause cancer in humans.

So, while Easter lilies may be the flower we most associate with the glorious Easter season, we can feel good as a church to know we are among many moving to a more sustainable and equally beautiful choice for our sanctuary at this time of year.  And I’ve also heard that members of our choir are happy with the change, since the strong lily scent can be a bit overpowering when one is sitting right behind it! 

On a related note: we also moved to sustainably grown palm fronds this past Palm Sunday and we save those to burn for next year’s Ash Wednesday service.  For more information on these topics, see https://medium.com/center-for-biological-diversity/are-easter-lilies-sustainably-produced-3d0a4bbc0032 and https://ecopalms.org/uploads/files/Palm_Poster.pdf