BEULAH -- With just 10 days to go before Easter, Pete Volas was hoping for a sign from above to hasten along his Easter lilies.
"If we get some sun, these should pop out by Monday," said Volas, owner of Eden Hill Greenhouses, an 18,000-square-foot production greenhouse and retailer open 365 days a year.
One of only a handful of Easter lily growers left in the region, Volas, 64, has provided thousands of the fragrant blooming plants to stores, homes and churches over the years. The lily has long been associated with the Easter holiday because of its pure white blossoms which symbolize joy, hope and life.
But for Volas and other growers, the delicate plant can be nerve-racking. Because of the narrow holiday sales window -- about two weeks -- timing of the blossoms is everything. And in a climate like northern Michigan's, heat and light are in short supply during the plant's 17-week growing season.
"There are more of them that need pushing this year than in past years because it's been so dark," said Volas, who moved the plants from the greenhouse to the "hurry-up room," an insulated former concrete pump room with electric heater and special lights, in a last-minute effort to kick them into high gear. "The more sun we have, the happier we are."
Native to the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, Easter lilies are one of the four largest crops in wholesale value in the United States potted plant market, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bulbs, now mostly grown in the U.S., are harvested in the fall, packed and shipped to commercial greenhouses where they are planted in pots and forced under controlled conditions to bloom for the Easter holiday.
But because of the high cost of energy, many nurseries in colder climates are no longer growing the plants, choosing to import them from other greenhouses instead. Eden Hill planted only 100 of the lilies this year -- half its usual number.
"If it wasn't for the heat and the space, we'd grow more," said Tim Volas, 41, who runs Eden Hill with his father. "We've had to reduce the amount of space we heat and we need it for our spring crop. It seems more and more it's about spring."
Accompanied by Eden Hill's resident Adam -- a friendly golden retriever -- and music and news from Interlochen Public Radio, the pair planted the Easter lilies Dec. 15 in a special commercial growers potting mix. It includes "Dairy Doo" organic compost, worm castings, peat, coir fiber, bone and feather meal, and Tennessee Brown phosphate, among other ingredients.
"The main thing about the lilies is healthy roots are paramount," said Pete Volas, who earned a bachelor's degree in floriculture and worked in several commercial production greenhouses before moving to Beulah and starting his own business in 1986. "You don't have healthy plants unless you have happy roots."
Since December, the lilies have grown in a 6,000-square-foot greenhouse, only half of which is now heated with a hot water system fueled by propane and lined at ceiling height with polyester frost cloth to help keep the heat in. Volas said the nursery's winter energy bills ran around $25,000 last year.
"That's one reason we're doing less lilies this year and the reason they're a little behind," he said. "We're running cooler than we really should. They recommend 68-degree nights and we're running 60 degrees."
As a result, he said, the nursery has had to turn away some Easter lily customers this year.
Vickie Ely of Cornerstone Assembly of God stopped in for several pots of the plants to decorate the church sanctuary on Good Friday, but went away empty-handed.
"They mean Easter and they smell beautiful," said Ely, who also buys the church's poinsettias at Eden Hill.
Wilma Baker volunteers at the greenhouses in exchange for blooms.
"I take my salary in plants for St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, " said Baker, who de-stems the Easter lilies before placing them on the church altar.
"We are a senior citizens' church and a lot of them have allergies," she said.
Eden Hill also offers pink hybrid lilies for Mother's Day and other hybrid lilies for summer, and next Easter may expand to "la-hybrid" and "asi-florum" lilies in different colors and lighter scents. But Volas expects the traditional white Easter lily or "lilium longiflorum" to be part of the nursery's crops for as long as he can afford to grow them.
"It's the association with the holiday," he said.
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