Flowers play an important role during Easter time. Lily plants can be found on the altar and in many homes, with the beautiful trumpet-shaped white flowers symbolizing purity, virtue, innocence, hope and life - the spiritual essence of Easter. But, few people know how these flowers came to play their part for the holiday.

Easter lilies are native to the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, and the islands of Okinawa, Amani and Erabu. It was referred to in an old Japanese gardening book, which was published in 1681, and a drawing of the lily can be found in another old gardening book published in 1719. The flowers were introduced to England in 1819. In 1853 a Japanese missionary gave it to a friend in St. George, Bermuda who later marketed it. The Bermuda Lily was introduced to America in 1880, but a severe virus in 1898 ruined the Bermuda lily industry. Lily bulb production came to the U.S. in the late 1800s, and was centered in both Japan and the southern U.S. after 1898. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Japanese source of bulbs was cut off. As a result, the value of lily bulbs greatly increased and many people who were growing lilies as a hobby went into business. The Easter Lily bulbs at that time were called "White Gold," and growers everywhere attempted to cash in on the crop. By 1945, there were around 1,200 growers up and down the Pacific coast, from Vancouver, Canada to Long Beach, California. Over the years, the number of Easter Lily bulb producers diminished to just ten farms in an isolated coastal region on the Oregon-California border called the Easter Lily Capital of the World.

Lilies themselves can be found mentioned prominently in the Bible. When Eve left the Garden of Eden she shed real tears of repentance, and from those remorseful tears sprung up lilies. Often called the