Wikimedia Commons
Liliaceae
Madonna Lily
Lilium candidum
Purity, virginity, the Virgin Mary.
- Family
- Liliaceae
- Genus
- Lilium
- Native to
- Eastern Mediterranean, Balkans
- Bloom season
- Early-Summer
- Type
- Bulbous perennial
- Height
- 90–150 cm (3–5 ft)
- Sunlight
- Full sun to part shade
- Soil
- Alkaline, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- 5–8
- Lifespan
- Long-lived perennial
Did you know
- The Madonna lily is the oldest cultivated flower in the world—frescoes from Crete and the Aegean show it being grown over 3,500 years ago for its religious significance.
- It is the lily of Christian art: in nearly every Annunciation painting from the Renaissance onward, the angel Gabriel hands Mary a Madonna lily as a symbol of her virgin purity.
- Unique among lilies, the bulbs grow with their tops at soil level rather than buried deep—and the leaves emerge in autumn, surviving winter to feed the spring bloom.
- The fragrance is so intense and sweet it can fill an entire room from a single stem, but the perfume is famously difficult to capture—commercial 'lily' fragrances are entirely synthetic.
- Beloved by medieval monks, the Madonna lily was grown in nearly every monastery garden in Europe—it was considered sacred enough that nuns took vows over fresh stems.
Color meanings
0
purity
1
virginity
2
divine grace