Adding water lilies

[ZEROPILOT]

Yesterday I added a water lily to my few weeks old pond. A "Shirley Bryne" with nice pink flowers.
It takes up about 10% of the surface of the pond.
I'd like to ad another one. Maybe a different color. Is there something I'm not considering? Is there a danger to adding "Too many" plants?
I'm new to pond lilies and in aquatic plants, period.
Thanks.

 

[Lisak1]

Remind how big your pond is again?

You could in theory have "too many" plants, and surface area coverage is one consideration. Most recommendations are for 60% or so coverage so I'm sure you have room to grow. But you also don't want to overcrowd your pond bottom with pots either.

 

[addy1]

Shirley Bryne

From what I can read it has a 3-6 foot spread, I would go with the larger number, the leaves do spread out.
I have a bunch of lilies in my pond, they do get a bit crowded at times, but the deep end of the pond is lily free.
So have coverage and non coverage of the water.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

The pond is roughly 16 feet long. 7.5 feet wide and 18 to 33 inches deep.
The plants are in gallon sized pots. With gravel on top.
I'm leaning towards one more only.

 

[Lisak1]

My pond is roughly the same length, about twice as wide - we have four lilies in pots and one planted directly in the pond.

 

[sissy]

I put mine in my lily pond bare root .I could not keep them in my pond ,koi destroy everything and make a mees of dirt or gravel

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I put mine in my lily pond bare root .I could not keep them in my pond ,koi destroy everything and make a mees of dirt or gravel

These are packed nicely in pots.
I'll wait and see if the fish attempt to destroy them.

 

[HARO]

These are packed nicely in pots.
I'll wait and see if the fish attempt to destroy them.

Koi or goldfish?
John

 

[ZEROPILOT]

One Koi and one comet right now.
I'll be adding up to another 5 koi.
It's my understanding that Goldfish eat plants.....Not Koi so much?

 

[Jhn]

Other way around, koi will decimate plants. Goldfish aren't all that hard on them.

 

[Lisak1]

Koi are rougher - their sheer size causes them to be a bit more of a force of nature in the pond. Lots of splashing and thrashing by koi can cause some real waves. But, unlike @sissy 's experience, our koi don't really bother our plants, especially the lilies. They will eat the roots off the floating plants, but I just keep those tucked into corners where they can't reach and they're fine.

 

[Jhn]

In my current pond the koi root around a bit in the lily pots, but not enough to harm them. Could be the lily and lotus I let grow bare root in the pond keeps them busy. They destroy the parrot feather, and water celery. However, there is too much of that at the edges of my pond for them to wipe it out, they try their best though.

In my pond at my old house. I could only keep marginal plants in the pond with the koi. Anything they could get at and eat or uproot they would, these koi were much larger than my current koi, so could do more damage.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Mine are about 7-8 inches at this time.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Do the lilies do anything to help out water quality?
I know they help cut down on algae simply because of the shade. But do they help out with the biology at all?
I'm getting my second (and maybe my last?) lily today after work.

 

[Mmathis]

Do the lilies do anything to help out water quality?
I know they help cut down on algae simply because of the shade. But do they help out with the biology at all?
I'm getting my second (and maybe my last?) lily today after work.

No they don't have an effect on water quality except, as you mentioned to provide shade. It's because their roots are "planted" and they get their nourishment from food added to the substrate. Of course, some people have had success with bare root lilies -- I guess if those guys had their roots exposed, then they would help.