grooming plants for the winter

[addy1]

Managed to groom 4 of my lilies, boy have they grown! Tons of tubers, growing out of their containers. One tuber that was a start in may (around 2 inches long) is now around 16 inches long and 4 inches thick. Covered with eyes. Next year will have a bunch to give away.
It was hard to cut the little buds off the lilies, almost quit so they would grow and bloom, they still have been blooming just slower. Our temperature is just going down down down lol. The kitty litter has been replaced by roots.

Hopefully the leaves won't keep growing but if they do back to cutting them off.

Pulled out the taros, "elephant ears" they too are huge. What a root mass, some had grown through the holes in the bottom of the pots. One pot was so heavy never thought I would get it out of the water. Next year smaller pots lol, or bare rooted. Thanks to tmann for posting how he groomed them, I did the same, now they are sitting outside drying a little.

Still have a bunch of grooming ran out of energy and that water is cold on the hands. Going to pick up some waders, I have a pole that grabs and pulls them out, but will be easier with waders. The fish could not figure out what was going on, water became one muck cloud, but it cleared up quickly.

Pond surface is starting to look naked and the fish are probably wondering what happened to their hiding spots.

I did bring in a few plants to see if they make it over winter, the star grass and two baby taros. One tropical lily that is heading for the basement.

 

[taherrmann4]

Addy if you plant the elephant ears without pots next year they can be really hard to pull out, those roots grow under every rock imaginable. WHen I took the ones out of my creeks they pulled out a ton of rocks with them and I had to redo part of the creek where they were. Not a huge deal except for the ones that were near where I had put some of the spray foam as it ripped that stuff right out.

 

[addy1]

lol yeah, i had one without a pot and it's roots where everywhere, but no real rocks to mess up. Just sitting on liner, two rocks to hold it upright.
They make one mass of roots. The ones in the pots with clay grew the best and best color. I didn't have much fish load i.e fish poop to feed them.