How to Divide Water Lilies

j.w

I Love my Goldies
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
33,073
Reaction score
20,341
Location
Arlington, Washington
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
USDA 8a
Country
United States
How to divide water lilies-taken from the net

Plant below needs dividing badly

image9118.jpg


Picture below shows how after you remove the plant from the container you can cut the bottom off,since most of the rhizome are growing in the top half of the container.

image91061.jpg


Picture below shows how to cut the roots off,use sharp scissors or a sharp knife to cut them off.

image91001.jpg


Picture below shows what the plant will look like after cutting the roots.

image25421.jpg


Use a sharp knife to cut the rhizome when you divide it,a sharp knife will leave a nice clean cut. If possible leave at least 4 -5" from the crown when you cut the rhizome.

image91021.jpg


Below are all the divisions taken from the original plant.

image8503.jpg


Propagation of the "Eyes"
Carefully remove the lily from the pot. Wash away the potting material from the tuber so that you can see it clearly. Some lilies produce small protruding bulbs or "eyes" with active growing tips along the body of the tuber. If your lily has developed eyes, these can be pulled or cut off and placed in small, no-hole pots or trays to grow and develop. They will need adequate light and warmth, so a greenhouse is the best place to grow the eyes until they are large enough to transplant as tubers. Otherwise you can leave them attached to the tuber to mature naturally and divide the main tuber as follows.
Division of the Tuber
Large lily tubers with multiple growing tips can be divided into sections. Each section must have both a strong growing tip and slender dark feeding roots. Wear gloves when handling lily roots, as some species can stain your hands. Using a sharp knife, cut the tuber into sections. Remove the long white anchor roots from the new divisions, making a clean cut close to the tuber. Leave the smaller feeding roots intact.
Trim away all large open leaves in the same manner. If left on they will make the newly planted tuber too buoyant. Do leave attached young foliage which has not yet unfurled. Follow this procedure on each new section. Now you are ready to pot the divided tubers.
 
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
257
Reaction score
47
Location
W. of St. Louis, MO
WOW, Gr8 directions! :bowdown: My lily's are in mesh bags w rocks to sink them. That is the way my friend who gave them to me advised I "plant" them. They were then dropped into the pond which is about 3 1/2' deep. I have noticed some have put up small leaves, but if they are not potted, wouldn't you think the rhizomes would continue to grow around the mesh? I have not pulled up any of them, but maybe I should to see just what is going on down there? ;) I have noticed, in my walk around my pond 2X today, I have 2 putting up a blossom each again. They are about 2" below the surface. They have done quite well for me so far this year. Should I worry the roots may grow into the liner? Would they be better off in an oil pan sort of system? That might be a problem as this is a pool turned pond and no ladder is set up to get into the pool to place the pans. I could drop them over the edge, but there is no telling if they land upright in the water. I do have WM Kitty Litter but no pea gravel.

:goldfish:
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,413
Reaction score
29,198
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
Don't think the roots could grow through the liner, they are soft roots. I like mine in kitty clay, others like theirs just in water. If they are growing fine just leave them.
 

j.w

I Love my Goldies
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
33,073
Reaction score
20,341
Location
Arlington, Washington
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
USDA 8a
Country
United States
Yep I'd just leave them. If they have plenty of room to grow and are getting blooms then all is right w/ the world and your lilies and no chance of them growing through a liner. One day tho when the tubers grow as big as the state of Texas they might bust the walls of your pool out...............just kidding,lol!
 
Joined
Apr 8, 2008
Messages
471
Reaction score
15
Location
Kokomo,Indiana
I left my roots whole, no cutting. Mine were also out of my pots so badly that I couldn't cut them, they started to break off. I broke them ny hand, coming back nicely.
 
Joined
Apr 8, 2008
Messages
471
Reaction score
15
Location
Kokomo,Indiana
The first pic is what they all looked like. Secind pic is about 2 months after the splitting that I did. Also forgot, I did this in april, full swing if spring!!!!!
 

Attachments

  • 102_1629.jpg
    102_1629.jpg
    152.7 KB · Views: 552
  • 102_1635.jpg
    102_1635.jpg
    113.8 KB · Views: 601

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,413
Reaction score
29,198
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
Good growing lilies! you did great!
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Croatia
Hello I would like now to put in his water lilies in a pond I got from a friend from a forum lily rhizomes, and I put them in a large bucket, I just sank to the bottom of them, and so they are grown. Shall I do the same thing with them when I put them in pond (or put them in a pot with soil and sand and sink) and one more question I have lotus leaves that have turned yellow and fallen are free to break off or not
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,413
Reaction score
29,198
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
You can just sink them to the bottom, hold down with a rock, or if you put them in soil, make sure it is clay type or real dense soil so it does not float out into your pond. I use kitty litter that is pure clay, not sure if you have some of that there. Lilies like round pots, 8 quarts in size or so.

I like my lilies in a pot, so the roots don't grow everywhere and make it hard to pull them out to groom or decrease in size.

The lotus leaves, I usually don't cut them off until the stems are brown and rotten looking.
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Croatia
I made Pittard terracotta which are full of holes the same as the plastic cellar, to aquatic plants that you can buy at retail centrima.Te thought I fill them with soil and sand to put rice and water lilies on top put tiny round pebbles that the country is not spread by the pond. Do you think this is OK
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,413
Reaction score
29,198
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
The sand and soil mix will work covered with pebbles, you may want to put it in a bucket first and see if the soil washes out into the water. Might save you a clean up in your pond if it does.
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Croatia
Hello everyone, if someone made ​​some sort of system of cooling ponds, few have looked at the internet but every suggestion and advice would be very useful for me thanks in advance
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2013
Messages
275
Reaction score
340
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Zone 5-6
I split my lilies yesterday and now I am a bit worried that I did it too early in the season? I did not want them to grow too much as I figured it would be that much harder to deal with. Do these look like they have enough growth to get started from the bottom of the pond or should I raise them to the surface until they get going? Two pots are on the bottom 4 feet and the other two I raise about 18 inches off the bottom.

Don’t be alarmed by the kitty litter containers! That litter is for our cats and we user them for gardening buckets. However we did get one plant all potted when we started smelling a “fresh scent”. Seems one of the boxes of regular no scent, no additive kitty litter was scented. We had to dig it all out and do that plant again. I guess they don’t treat kitty litter equipment like food equipment when changing runs. Lol

You can see this one jumped the pot.

DSC_1823.JPG DSC_1852.JPG DSC_1852b.jpg
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
30,897
Messages
509,806
Members
13,112
Latest member
Terinb

Latest Threads

Top