Is this a pond lily rhizome?

[csdude55]

While pulling out my cattails, this was lodged in the roots. I've never actually seen the root / rhizome for my pond lilies (I bought them in a basket and just dropped them in), so I'm not sure... is this a pond lily root?

If so, it wasn't in a basket, just lodged in with the roots for the cattails. So what do I do with it now, plant it in a basket and hope it comes up next year? Weigh it down with a rock and let it get close to where it was originally? Or since I uprooted it at the end of June in zone 7A have I pretty much killed it?

Right now I just have it floating in the pond, waiting to figure out what to do with it.

 

[Lisak1]

That's exactly what it is. Go ahead and plant it - I bet it grows this year. Just make sure you have those growing tips out of the planting medium.

 

[csdude55]

Cool, that'll be my Thursday project, then

My understanding is that I should put heavy clay soil in the bottom of the pot, about half way, then the root / rhizome / tuber / whatever-ya-call-it, then more clay soil, then about 1/2" of pea gravel. Then just slowly drop it to the bottom of the pond, about 3' down. Yes?

"Lucky" me, half of my yard is heavy Carolina clay. Sucks trying to get a lot of garden plants to grow, but it should be good for pond plants! lol

 

[Lisak1]

You've got it! Just keep the planting tips pointing up!

 

[csdude55]

I'm playing with it... I assumed that I should plant it horizontally, is that right? It's about 20" long, way longer than my basket!

 

[addy1]

You can snap it off into pieces. Just find the growing tip, ie tiny leaves, stems coming out. Any without a growing tip I tend to toss.

 

[Lisak1]

Yup. You just need the growing tip plus a few inches of the rhizome. Sometimes I'll have roots with growing tips on each end - snap it in half and plant them both!

 

[j.w]

They can leave your hands purple when cutting them so wear gloves unless you don't mind it

 

[MajorDan]

Don’t forget to put some Osmocot fertilizer in the bottom

 

[Tula]

Don’t forget to put some Osmocot fertilizer in the bottom

So true ! Mine were looking pathetic so I stuck some Osamacote in the other day.....2 pretty blooms today

 

[csdude55]

Well, I planted the pond lily, so we'll see how it goes I broke it in half, as suggested stopping at the point where I didn't see any growth. That half is practically black, so I'm assuming it's dead.

For the half with growth, I made a bed of Carolina red clay in a plastic basket and packed it kinda hard, then the lily, then more red clay and packed it some more. Then pea gravel on top of that, then I used a water hose to flush the basket and wash out dead leaves and stuff.

I didn't have any fertilizer, so now I'm a little regretful... I'll give it a few weeks, I guess, and if I don't see any growth then I guess I can start over.

It has 2 pads attached to it, but there were at least 20 shoots coming off the root, so here's to hoping for more this year! :-D

I have 5 more baskets, so tomorrow I'll be tackling the irises...