Lillies: Bare Root or Pot?

[Hilltop16]

Hello! I just rebuilt our little pond and upgraded from 200 gallons to 1,000. It's still really small, but HUGE to me. I'm so excited!

Anyway, I realize this forum is going to be divided on this subject, but I wanted to gather feedback. My pond builder believes that lillies and all other plants should be planted bare root. Others have told me the only way to deliver an adequate amount of fertilizer without encouraging algae growth is to keep lillies in pots.

Personally, I don't care for the look of pots, but I also don't want a giant root ball growing in my tiny pond. I do intend to add koi, so I'm also worried about them eating my lillies.

Any great thoughts to share?

Hillary

 

[addy1]

I have some bare root, (they floated out of their pots) some potted, none fertilized this year, they are all growing equally, blooming equally, not the massive growth and blooms of last year, but blooming consistently.

 

[adavisus]

Bare root lilies can grow at a faster stronger rate than potted, assuming fish don't destroy the roots

This might not work out so well if the lily is some large growing brute in a small pond, a year or two down the way you have a root mass that would flatten a sumo wrestler

Some hardies grown bare root will form a rhisome as thick as your wrist, or leg, may spread at the rate up to 15' a year.

Potting a lily can encourage more restrained well behaved growth, allow targeted fertilising to the lily, rather than algae

Lilies do have vastly contrasting growing habits, between tropical lilies and odorata, tuberosa, marliac type hardies

Fair chance, if you don't know what you bought cheap, it will be some big fast growing brute with a poor bloom to pad ratio, if you got a lily which has a good ratio of pads to blooms, blooms prolific, does not spread and choke a pond, you have much to look forward to.

Yup, a horde of burly koi will devastate the lilies if they can get at the roots. Delish nibblies.

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[Hilltop16]

Thank you both for your responses. Andy, my pond is too small for brutes. LOL. Thanks for the advice. Will potting my lillies help inhibit my horde of burly koi from eating them?

 

[adavisus]

Yup. Cross your fingers alleged said bad boys don't gobble the delicate delish foliage when it starts up early in the year (some hope)

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[mrsclem]

I have mine in 12" pots bare root with plastic poultry net over the top to keep the plants from being uprooted by my koi. They did really well until my koi started to grow this year and then the leaves and flowers became a salad bar!

 

[adavisus]

A very pleasant crispy brittle yummy brand spanking new lily pads and stems

A quick snack, indeed

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[dieselplower]

Come on now, really, how big can these things get? This is twice now that people have it sound like it will fill the whole pond if left unpotted. Im going to try it next year.

 

[Hilltop16]

So does anybody successfully keep mature koi and mature lillies in the same pond? If so, how? Or are the lillies continuously replaced?

 

[adavisus]

Sure, knowing what the characteristics of koi and waterlily are, folk figure a way to do a well balanced pond.

My own spec would be, 40'x20'x2.5' deep, a dozen 15 gallon tubs of medium to large choice hardy waterlily varieties, and six koi

The waterlilies outnumber the fish by some margin, the fish like the shade and cover of the lilies, and if they snack, the waterlilies can keep up...

Deisel, some tropical waterlilies can grow 20'-30' wide (amazonica, euryale). Among the large hardies, rhisomes can be as thick as your leg, their tether roots 6' long (the roots that grip ground), their rhisomes spread up to 15' longer per year, given steady fertile conditions. That is how big, is big

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[Hilltop16]

That makes sense Andy. Thanks! I suspect my tiny pond 10'x7'x3.5' may not be able to support more than one pot lilly and only a couple koi at best.

 

[addy1]

Just remember your few koi might have kids, unless you manage to get the same sex koi. I have 4 lilies in my 1000 gallon stock tank, with gf and shubunkins. It has been a nice balance this year. I did not fertilize the lilies, one floated out of its pot, so they have been behaved. Blooming nicely but not overgrowing. The tank is a 9 foot circle 2.5 deep

 

[capewind]

Our lilies WERE potted (17 plants) and were doing great ... moved them into a new pond bareroot (rocks to sink them), with 100 baby koi and the lilies are NOT happy. The largest baby is only 7" with most being 4-5" and some runts still only a couple of inches, and they have trimmed off ALL of the fine roots ... REpotting them all is the next project on the list.

 

[addy1]

Lol my gf ignore them

 

[j.w]

Gonna try putting the lillies in a netting sack w/ holes big enough for pads to escape w/some fert wrapped in a little mesh sack stuck in there, will add a wad of steel wool in w/ the fert for extra iron to keep pads from yellowing and I'll add a rock in the netting sack to weigh them down. Will stick the sack in one of my square plastic lily pots ( the kind w/ all the square holes in it) to keep them sitting nicely on my plant shelves. This is totally an experiment and may get around to doing it this fall w/o the fert of course. Can add that in Spring. If this works it will be much easier to divide them when needed IMO providing I have no giant growing monsters in there which I don't think I do :cheerful: :fingersx:
Oh yes and I only have goldfish so think I'm safe on the gobbling of the roots problems.