Lily pad growth rate

[j.w]

How to divide water lilies-taken from the net

Plant below needs dividing badly

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.

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

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

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.

Below are all the divisions taken from the original plant.

 

[buckry]

So the rhizome doesn't branch out into a big complicated shape, for the most part it's just a straight line? The little nodule I found kind of looked like the start of a new branch, so I figured it would branch into a Y, then one of the legs would get it's own Y so on and so forth. I don't have anywhere near that sort of root structure, so I'm definitely not ready for that yet.

 

[j.w]

They can get multiple growing tips,bulbs, or eyes. More below on this from the net:

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.

 

[addy1]

good write up jw from your search, why don't you repost it in aquatic plants with the title dividing lilies...............if you want to that is

 

[taherrmann4]

I have not divided my lilies in years however this year I have found some small pieces that began to grow in the pond must have broken loose b/c they ended up in my skimmer. Both are doing well now.

 

[buckry]

Awesome, so even being disappointed, I guess my rhizomes are in good shape and on the right track.

 

[Neo]

I'm in the process of re-potting all my lilies also, hopefully it will make them look normal again. I haven't ever cut the roots like that pic showed, that makes me a little nervous for some reason.

 

[j.w]

Don't worry they grow back Neo. I've chopped mine off drastically and they grow right back. Try it on one the next time you do it. Don't be scared,lol!

 

[j.w]

Ok addy I'll do that.

 

[buckry]

Ok, I started this thread 2 days ago and not a lot has changed in my 3 lilies, but there is one new pad shooting up to the surface. I saw this little guy on the 22nd it was really dark red and its leaves were curled up really tight. Now, 2 days later it is 1/2" away from the surface of the water, so it's grown 12" total. Now, what I'm wondering is, why don't my other 2 rhizomes have any of these new dark red curled up leaves? Each of them has light green leaves all fully uncurled, but they're not reaching for the surface. Are these leaves dead or stunted in some way? Should I rip them off to allow the rhizome to focus on growing newer more robust leaves? It just sort of looks like they're in hibernation, nothing new is happening day in and day out, but then this one leave is able to grow 12" in two days. it just doesn't add up.

Here is a shot of one of them in my old pot. There is that one that is a few inches long, but it hasn't changed in a week or more, then you have all of those tiny green leaves right down on the root, but they aren't doing anything except being green. This pot is 3 or 4" under the surface, you can see the waterline in the upright corner. I basically moved it up so that long one would be an inch away from the surface hoping to entice it to grow a little. It didn't work.

 

[addy1]

bucky, I have one doing that, but it is a tropical, Let me go out and see if it sent up any leaves yet. My other tropical sent up a bloom and leaves, both in the same pot.

 

[buckry]

So this morning, after 8 hours that dark red pad has reached the surface and is floating very pleasantly on my pond. The 2 other pads I had are still 1" below. How is it possible for one pad to grow to the surface, but 2 others not unless they are dead? And to add more fuel to this fire, there are now 2 brand new dark red leaves with curled up leaves starting to make their way to the surface.

So again, my question is should I prune off the underperforming foliage from my rhizome or just leave them alone?

 

[addy1]

I looked at mine, i have probably 7 leaves open right next to the tuber, The lily has sent up 4 leaves and looking good. I would leave them. I looked at some of my other lilies, some have below the water leaves fully open some don't

 

[buckry]

Ok, I pruned them. I cut off every single light green pad on 2 of my rhizomes. I guess I will just wait and see what happens. I doubt I can hurt the plant, so worst case scenario some new chutes will grow eventually. I guess we'll find out. If this still doesn't work I think I can assume my plants are duds and I will try to get my money back for them.

 

[buckry]

After pruning the first lily has 3 pads on the surface and 3 more on their way. I moved this one another 10" deeper into the water. The other two look really sickly, but each has at least 2 tiny curled up leaves starting out of the rhizome. I think they may not make it, but I'll give them a few more days, and then I'm putting them back into the goldfish pond, it's a lot shallower so the water is much warmer. On the flip side I went to the nursery today and they have tons of these awesome huge lilies there. I bought 2 for the goldfish pond. When I unpotted them the root structure was amazing. These others I bought probably only had 5 roots between them, so I don't have any concerns about the new ones doing well, if they grow I'll just plan on dividing them and replacing the ones that are dead or lazy or whatever their problem is.