Springtime and the plants are up but...

[nancyp]

OK, this is my first spring with the pond. My plants have been brought up from the bottom but they sure don't look too good. I have a small lily that looked really nice when they came to close up last fall and it was placed down at the bottom. Now that it is up, it does not resemble the plant that went down. It is looking like several dark stumps in there. No growth, no nothing.. is it normal? Also, the other plants dirt came out of the baskets totally, mostly just bare roots left and nothing looks good. And there are tons of earthworms in the remaining soil and pots. I didn't know they could live under water and is that ok? Should I repot the loose plants or just toss them and go buy more? Will my lily grow or is it dead? I don't know what I expected it to look like, but not like this!
Thanks,
Nancy

 

[HTH]

Dead lilies go mushy. If it is still firm and has a growing tip it should come around.

What other plants did you put down. Generally we only do that with lilies.

 

[nancyp]

I have another lily that never had any growth at all when I got it. It was a net bag of soil, and I put it on the shelf last fall to see what it would do, and it fell off to the bottom. :frown: I have been waiting to see what that would look like. It is still a net bag of soil, with a dark clump sitting at the top. I'll put it on the shelf and see what happens. I also have some kind of iris which looks ok, just the soil washed out. I'll repot that one. I even stuck a parrot feather in soil and that was at the bottom too. Looks very stringy but I have hope for it. This is really a learning experience for me.

 

[HTH]

Nancy you should think about joining your local water garden club. They can be a great help. I would not be surprised if a member offered to stop by and have a look and help you out. They can be a great resource for plant sharing too.

 

[addy1]

My parrots feather is just now growing started greening up a few weeks ago, give it time. The lily if you see any little leaves it should make it, put it in as shallow of water as you can.

My pond plants are all in kitty litter clay, cheap walmart stuff. I do not put anything in normal soil that goes into the pond.

 

[Nova]

I bought cheap cat litter from walmart to put in my lotus. The litter did not hold together and the koi have knocked out all the litter leaving one of the plants floating and the other just covered with rocks. I put larger rocks on top of the plants to keep the koi out but it didn't work. I have been cleaning out cat litter from the bottom of the pond for the last two weeks. Very anoying. What brand of cat litter do you use?

 

[addy1]

Walmart litter, the cheap pure clay stuff, but I DO NOT have KOI! lol just goldfish and shubbies, they leave the plants and litter alone. I sink the pot slowly with the litter in it, some dust comes out, but it goes away pretty fast. Once it is wet, the litter makes a decent clump, when the roots start to grow in it, it is a good solid clump of roots and clay.

The only time I had a mess was last year, the fish spawned way early, the lilies were newly potted, the fish kept slamming into the litter to drop eggs, made a mess. Ow they leave them alone.

BTW a lot of koi keepers put clay into their ponds for the koi, if I recall right it helps their skin.