Unusual water lilly

[oldmarine]

At this point, (November) all of my pond plants are cut back and ready for winter. Most everything is in a dormant state. Except one water lilly that I bought on a wim in the middle of August. I pick it up at a Fred Meyer store only because it was on sale and I wanted to see what it would do that late in the season. Right away I put it in a six inch terra cotta pot with pea gravel, and the darn thing did better than the rest of my water lillies. Over the last four weeks it has managed to send two lilly pads to the surface of the water. The other water lillies are still dorment like they should be, but I can't even begin to explain why this one bargain lilly is so determined to send up leaves.

I just had to share this because I thought it to be so unusual for a water lilly to grow like it is this time of the year.

 

[DrCase]

A few of my Lilly's still want to grow..
The water is just not cold enough to make them stop
I just stopped feeding my koi 10 days ago.
So maybe my Lilly will get the hint. and play dead

 

[oldmarine]

Hi DrCase,

Not question, just an observation. I browse the internet quite a bit and I have viewed quite a few pond pictures, and one thing that I have noticed is that some people don't put their water lillies directly on the bottum. Some of the pictures that I have seen show the water lilly basket elevated on objects like old milk crates or cinder blocks.

I've been around water plants and ponds long enough to know that water lillies in the wild prefer to grow in depths of 2" to 4". Regardless of the depth they are in, the individual plant instincively knows to send their lilly pads to the surface.

So far, all my water lillies have always managed to send their leaves and blossoms to the surface.

 

[koiguy1969]

your right oldmarine...i start my lillies on a shelf so they are afforded a greater exposure to the suns rays. when the pads hit the surface i lower the pots to the bottom...when the pads hit the surface again i lift some of the pots back to shelf or somthing raised, for no other reason than the extra growth in stem length gives a much larger surface spread of the pads. they spread out wide and the new growth fills in the middle areas.

 

[oldmarine]

Hi KoiGuy,

Thanks for the input. I never really thought about it that way.

Happy ponding,

 

[D&RW]

on my list of "to-dos" is to learn how to divide lillys. right now ours are in a kiddy pool in the garage and dormant. But, in our new pond we created a whole section for plants. The depth will be about 30 inches, but we were planning on putting them on crates so the depth would end up being about 20 inches or somesuch. The reason we redesigned the old pond with this section is I read lillys don't like water movement. So the new waterfall and water flow will be to the side of where they will live. There'll be flow, but it'll be under the surface and around the edge of the pond.

aren't lillys cool though. i really enjoy them.

 

[oldmarine]

I have six water lillies in my 365 gallon pond, and a steady water flow past them. Regardless of the steady current they did just fine.

 

[D&RW]

mine too. but i think they prefer still water

 

[koiguy1969]

its a fact that lillies preferr still waters but thats more on the surface, they especially dont like waves or splashing.. but a smooth gentle under current will serve them well, even more so in a non soil based planting media such as peagravel that allows some water flow thru the root system.

 

[DrCase]

All of my lillys sit in 2ft of water , i never move them , i let them grow were they are

 

[oldmarine]

Hi DrCase,

My water lillies are haven't moved either. I will pull them out in the spring and separate and re-pot. Because of the size of my pond I will be giving some away.:banana:

Happy ponding,

 

[koiguy1969]

i will be repotting mine as well come spring time. might be consolidating them into a baby pool centered in pond.

 

[delatha]

how is the best way to plant a lilly?should I waite untill the spring? I have it in a pucket of water now.would love to have some advice.

 

[koiguy1969]

pot it in a mesh pot and use pea gravel and assorted 1 to 1&1/2" stones instead of soil the roots will be exposed directly to water and will do nicely without fetilizers. plus help more with nitrates in the pond.

 

[oldmarine]

koiguy is right, also wait until spring before transplanting any water plants. When the water temps get into the mid 50's F.