water lillies - flowers?

[micaaronfl76]

hello,i live near philly and purchased a few hardy water lillies in the beginning of april, and i wanted to know when will they start sprouting flowers? i have a decent amount of pads that came up already

 

[blessedfamily]

Have your fertalized them? Mine had leaves but no flowers until I stuck a fertalizer tablet in them last week and now have two blooms.

 

[micaaronfl76]

when i first put them in, i put a jobes plant stick in

 

[micaaronfl76]

i didnt know if the water temp had to reach a certain point, the weather was crazy in april, hot then cold and now were hot and humid.

 

[addy1]

Mine started doing some good blooms in the last few weeks. I have had them shallow for more sun and warmer water, going to sink them deeper tomorrow

 

[brandonsdad02]

I got some good size water lilies free off of craigslist. They have huge pads and big blooms. Should I cut them all off and have them shoot up new pads and blooms or just leave them? The stem on these lilies are at least the size of a baseball. I already have them potted and fertalized them.

 

[27goldfish]

I've had blooms for almost 3 weeks. I don't fertilize mine. The fish take care of that. May be a water temp or just really young plant.

 

[j.w]

I have only pads so far but expect blooms will arrive shortly and I did add the Jobes tomato spikes.

Wow Ryan, stems as big as baseballs? We need pictures of that monster! You can cut the old raggedy ones off but leave the nice ones and as they get old just keep cutting them off.

 

[brandonsdad02]

The stem where all the shoots come off of and the blooms. This lady I got them from had a badly overgrown pond. I had to get in the pond to get them and it stunk so bad. The whole pond bottom was a giant root mass that was at least 9" thick.

 

[brandonsdad02]

It took everything I had just to pull the from the root ball to get the lilies out.

 

[j.w]

Oh ok you are talking about the tuber as we call it. Yes they do get quite big if left on their own. You can divide that tuber up into smaller sections w/ a saw or a sharp knife when they outgrow their pots. Where ever there is a sprout coming off of it you can cut next to that and make sure every section you cut has a sprout coming off of it and you will have a new waterlily plant. You must leave some pads, sprouts on the piece of tuber as this is how they get nourishment............other wise they die. When you transplant you can cut some of the mass of dangling roots off. But you already transplanted so that's ok. Make sure you left the growing tip a little ways out of the soil and butted the other end up against the pot to allow the tuber to grow forward.

 

[brandonsdad02]

I left the pads and blooms on. It was already blooming when i got it. I just followed the stem back down to the tuber and pulled it free from mess it was in.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Do they have to be planted in soil or can it be in just rocks?

 

[addy1]

Soil, rocks, on the bottom, kitty clay your choice. Mine are in kitty litter. Neat find, post some pictures of your lilies, what colors?

 

[j.w]

Mine are in the kitty litter from wal-mart called Special Kitty, only like $3. a 25lb bag..........100% clay on the label. I added a Jobes Tomato spike to each one of mine. Sometimes I put 14-14-14 Osmocote on the bottom of the tub when first planted also. I've planted in gravel, rocks, soil, compost mixed w/ soil.......you can use a rock tied to the tuber and just let them sink to the bottom of the pond too.