Water lily issues...

[Somethin' Fishy]

I placed about 3-4 shade tolerant HARDY water lilies in our pond last year when I set it up, along with a pot of snowflakes, and all was well. Over wintered them in the pond and this spring everything started budding out, including the snowflake which is just borderline for our zone. Had a few pads reach the surface, and then they all fizzled out. Its as if what pads that were up just melted away and left nothing but nubs. I don't use any chemicals in or around our pond, no crazy weather issues, nothing out of the ordinary. No snail problems, and we have no koi. Anyone have any ideas as to what happened?

Today I removed all my pots from the pond and dug out the rhizomes. They weren't mushy, and a couple had tiny little buds with some new growth coming. So I took them all and repotted them in one large tub to see what happens.

 

[j.w]

Hope they make it. Ya just never know what a plant will decide to do for no reason at all that we can think of.

 

[addy1]

did you fertilize them? I add osmocote in the spring or fall (usually fall) about 1/4 cup or so I sort of just dump it in the pot under the litter.

In the spring I haul them up to shallow water until they start to grow then push them deeper. Right now they are pretty crowded. I need to groom, move or just ignore, like I did last summer.

 

[mrsclem]

You said you don't use chemicals but by any chance do you use salt in your pond?

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

did you fertilize them?

Yep. I use fertilizer tabs (without copper).

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

You said you don't use chemicals but by any chance do you use salt in your pond?

No, I don't use salt. And no chemicals anywhere on our property. We also have our property posted as a "no spray" zone for when the county rolls through with the weed killer.

 

[MajorDan]

No ideas for you just sorry to hear about your lilies. Gads, if spraying can hurt your pond I am in deep trouble. Every neighbor has bug spray contracts, the neighborhood has mosquito sprayer weekly and who knows what else is floating in the air.

 

[Lisak1]

What's the weather been like? We are in an unusual cool spell here in the midwest (especially at night) and my lilies are all about a month behind where they normally would be. Lilies like it warm. I had a similar experience with some early growth starting and then they went into a holding pattern. As long as you see growth, they should be fine. The "melting away" you described is pretty normal - the pads will start to deteriorate as they age. The smallest ones will just disappear.

 

[Linus_Cello]

What shade tolerant lilies are you growing? Marliac hybrids?

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

What's the weather been like?

No out of the ordinary weather events here. Up here on the mountain we're typically 8-12 degrees cooler than the valley Spring through Summer, but that hasn't been an issue before. The marginal plants are doing great - blue pickerel, iris, chameleon plant, aquatic forget-me-nots - no troubles with those.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

What shade tolerant lilies are you growing? Marliac hybrids?

I'd have to go look up what ones they are in my pond log, which I don't have with me at the moment. Even then, I wouldn't know if they were specific hybrids of the person you mentioned. But, the pond place where I purchased them used to have an outstanding variety of lilies, and one of their staff was very knowledgeable. All of the lilies were arranged by tropical or hardy, full sun to part shade. After discussing our pond with them we made appropriate selections to suit our pond. Unfortunately that pond store moved to a new location and doesn't stock many plants anymore, and their "expert" moved on. Otherwise I would have asked them about it.

 

[csdude55]

FWIW, I'm in 7A as well, and my pond lilies have been wimpy this year. I thought it was because I have too many other plants going on and crowding them out, but reading this I'm thinking... maybe it was the winter?

I've had 1 bloom this whole year.

 

[MajorDan]

I am in 7b and my first year water lilies are doing great. Many flowers from both Lowe’s water lilies. I do do the kitty litter and Osmocote fertilizer in an oil pan setup for them. Maybe fertilizer is the answer.

 

[addy1]

6b here, I just dumped osmocote under the kitty litter in the fall, around 1/4 cup, they are crowded, not groomed. I have not had the time to wade in and groom them. They are all in walmart kitty litter pans. The year before I did not fertilize , they bloomed but not like they are doing this year.

 

[Lisak1]

Goodness sakes - whatever you're doing they obviously like it!

Here's a weird one - we noticed yesterday that we have a lily bloom completely underwater. It's way down by the pot, completely opened. Anyone ever have that happen?