Here's my water lily experiment. I put several in the pond last summer and none survived. I was told that it was probably the hard shell turtles that did them in. Sooooooo, I'm trying one more time, and if this doesn't work, I will give. I built narrow mesh cages, about 3' in diameter and 2' tall, and staked the first one down to the bottom of the pond. I'm in about 1.5' depth. I hope that the cage will not only keep critters away from the lilies, but also control the spread of the lilies. I don't think that they would "take over" the pond, but don't want to take a chance. There are two rhizomes in the basket.

I've got to mix up another batch of potting media and then I will repeat this with the last two water lilies. I am using milk crates as my baskets, lined with shade cloth to keep the media in place. I am using 4 stakes but will add two more if the mesh doesn't hold it's semi-round shape.

I've always thought it would be cool to have turtles, but seeing what y'all are having to do to protect your plants from them I'm changing my mind.

Ha, ha, @psa. I would send you some of mine if it were possible.

My guess is, it'll work for a time. The turtles will trim off any roots that poke through, but eventually, the roots that poke through will make holes big enough for the turtles to either poke their heads in and get caught, or crawl through and eat the lilies.

Not having turtles, I assume they eat all of the plant? Or just parts? Are lilies their favorite food, or the only food in the pond? How big is the pond? Are they totally aquatic, or just mostly aquatic?

@sallymander.

You ask more questions than I did. You don't have any turtles, huh? Any water lilies? A pond?

drdawg said: @sallymander.

You ask more questions than I did. You don't have any turtles, huh? Any water lilies? A pond?

No, I don't have a big enough pond for turtles. My "big" pond is an old hot tub. My other "ponds" are old bath tubs and water troughs.

I grow waterlilies. My biggest adversary are raccoons. I make the access difficult, but not impossible for them.

I googled your turtles. And I noticed you had another thread with photos. Looks like you'd measure your pond in acres, not gallons. I'm surprised you don't have water hyacinths, or do the turtle eat those too?
What kind of oxygenaters do you have in the pond?

Yes, my pond is 3/4 acre, averaging around 6' in depth (max. depth is right at 12'), and is around 9,000,000 gal. Unlike most large garden ponds and even the vast majority of farm/residential ponds, my ponds is fed by an artesian well, 24/7. That artesian water is potable and of course, cold all year long. I have some cattails and lots of rush growing at the water's edge, but I keep the cattails controlled and they don't take up much room. The only submerged plant that I know of is hornwort, and there's plenty of that. I have fish as well as turtles, tilapia, bream, and largemouth bass. I have hard shell and softshell turtles, but the hard shell are apparently the ones that like to munch on water lilies.

Water hyacinths are highly invasive plants here, as well as throughout the entire SE USA. I have none. It is even illegal to have them in our ponds here in Florida.

Here's a portion of my pond. You can see the artesion water flowing in one of them.

drdawg said:Yes, my pond is 3/4 acre, averaging around 6' in depth (max. depth is right at 12'), and is around 9,000,000 gal. Unlike most large garden ponds and even the vast majority of farm/residential ponds, my ponds is fed by an artesian well, 24/7. That artesian water is potable and of course, cold all year long. I have some cattails and lots of rush growing at the water's edge, but I keep the cattails controlled and they don't take up much room. The only submerged plant that I know of is hornwort, and there's plenty of that. I have fish as well as turtles, tilapia, bream, and largemouth bass. I have hard shell and softshell turtles, but the hard shell are apparently the ones that like to munch on water lilies.

Water hyacinths are highly invasive plants here, as well as throughout the entire SE USA. I have none. It is even illegal to have them in our ponds here in Florida.

Here's a portion of my pond. You can see the artesion water flowing in one of them.

I am misinformed. I thought Florida used water hyacinths in their sewage treatment. I suppose that still could be true, and it could still be illegal for home use. The plant is legal here because it is nearly impossible to winter over. You have to move several small planets out of orbit to align with some very distant stars to make it happen, but it can be done. Not sure I'll do it again.

I was already jealous of you, and now I'm more so. Fresh, flowing water! How wonderful!
If the turtles leave the cattails and rush alone, maybe try getting the water lilies started in an among them, once the water lily roots get established they might move out further into the water. Along the line of planting tulips surrounded by daffodils because the squirrels don't like daffodils. What type of water lily do you have?

Since you have cold water year round, have you tried water hawthorne? It's my favorite cold water plant. The roots are highly edible, you might need to protect it from preydation as well. Lovely, blooms when nothing else will. Though, in Florida, I imagine that isn't an issue.

You misunderstand, Sally. May I call you Sally? This is not the Northeast. It's Southern Florida. We are as different from Oregon as daylight is from dark. That pond water is now approximately a steady 80 F. When days are in the low 90's and nights only get down to the mid to upper 70's as it is now, shallow water heats up and stays heated. Our nights will soon hoover around 80 F for the next two months. My point is that the flowing artesian well doesn't do much of anything to lower the temperature of the water, certainly not in the summer months. It might be pumping out 100 gal. per minute (I have no clue what the flow is), but for a body of water that's nine million gal., is shallow, and heats up so easily while the sun is out, that flow is miniscule.

The rush and cattails are in really shallow water, not over 6-10" deep. Most of these plants are right at the edge of the pond because the water is about at its lower point right now. That's far too shallow for water lilies. Besides turtles can just plow through rush and cattails or simply go onto the banks and go behind them. Some of these turtles are really large. My largest soft shell turtles (though they are not supposed to be the ones that eat the water lilies) are 2' from the tip of their heads to their tails and the largest hard shells are 16-18" long. They are all truly water turtles, not terrestrial turtles. They are in the water so much that algae covers many of their shells.

I have both hardy, a variety called National Native (down here they are called Florida Native), aka Nymphaea odorata 'Aiton' and a tropical variety, Nymphaea Laura Frase. The native is white and the Laura is blue.

Ha, ha, ha. I grow tropical plants and just to give you an example, I have over 300 plumeria, over 100 orchids, and dozens and dozens, and then dozens more of all kinds of other tropicals. I've got 2.5 acres.

Ha, ha, ha. I grow tropical plants and just to give you an example, I have over 300 plumeria, over 100 orchids, and dozens and dozens, and then dozens more of all kinds of other tropicals. I've got 2.5 acres.[/quote]

Aaaaahhhh!
Is it too early in our relationship to say "I hate you!" ? :-}
Gah! to be able to grow all those things. (I'd add a little head smacking emoji, but I don't know how.)

Well, gosh darn, I do enjoy a puzzle. I assume the Native grows just fine along side turtles out in the wild. Did you ever read the book, "The King, the Mouse, and the Cheese"? Maybe you need a river otter to chase the turtles away from the lilies. No idea what you'd get to chase the river otter away. Gator? Yikes!

My only other thought would be river rock all around, though a 2' turtle probably would be able to work around those as well.

Around here, waterlilies prefer shallow waters during the summer, because they need all the heat they can get. I doubt mine have 10" inches of water above their roots. We don't drop them into deep water until the cold comes along and they show signs of hibernating.

You can call me anything polite, except "late for dinner."

We actually have visits from river otters occasionally. They don't "live" in my pond though. They are just passing through. No gators in the pond. It's one thing to have water lilies in 10" of water. It's quite another to have them in 2". That wouldn't even begin to even cover the pot. Actually I have mine growing in plastic milk cartons, cartons that once were used to stack a half dozen, 1/2 gal. glass milk bottles. They are 1' tall and about 18" square.

drdawg said:We actually have visits from river otters occasionally. They don't "live" in my pond though. They are just passing through. No gators in the pond. It's one thing to have water lilies in 10" of water. It's quite another to have them in 2". That wouldn't even begin to even cover the pot. Actually I have mine growing in plastic milk cartons, cartons that once were used to stack a half dozen, 1/2 gal. glass milk bottles. They are 1' tall and about 18" square.

Well, I'm glad someone is living the life of my dreams. :-)
I checked out your website. You've been a busy man. It must have hurt to sell all your plants like that, but it sounds like the move was worth it.
Did you know a corpse lily is getting ready to bloom at the WSU in Vancouver? Don't see that everyday!

This is my second try at water lilies, Sally. Last summer I put several in the pond and they were quickly eaten. If this try isn't successful, I will give up on water lilies.

I am glad you have found someone living out some of your dreams. I've grown tropical plants pretty much all of my adult life and now, after 74 yr., I'm in a sub-tropical climate, and able to "really" grow them. I don't know whether you saw a post back in May, a post showing my 25+ yr. old fiddle leaf ficus. She's been grown in pots (the last 10+ yr. in the same pot) for that entire time and had to be cut back 1-2' twice a year to keep her small enough to move inside each fall. After sun-acclimation that took 3 mo., she's now in the ground. When she was planted in Oct., 2018, she was a bit over 6' tall. Now she's over 9' tall and is going to be a very special tree as she grows. She's got 11 "trunks". This is me and my fiddle in May, and I am 5'11".