Love this new forum! I have one small pond, plus a bunch of preformed round ones. Just to have a little water around.

Could someone please give step by step instructions on how to plant water lilies, from the container to the medium, etc. Also how to overwinter the not hardy ones. I would truly appreciate it.

Hey Polly!

Glad you could join us! I use the waterlily baskets and plant my waterlilies in pea gravel and then top off my pots with egg rock so that the koi dont' get the pea gravel all over the bottom of my pond. I love the once a year fertilizer stakes. If I had to ferlilize the waterliies every month, it is a chore that just would not get done. Hardy waterliliies need temps in the 60's to send up any flower buds. I typically divide my waterliies in the early spring when they are still dormant and do my fertilizing at that point. Additionally, I have read that waterlilies like to be in about 2 feet of water. I will tell you that mine are in about 3 1/2 feet of water and I have no problem with my waterlilies flowering.

When planting your WL, make sure you don't cover the growth points of your waterlilies. You can use a number of diffierent mediums to plant your WL. I have seen a number of people that use the unscented 100 % clay kitty litter and I know there are aquatic wl mediums that you can buy too - these however tend to be rather pricey.

I do not have tropical waterlilies, so hopefully somebody will jump in with their experiences.

Carolyn

Thank you for the welcome and the information, Carolyn.

I will follow instructions. My pond is small, and is about 3 foot deep. A friend brought me a water lily two years ago, and it has done well, so I wanted to add to the pond. No fish in there, not deep enough here for them.

I just ordered 3 hardy waterlilies from the sale at Mamajacks on Cubits. It ends tonight. Texas Waterlilies is the vendor, and I bought 1 Munkala Ubon $5.00,1 Hilite $3.00, 1 Sribangpra $3.00. Cheap enough, and now hopefully I can pot them properly.

Thanks again!!!

Polly

I googled the names of your waterlilies - so gorgeous! Please post pictures when they flower. I haven't done any business with Texas Waterlliy, but I have only heard good things about them.

What vendors would you recommend, Carolyn?

I promise to post, love this forum!

Polly -

I bought my Black Princess locally, however I did buy Peaches and Cream from Lilyblooms. They have a website at www.lilyblooms.com

Thank you.

I got the waterlily baskets today, so I am progressing.

I will keep watching this wonderful forum.

Polly

can't wait to see pictures of your blooms!

Thanks! Here's a pic I took of one of the two waterlilies I have in the pond, with frog. I don't know the waterlily name, but will keep track of the new ones.

mmmmm..... beautiful! I love the froggie. Looks like he's checking out the WL too!

Thanks. Yes, that's the first day it opened, and it was something new for him. He sat in the middle of it later, but by the time I got the camera he was down.

That's my favorite thing about the ponds, I guess. Even though ours are not deep enough for fish, they do bring a lot of wildlife.

i can give you some tips for growing tropicals, but I have some caveats... I live in Hawaii, so sun is not a problem for me. I grow my plants in containers that are no larger then 50 gallons. I have multiple plants per container, usually 2-3.


I plant the water lilies in standard gardening pots. I put a couple layers of newspaper on the bottom and fill with topsoil being sure not to cover the crown or growing point. I put a layer of Special Kitty brand kitty litter on the soil to keep in from coming out of the pot. That stuff is basically crushed clay. It's sold at Wal-Mart in a red paper bag. It's 25 lbs. per bag. But, if you don't want to use this, any type of heavy media will work. Like Carolyn said, you can use stuff like the kitty litter as the planting material. I don't use it because there are no nutrients in it and I'm afraid that it's so porous, that pushing fertilizer into it will eventually lead to it leaching into the water.

I use pondtabbs at one tablet per gallon of media per month. I like this because it allows me to plant larger tropicals in smaller pots. Once they get rootbound, the tablet is harder to push in. Once it too hard to push in, I repot.

My plants are no more then 8-12 inches under the water and I have no problems.

I hope that I didn't miss anything and that this helps.

I repot anytime because sun isn't an issue. Because of this, I don't know how to overwinter tubers.

I keep tropical lilies year round in the greenhouse, but they don't bloom much in the winter. They are much happier if I heat the water and keep them in a bright spot, though. The viviparous varieties, in particular, seem to be tougher and better able to handle the cold air. If it gets too cold, however, they form a tuber and tend to go dormant. I've never figured out how to wake them up again. Sometimes they come back, but often the tuber just remains and slowly rots away during the following summer.

There's a lot of different kinds of hardy waterlily roots, but mostly they creep along the soil until they run into something. The tropicals, though, tend to grow straight up into the water, and I've got a couple that are within inches of the water surface and really need to have been repotted long ago.

Thank you both, so much, for the information.

I am so happy with this forum - I don't have time to read all right now but will ASAP. Thanks so much

Polly - I use the regular 1 gallon nursery pots, too. I put a coffee filter in the bottom and then fill it with the Walmart brand "Special Kitty" litter. It's only in the red bag!The water seems to stay much cleaner and I have less problems with bacteria. (Though algae is always a problem in full sun.) My mosquito fish seem to like it too! Here is a photo of the Walmart brand Special Kitty litter bag. It is very cheap for a 25 lb. bag. :-)

For anyone interested ....

I have way too many Mexicana waterlilies. They are hardy water lilies. Quoted from the Texas Water Lily site where I get all my water lilies from in co-ops:

"Nymhaea “Mexicana“ Hardy from zone 4-11. Plant Size: Medium. Its own species native to North America, flower bright yellow, 4“- 7“ across. Has a 4'- 6' spread, mexicana root system. Leaves are green. Will grow in 6“ to 3' of water. Best to grow in 1.5' of water. You can use a 2 or 3 gallon container for this one. Dr. Strawn secret in his creations is this lily. The flower holds itself well above the waters surface. Watch out though this lily will take over an earthen pond pretty quick and once in your pond it's almost impossible to get rid of. I would only use it in a lined pond and make sure to have it in a large no-hole container. Full sun"

I have 7 that need a new home. I am keeping 11 of them for the one pre-formed pond because the fish like these water lilies so much. The pads stick up out of the water, so they shade and protect the fish from predators. If anyone wants some of them, I will give them away if you pay for the shipping. The blooms are yellow. They multiply readily! (See photo of blooms and plants.) Send me a private a-mail if you are interested.

Walmart Special Kitty litter RED bag:



Mexicana hardy waterlily:

I also do pretty much the same thing that Jonathan does by adding 1 pond tab fertilizer per pot per month. I grow mine in small round pre-formed ponds. As well as some smaller water pots and even a coffee cup. I always have tadpoles and lots of small fish in the ponds because everything breeds like crazy! LOL! I started out with 8 fish and now have too many to count. I got the fish in April. They actually swim in schools in the ponds! LOL!

Water lilies growing in coffee cups:



My pre-formed ponds:

becky,

I don't think that the lily you showed is mexicana... I think it looks more like texas dawn... Here is what my mexicana looks like ;)

Jonathan - Maybe I posted the wrong photo and the photo is "Inner Light" instead. I have mostly yellow blooming wl. The ones I need to find new homes for are definitely Mexicana. I know so because they create baby plants under the potting mix that look like mini bunches of bananas. They are the absolute hardiest water lilies I grow.

Ah, yes. Mexicana is probably the most invasive water lily. I had a bunch, but got rid of them because they aren't the best of bloomers and if you let them will grow inside of other pots if you let em!
For me, the hardiest would have to be daubin. It makes so many plants, and if you know what you are doing, you can grow them in just about anything that will hold water. It's also a terrific bloomer.