A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Water Gardens Hardy Waterlily

Mine is in my pond. It has already grown to the top. I see no reason why yours won't do well. Yours looks like mine. When you set them in your pond, it will be deeper than the tub, right? It should just spread out regardless.

mine have much longer stems to the leaves than the pond is deep. and they have been in the bottom of the pond 2 years. the first year, they didn't grow at all :p just tiny, tiny leaves right on the tuber. this year, they are there!

i'll post pics eventually...

I threw mine in the pond a while back, well I noticed today a small leaf on top of the water from it...probably about the size of an egg. Yay! My first leaf made it up!

My little lily leaf!

Awww.. I saw these at Wal Mart just yesterday too.. They didn't have very many left and I almost got one.. but I didn't know what I would need.. and I don't want something that is going to take up the whole pond.. The one I was looking at was the darker pinkish red one.. and they also had a yellow one.. but I would prefer the pink..

So do you guys think one of these would be good for my pond?

oh yes. very good, and will help with water clarity. just make sure you plant it in something, not just let it go on the bottom of the pond.

Thank you Jiffymouse!! What type of container do I need to buy to put it in? And what type of dirt/soil should I use?

i've used plain garden dirt, and i've used the fancy stuff just for water plants. it doesn't seem to matter actually... one thing i've learned though, slowly put the pot with the plant in a bucket of water before you put it in your pond, that way it will remove alot of the dust and stuff... just don't let it dry between...

It seems like plain dirt would float some.. and get the pond icky.. I was looking in a Doctors Foster and Smith Catalog last night and I saw the water plant medium you are probably talking about.. I dunno.. I will have to wait and see... I am anxious to get some water lilies though!!! And my water lettuce too.. it is so cute!!!

i'd rather use a mix of the dirt and water medium, but that is just based on my experience. honestly, my next pond plantings will have dirt shoveled up from the drainage ditch that needs shoveled out. the cattails love it, so why not everything else

Hmm.. well maybe a mix is a good idea. Do the cattails get very invasive?? Like in a regular pond? Or are the miniature cattails a little more compact?? I don't have a big pond and I don't want to take over my whole pond with plant life..

Well, mom came back from Walmart yesterday with a new Attraction Water lily for me! So now I'll have TWO. Yay mom!

Lynne, do you still have all of yours?

i ahve one thata made it through the witner that i got from njoynit. i wonder how hope is doing, i haven't seen her in a while.

Not sure Jiffy, I haven't noticed her around lately either.

Mine is sunk in the deep part of my pond, it should be coming up before too long and then I'll put my new one out there.

Loz - I wrote to you in Jiffy's new pond plant thread about the 2 new lilies that I got at WalMart today. I was going to start them in the huge plastic tub that I got last year to start them in, but when I went to get it outside, the entire bottom had cracked off during the winter. Oh, well... looks like I need to get a new tub.

But anyway... how do you sink yours loz? Do you put it in a pot with soil and rocks? I had bought a couple of kitty litter pans last year, as I read that they like shallow pots, but never got around to using them yet.

Lynne, I never did do anything special to mine....I just sunk it in the pond in the case it was in and it grew. I just hate putting soil containers in the pond because it always comes out into the water and that just puts me off.

I'm glad you got more, and I'm sorry I missed your other post about them.

At least storage containers don't cost too much.

Oh and I sunk mine in the deepest part of my pond.....I just sort of let it go and it came up great last year....I took the little flower that you are supposed to tie onto it off because it was getting gross and faded.....so it's in there somewhere....

Thanks loz! I agree about soil in the pond, but didn't your plant need more room for the roots than just that small plastic container it came in? And didn't it need some rocks to hold it down?

I know mine will, because I've read that koi like to root around in pots and tear up plants, so they say to place heavy rocks on top of the pots.

I might've put a few rocks on it now I think about it...just a few small ones for weight.

I probably should pull it up and put it in something else.....it did good last year though, it spread out all over the deep end of my pond--I only had one flower though all summer.

What kind did you get?

I got 2 of the Fabiolas - you should read my other post in Jiffy's plant thread!

I guess I should huh?

Guess what???

At the end of last summer, I popped into a different PetSmart down in NJ.
That is where I bought my first koi baby. At that time, they had a bunch of the hardy water lilies in the plastic containers marked down to $1 each. I bought the only 2 that still had a bit of green to them. Since it was late in the season and Don had to work on the waterfall still, I left them in the garage thinking that would be the end of them.

Well........ today I found 1 and it had a tiny green point growing! YEA!!!
Funny thing is... it's the same exact lily that I bought 2 of yesterday - fabiola! The other one is long gone - the pot cracked and I threw it out a while ago. It will be funny if this $1 one survived the winter in the garage.

That's great Lynne---I bet it will grow! If it has some green to it then that's really encouraging---you'll have to keep us updated on how it does.

I bought some of those a few years ago. They are a little slow to get going at first, but they are beautiful now. WalMart also has the baskets for planting them in as well. Here in Utah is very cold and they come back each year. My ponds are around 30" deep, the water right now is 47 and they are growing new leaflets now. So hardy they are. The anacharis is starting to come back as well as the duck weed. spring is not far behind "I hope"

That is great to know - thanks waterwise!
Unfortunately, our WalMart is the smallest in the chain and it does NOT hve the baskets - I would definitely get some if they did.

By the way... do you have another name we can call you?


Guess what what???
I found ANOTHER of the fabiola $1 pots today in the garage - and it, too, had a teensy tiny green leaf in it!!! I put the 2 plants in a container full of water - stay tuned for their progress!!!

Gayla is my name Vet Tech is my trade. LOL but pondwise I am. Learned from a lot of booboos