Check out what my mom bought me today at Walmart, how cool is this? For about $6 you get this kit--to grow a hardy lily. She got it as a little early Easter present for me! Can't wait to get it going out in the pond, I sure hope it grows as pretty as the picture on the front!
Ooooooooooooooh loz - I'm sooooooooo glad you posted this, this morning before I went out to WalMart!!! I had a bunch of things to return, and then went straight to the plant department, where I found a small display of these hardy lilies with most still there, so I had my pick of the litter!
Of course I had to get almost 1 of each color!!! :clps: :thum: That price is excellent compared to other places I've been looking! I got 2 of the ones on the outside in the picture, because I really liked the color. I also made sure to open each top and check that the plants were healthy - I only bought ones that I could see were starting to grow already - I'm setting them up on a plant stand in this room in front of a south facing window, and am going to water them to give them a headstart, since I can't put them out until May at the earliest. It says on the container that they are hardy down to -30 as long as the water does not freeze at the plant line! I'm hoping that this is actually true - one can never tell with plants that are a bargain, you know? :duhh:
uh oh... I've been researching these plants and am now wondering it I got too many??? :duhh:
Last edited by plants 'n pots; Mar 31st, 2007 at 04:27 PM.
The containers say you can plant them in the pond anywhere from 24 inches to 60 inches, but when I found 3 of the 4 different varieties online, they all said to plant only at 24 inches. Also... the container says to "take inner mesh bag containing water lily out of packaging, and place bag into pond." Well... when I removed the mesh bag from the plastic container, to get the plastic bag off of it, the tubers were not INSIDE the mesh, but mearly place in the middle of them!!! So, how are they supposed to stay INSIDE the mesh when they are submerged into the pond???
I think I'm going to have to look for some of those pots that are used for pond plants - I have no idea where to find them, or how expensive they are? But I do know that the very expensive yet very very nice ponding store near me has one of the ones I got today in their catalogue for...$36!!!!!!! I'm sure it must be an older, larger plant, but still! They say in the catalogue to plant them in top soil (?), and place them with 6-24 inches of water over the top of the pot - hmmmmmmm...
oh - I think when they say plant line, they mean the bulb or tuber in the pot - not where the leaves are floating on the surface - those, of course will die back.
Lynne, what are the names of your water lilies? Mine is attraction and on brecks it says you can plant in 4-36 inches. Is your new pond going to have shelving around the sides that you could set the bottom part down on to?
I haven't opened mine yet to look at it....I guess we will be figuring this out together huh? lol
2 Fabiola - pink 1 Colorado - salmon - wish I had gotten 2 of that one - the pictures online are gorgeous!!! 1 sulphurea - yellow 1 James Brydon - dark pink
The pond will definitely have shelves - probably only on 2 sides though - the front is not strong enough for them, and the back will have the waterfall.
Are you going to dig out a bigger pond this summer?
Well I was hoping to, it all comes down to money though...things have been super tight! If we can't do it this year I guess I'll have to be patient and think of next year.
OK - I told loz in a PM, NOT to uncover her water lily! Apparently they do not like to be exposed to the air, and all of mine started to dry out BIG time overnight last night. I ran them back to WalMart this morning , and got 3 new ones :thum: - I'm disappointed that there wasn't another one of the one I liked the best after seeing pictures online, but at least I was able to get 3 new ones. :clps:
I also bought a deep, large plastic container tub to put them into. I had also read that the plants should not get below 75 degrees while actively growing, or it could compromise the blooms for that season. I do not have an area in this house that gets that warm - ever! - so I'm putting it into Brian's bedroom and hoping for the best.
I also had Don cut a piece of old screening to tape over the top, so our ever-so-inquisitive and thirsty cats do not bother the plants! I'll assemble it all in a little while and post a picture afterwards.
Lesson learned - do not allow your water lilys to be exposed to the air and dry out!!! :thnk:
hey ya'll, i bought the yellow one the other day....i plunked mine right in the bottom of the pond and it already is sending up one shoot. that was just 3 days ago. i kind of corked screwed mine down in the middle of the mesh and it has not floated out of it yet. once it gets going, the roots should hold it in. the one in my other pond is about 2 years old. no special treatment and not sure if i even do it right......again, plunked it to the bottom, it does fine, then in fall i whack it down to the basket. they don't seem to be that picky. good luck with yours!
oh, just a little note, if you keep them in anything other than a plant pot with NO holes (to contain the roots), the roots will spread out EVERYWHERE in the bottom of the pond, twisting their way under gravel and all! this is my mom's hard lesson learned. trying to clean the sludge build-up of the bottom last year, she liked to have never got the roots untangled from the gravel!
hmmmm - interesting Wendy! So, the pot you put it in has no holes? How large a pot are we talking and what material - plastic? Did you keep it in the small pot it came it? I can't imagine it growing very well being cramped in that small pot?
oh... how deep is your pond? Mine is going to be rather large, and I don't think I'll be able to see the pot once I sink it into the pond.
both my ponds are 2 ft, deep. the first one with the 2 year old lily came in a plant basket.....small, square, with small holes in it. i still have it it there, but when i cut it back last fall, i picked the whole thing up out of the water to displace some of the roots. i did not want it to get like mom's was. mom was going to put her's in some type of pot to keep it some what root bound. she also has small ponds. i guess it really doesn't matter, the only thing is if you ever want to do anything to the plant where you have to pick the whole thing up, if the roots are left to "go where they may", it really mucks up the water and keeps debris in it. if your pond is going to be on the bigger side, it shouldnt matter. in mine, the river pebbles i have in the bottom of the pond was getting tangled in the roots.
You don't have to worry about how deep they are planted half as much as how far they spread.
medium to large spreading (4+ feet spread but can be upwards to 12 feet) Attraction Colorado James Brydon
small to medium spreading (1 to 3+ feet spread) Fabiola Sulfurea (unless it is Sulfurea gigantica)
It is safe to say that as long as your ponds don't freeze solid the lilies will be fine.
If you want the lilies to thrive, plant them in dirt and a bigger pot. Lilies don't need deep pots they need wide pots. The tubers grow on the surface of the soil not under it. Use pots with no holes. I use (plastic) cat litter pans or oil drip pans. Don't use dirt that has peat moss in it, it makes a mess when it floats. They need fertilizer too. If you can find pond tabs they are easy to use. This year I was going to try osmocote for mine.
Loz- I hope everything works out for you to get the bigger pond.
Just a quickie update on the plants - they look really good in the water - even look as though they've perked up and might be starting to grow already. I'll post another picture as soon as I see some growth.
I use (plastic) cat litter pans or oil drip pans. Don't use dirt that has peat moss in it, it makes a mess when it floats. They need fertilizer too. If you can find pond tabs they are easy to use. This year I was going to try osmocote for mine.
Great tips Donna, I will have to get a litter pan today while I'm out! :thum:
Donna you are like a pond expert, you really hooked me up last year with the plants....I think it was Anacharis you sent me last year...well I tried to put it in my fishtank to keep some for this year and my stupid goldfish ate the whole thing....all of it! :nutz:
Donna you are like a pond expert, you really hooked me up last year with the plants....I think it was Anacharis you sent me last year...well I tried to put it in my fishtank to keep some for this year and my stupid goldfish ate the whole thing....all of it! :nutz:
I sure wish I was an expert Loz. I just like watergardening a lot.
Are you needing some more anacharis? It will be around May before it starts to reproduce well. I can send ya some then if ya like.
loz - I just had to buy one of the mini cattails while I was in WalMart today - stuck it in the tub with the others - but boy is that water icy cold!!! I hope it doesn't stop the plants from flowering this year!
Cool Lynne, I'm glad you got one too---I was wondering(don't laugh)...would it stay warmer if there were a covering of saran wrap across the top for a bit?
I put my container in front of a window, but it's been so cold here lately.
QUESTION? has anybody plopped their waterlily in the pond yet??????? i am having trouble with my pond turning orange. YES, ORANGE! a few weeks ago, i thought the dog threw up in it, (one of those chewy dog bones did not set well). so i drained it and now it did it again! so today, i drained it AGAIN! now i think that fiber in the mesh is to blame. i took it apart as the pond was filling up and planted it in something else.
your thoughts please?!?!? thank goodness i have no fish in this one yet!
I put my waterlily and a minature cattail plant in. It was the ones from walmart in the mesh bag. My lily is starting to grow, but my water is ok, and my fish are fine. Do you use well water? Sometimes it can be orange from rust. I will continue to watch my water plants.
Wendy - I won't be able to put my plants outside here for another month - our last frost date is May 15th here. But I doubt they'll be able to go out even then, as my husband needs to shape the pond first, and get the filter, pump, waterfall and everything up and running first! I just wish that WalMart didn't sell these things soooo early in the season - they should know better - that we can't plant until mid-May! I grabbed them because the price was soooo great! I saw the exact same plants for sale at a petstore here just this week, for $2 more apiece!
Here are mine today - the lilies are growing so much, that some of the leaves are actually out of the water in the tub - HELP!!! I cannot get a larger tub - I just hope they don't dry out, not being in the water anymore!
I don't know what to tell you about a bigger place to put them......unless you put them each in a storage thing so they have more room to spread there leaves out on the surface?
I'd help ya out if I could...when we moved we bought literally about 40 storage containers and we have a ton empty in the basement.
I went back to walmart yesterday and got an iris (same brand as waterlilies) all have been marked down to 4.50. but when I went in to look for a hanging basket, I found the boxes of water plants (3 to a box) marked down to 7.00 a box. They included 2 waterlilies and 1 minature cattail. The boxes were located on the bottom shelf where the different potting soils and jiffy pellets were located. Ya'll may want to check your stores.
I put my waterlily and a minature cattail plant in. It was the ones from walmart in the mesh bag. My lily is starting to grow, but my water is ok, and my fish are fine. Do you use well water? Sometimes it can be orange from rust. I will continue to watch my water plants.
no we dont have well water, but that was my only theory on mmy orange water. we will see id it does it agsin.
Sherri - my tiny WalMart NEVER marks anything down! I saw a couple of those boxes with 3 in them a few weeks ago, but they are probably gone by now. I only paid $4.99 for the water lilies - how much were yours before they got marked down to $4.50?
I put my waterlily and a minature cattail plant in. It was the ones from walmart in the mesh bag. My lily is starting to grow, but my water is ok, and my fish are fine. Do you use well water? Sometimes it can be orange from rust. I will continue to watch my water plants.
no we dont have well water, but that was my only theory on mmy orange water. we will see id it does it agsin.
gee, i was just checking this thread and noticed my spelling----you can always tell when i take my ambien then type!
Ok - so are these going to make it until I can get them out in about a month or so? They are getting so long and leggy, and are actually growing out of the water!
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 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!
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?
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..
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.
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.
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"
Be careful of those that say they are you friend. Friendship and Trust must be earned, Saying it is only part of the truth.
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!!!
Gardening in March
Gardening in April
Gardening in May
Shop at Amazon and Support AGF
Are you shopping online? Click this link first and A Gardeners Forum will receive a commission for your
referral at Amazon.com (shopping through this link to Amazon will not have any impact on your prices at Amazon).