A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Lily Pads

I bought a lily pad plant for our pond this spring from Petsmart. It was dormant and dry in a box. It took about six weeks before I started to see any shoots coming to the surface. I have had about dime-sized five sprouts for one month and they seem to be so slow in growing! Is this typical? I doubt they will be full-sized before the end of the season. I live in zone 6.

Seeing as how they were dormant and dry, they likely will not bloom nor reach maturity in this one season. Are they more than about a foot or so deep? when new, they need to be graduated into deeper water as they grow until they are at two to two and a half foot deep, even three foot when mature, where they will be fine to overwinter in your pond. Also, are they in full sun? I have found that the more sun the better. Good Luck and keep us posted on their progress!

Thanks for the info. I currently have them at bout a foot. I recall the instructions stated to start them out shallow and move them deeper as you say. I think I will move them to the bottom, which is at about two feet in the next week or two to allow them growing time. Regarding sunlight, I have placed them on the end of the pond that receives the most sun. They's probably like more but I'm not willing to remove existing landscaping. They probably get about three hours of direct sun.

HI Dan. Welcome to the forum!

I have a young waterlily this year too. It did seem to grow very slowly at first. I gave it a pellet of water plant fertilizer, and once it started going, it really took off. The leaves were very small at first, but now they get about 3-4 inches across (some small ones still come up too on occasion). Be patient and it will come.

You probably won't get blooms though unless you put it in more sun. I've read that they need at least 6 hours of full sun to bloom. But... mine have not bloomed yet, so I wouldn't know that for sure.