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FAQ - Plants - Directions for Planting Water Lilies
Water Lilies
When we collect lilies from our ponds, we look for the best specimen
that we can find. We remove the plant from the pond, wash the soil off of the
roots, remove old, large, and damaged leaves, old flowers, etc. This is as much
for the sake of the plant’s health as it is for minimizing the shipping costs.
It is good for the plant’s health because it is easier for the plant to produce
new roots and leaves if it does not waste energy trying to save old leaves that
it will ultimately drop anyway. No plant can support all of the leaves that
it has at the time that it is collected because the roots have been damaged.
We then put the plant into a damp newspaper lined plastic bag, which is put
into a box. It is shipped with minimal moisture to avoid rotting and, again,
to reduce the shipping weight. Cover any holes with a layer or two of newspaper. Do not bother
to use shade cloth, window screen, parts of plastic bags, etc., newspaper works
just fine. Add enough unamended soil to the bottom of the pot to reach slightly
above the holes. On top of this, add amended soil. If the plant has long roots,
try to involve them with the soil as it goes into the pot. This avoids lumps
of roots that may rot before they grow. Also, it gets the roots out into the
soil where the fertilizer is so that the fertilizer has less chance of leaching
out into the pond water before the plant can get to it. If the plant has just
been removed from a pond and has a large mass of roots, comb out all of the
loose, unattached roots, leaving only those roots that are well attached to
the tuber and that are healthy.
If the pond has koi in it, stop the soil about 3” from the top
of the pot, add a thin layer of sand (1/2”), then a thick layer of 1/2" to 1" crushed cinders. This flies in the face of some recommended planting methods. These would
have you use granite gravel of some size or other. We do not like this because
the gravel is too heavy, and the lilies are not particularly willing to grow through
gravel. They don’t grow through it in nature, so we should not expect them to
do so in our ponds. Also, larger stones tend to fall through the soil, leaving
the lily as vulnerable to attack from the carp as they were without the stones.
The good things about lava rock are that it is lightweight, it is inert, and
it has numerous declevities on its surface, which gives the plant’s surface
roots something to grab on to. This forms a tighter matrix on the soil surface
than granite gravel will. And, last but not least, the roughness of the lava
rock discourages fish from picking it up. If you have old lava rock from the
filter or from the previous planting, use it. We always tamp the lava rock down
to tighten it. On top of the lava rock, we add another layer of sand
to seal the surface. If there are no koi present, sand alone will do the job.
A 2” thick layer is fine.
Tamp the pot in the ground a couple of times. This squeezes
most of the air out of the soil, which ensures that minimal soil will get blown
out into the water as the air escapes into the water, and the pot is less likely
to tip over in the first few moments after having been lowered into the pond.
Merely lift the pot a few inches off of the ground and drop it. Lower it into
the pond slowly to let the remaining air escape and you are done. If the plant
is shorter than the water is deep, it will usually reach the surface within
a couple of days.
Hardy lilies will grow in anything up to about 5’ of water, whereas
most tropicals prefer water that is less than 30” deep.
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