How do you plan on growing them ,I grow mine in large plastic tubs,and half wine casks,you can put them out any time they wont freze they are really hard to kill,more often indoors than out,I put a half bag of black cow(get this from lowes or home depo) then some hevey dirt couple inches, then lay the tuber on top of the dirt with a rock over it so it dont float out,be carefull of the growing tips,then put about six inches of water over them,and wait, A good site to check on growing them is Teaxas Water Lily hightider

I agree, just wet the soil down again and make yourself a really thick mud pie in the pot you want to put it in. Place the tuber in and press it down in the mud some. Don't cover up the growing tips. Cover the soil with some pea gravel. Personally I use a bagged top soil that I buy at Home Depot that is mostly a clay soil and sand mixture. It works very well for my lilies. I've tried using the kitty litter and aquatic soil in the past and it just made a mess but some people use it successfully. You may just have to experiment a little bit to see what works best for your pond conditions.

Hardy waterlilies become large plants in a few months and need a substantial weight of pot to root onto and anchor them. As small plants to start with, you want to keep an eye on them in a foot of water in case destructive grazing critters start destroying them. Koi, carp, ducks may wreck the roots and shoots, turtles may snip every stem and destroy the plant if it's out of sight As confidence in the plants progress continues, you can think about shuffling a well potted waterlily to what seems a suitable depth a foot deeper at a time. I don't see any point in planting them too deep if there is a convenient shallower depth to set them in as then they will be unrealistic to sort out if they become a problem in the future. A realistic depth being, how deep can you reach and still be able maneuver, chop, hack, wrestle a bulky large plant that may be well lashed to the bottom of the pond It's perty easy to wrap any suitable type of fertiliser in a small sealed plastic wrap and prod it below the crown, the point where shoots and blooms come up from. Poke a small hole so the water dissolves and releases the fertiliser slooow.

I would love to have 1-2 lillies.. I am enlarging my pond in two weeks and they would be perfect. When I do it I will be dividing my water iris's if you want to trade, I have purple and some japanese ones but I couldn't tell you which is which so I'd have to send some out of each pot? or if you don't want any I would love to pay postage for some if you have any left.