Every water lily I've ordered has come with large leaves and sometimes with flower pods. My pond is about 2-1/2 deep in the spot where I wanted the lilies, so I just went ahead and lowered them to the bottom. They were at the surface by the next evening. For all the others, some people have good luck planting bareroot, but I never have. I do think everything looks m ore natural barerooted with space to grow and spread, but you do have to be careful to keep them in check, or they'll take over. I have a zebra rush barerooted in my stream gravel, and it hasn't grown an inch since I planted it last spring. I also tried pickerel in gravel, and it went yellow from lack of nutrients. When I planted them in a pot of soil, they greened up. As a result, I plant all my aquatics except pennywort in clay soil. I then put some sand on top of that, followed by pea gravel to hold everything down. Then, when you lower it into the pond, be careful to let a little water in at a time so that it doesn't disturb the gravel.

Some people who don't want "noticeable" markers use smooth stones and paint the names on them with paint pens. This wouldn't work for me personally. I'm afraid the stones would get moved around. :) I haven't a clue what other kind of markers you could use that would be less prominent. Good luck. Jan

Hi Beth... - Your ? sent me back to my garden journal, when I first got caught in this wonderful realm of HYDRANGEA - driven by a rare cancer, hitting a beautiful, very young relative, I purchased my first 3 Big Smile H serrata - a fund raiser for Ca research, a great cause bushes to set in my piece of soil, I thought. I read the tag and followed planting recommendation. I did more search & found this great H forum!!! Â:) I very soon learned of the likely 8ft ht x 6+ft wd, stature at maturity - It was JULY by then. The experienced Lacecap afficionadoes in this forum, said I had plenty of time & wait 'til Spring to do the move. The response came not soon enough - it was Jul 20 '06 & already moved one to a better site ... dappled shade & more room, deeply watered & closely watched (I left the 2nd one where she was, as advised, 'til Apr '07) She did fine caught up in size & # of blooms with the one planted initially in same area. Sorry for the long narrative - IMHO you will be just fine planting it now as long as you have an ideal site to set yours in. Another thought would be to sink the pot in the prepared hole you have and wait for cooler days to set in permanently. However, the sooner your Lacecap's roots could start developing in her new home, the better, I think! Good luck & enjoy!!! Â:)

Move them on to bigger pots.