Hi

My wife paid $30.00 for a yellow one with 3 pads and no blooms. I was shocked to the point of going to a lake to get some. I got 4 different plants, 3 lilies and a plant with arrow shaped leaves. I was warned to quarantine them. I didn't and now have snails, but I'm $120.00 "richer".

I say go to a lake and transplant.

George

Be careful taking from the wild, it may be illegal in your state.
I got several from Walmart and Menards for $5-10. They are in little plastic containers and if you buy early in the sease, they grow just as nicely as the expensive ones. For the more unusual ones, I would expect to pay low-upper 20s online.

I would never pay that much or buy from a big box store as they are likely to be mislabeled. I get quality named divisions from other watergardeners for much less or even for trades. There is a trade forum here at Garden Web and another one at American Ponders. There are also several forum members that sell on eBay. There is a link to the Garden Web exchange in this forum. The link below is to the American Ponders site.

Here is a link that might be useful: trade forum

I just paid $7.99 for mine at a local nursery. They are usually $15.99. They are mature with 4-8 leaves and flowers.

Its just going to depend on the seller. Plant size and prices vary from seller to seller. $30 and up is not uncommon for a hardy lily that is potted from a nursery.
You are going to pay more for a Truly Named plant as well.
Buying and trading with forum members is often the best source. Many of the regular plant sellers are very good about telling you right up front what size of plant you are getting for the price.
Its not the best idea to raid plants from local waterways due to lawa and disease you can bring to your pond.

Thank you so much for your responses, everyone. I was asking about the price because I'm actually going to sell them, but I've never bought water lilies. Your answers gave me a lot of help, and I really like the American Ponders site.

Another option (might have already been addressed, I didn't read every response), one that I have done in the past was go to a city park nearby me that had a pond just PACKED with water lilies - I went to the office and asked them if I could take a few for my pond, and they gave me permission to take as many as I would like so long as they were for personal use and they were not going to be sold. So if you're driving around and you see a park that has a pond loaded with lilies, make a few calls, talk to a few people - there's a good chance they'll let you take some.

To the person who gave the info about not transplanting from the wild - Good job, I was glad to see that. It can be illegal to transplant them from areas where they occur naturally...thats a good reason to check out a county or city park and ask for permission to remove some.

Hope that helps.
~Mike

The good thing about buying one or two hardy waterlilies is the next year you'll have 3 or 4 or more and the next year 6 or 8 or more and on and on and on. I paid $40CD here for two hardy lilies. Think the 3rd one was $25. Never seen any for less than that in the pond stores/supply stores here. I have six large pots in my pond now--two of each kind. The extras I gave away to other ponders. I leave mine in the pond all year long and while are slow to come in the spring--means the insulated hip waders and lifting the pots have never lost a plant. The yellow water lilies that grow in the wild are very invasive for garden ponds as well as may introduce all kinds of problems to your pond.