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.

I would plant them all in pots. They might take over your pond, otherwise.
How deep is your pond? If its no deeper than 3', I would just lower the hardy lily down now. Its okay that their leaves are under water.

The pond is 2 feet deep. When I pot up the water lily, is it best to use a round pot or is that just for lotus?

I think lack of nutrients is my problem. I can't even grow WH. How sad is that? LOL. Sometimes I wonder if my high ph is a problem and if it keeps the plants from absorbing nutrients? My kh is high, which keeps the ph stable, so I find I really don't care to mess with the ph any as I'd hate to lose my fish.

I use pots that are about 18" across and about 7" deep. (I get them from Tractor Supply).
Some people say that rectangular pots are good for them, since they grow to the side. (You plant the tuber to one side to start with).
I don't think you have to worry about corners like you do with lotus. And I think that's just for newly planted lotus tubers.
Sorry, I don't know much about pH. I don't have fish either.

Vickie,

I think you once posted all of your water chemistry test results here and they looked fine for your locale. I know Drh1 helped with the interpolations.

I too would plant all of those in containers with ordinary soil topped with small rock. Don't bury the unions of the plants. Some common mistakes are planting too deep, no fertilization, and too small of a plant/root ball to begin with.

Thank you all. I am getting excited. The plants will be in tomorrow. Hope I can grow all these. I have all the pots purchased and clay soil, pea gravel and fertilizer are standing by, ready to go. I have even moved a few rocks so I can place the pots in the pond on the shelves and found my milk crate in case I need it for the water lily. I think I have everything. Lord, you'd think I was expecting a baby. LOL.

Have fun Vickie!