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Ponds & Aquatic Plants

Couple hardy water lily questions

3 years ago

My memory is bad and sometimes I fail to take notes. I overwintered 2 hardy water lilies. One is doing great (just leaves, but in an above-ground stock tank). It had been buried in the ground with leaves over it. The other one is at the bottom of a 300 gallon in-ground stock tank (where it spent the winter). I live in Indiana. Problem is, I can't remember what kind/color either of them is. I'm thinking they are probably drop and grow lilies, but can't remember for sure. We didn't have a bad winter and the in-ground tank never froze much and I kept an air-hole in it when it did. I have fertilized this lily, but nothing is happening at all. Is it fairly normal to see no growth at all by this time (June 3)? I don't want to wait much longer to plant a new one. We did clean this tank out about 3 weeks ago, and the lily pot was covered with a thick layer of algae.......but I don't think that would have a bad effect........?

Here's a pic of the one in the above ground tank. Do you know of a drop and grow lily that would have these kind of leaves? Thanks.

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Comments (5)

catherinet
Original Author
3 years ago
The questions aren't hardy........just the water lilies. ;)
catherinet
Original Author
3 years ago
Looks like I'm having a conversation with myself. lol. The hardy lily I'm talking about that is at the bottom of the 300 gallon in-ground stock tank is in a 7 gallon pot.....just like the one in the above picture. When we cleaned out the tank about a month ago, the lily pot had a big layer of algae on it. I removed the algae and fertilized it. I didn't notice this at the time, but when I went out today to see if anything had poked up (it hadn't), I noticed that when I poked it with a stick.....the entire top of the pot was hard. I haven't a clue how this happened.....unless it had something to do with the algae being on it over the winter. So.....I broke up that hard-pack on top and hopefully it will start to grow. Otherwise, I'll get a new lily.
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Well, my husband couldn't help me pull it out of the pond just yet, so I bought another lily and am waiting for it to grow a bit more before I put it in the in-ground pond. There's still no signs of life from one lily, but when my husband pulls it out when the other one is ready to go in, I will see if any of it is viable. I don't want to pull it out just yet, since there's nothing much else in my little pond, but I have a number of frogs, and it might give them a better place to hide. I hope I can somehow salvage it, since I've had it for so long.........It's a Rose Arey. We're feeling a bit overwhelmed these days. We have about 35 acres and a lot of rain and everything is growing like crazy, especially the weeds (but not the original water lily...haha). I do have a miniature lotus in a 40 gallon container, and it's doing great. I also have a lotus bog (a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stocktank sunk into the ground and filled with soil) and it's growing. We're just trying to keep our heads above the weeds......which sometimes we can do, and other times not! I'll let you know what I find when I do finally pull it out of the water. I do appreciate your suggestions, even though I'm a little slow at following them! :) Thanks for asking.
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tropicbreezent
3 years ago
Looking at ther patterns on those leaves they look like a tropical. Seeing as you don't seem to remember those specifically, is it possible you had bought tropicals previously? Have you checked for the tuber in the pot that has no growth showing? It may have got too cold in the pond. That's the only thing I can think of.
catherinet
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks tropicbreezent! (I owe you a letter too). I did have a tropical lily last year, but I never think to try to save them, since it never worked before, since our winters are usually too cold for them. But my mind isn't what it used to be, so maybe I DID accidentally save it. And the mild winter kept it alive.?? Actually, I see a small bud down in there, thinking about growing up, so I guess in a couple weeks, I'll know the answer. About the other one with the hard crust over it..........I think I'm already seeing a small stem coming up, so hopefully it was just trapped and will be able to grow now. Thanks for your input!
catherinet
Original Author
3 years ago
Mystery solved. It's a hardy lily. Guess my memory is so bad that I didn't remember the leaves' coloration from last year.

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