Plain water. Fertilizer is not needed; the bulb has the energy stored for the bloom. Fertilizer will encourage algae to grow in your vase. Nell

Last fall I threw some into a little pond that is spring fed, we have now turned it into a larger pond and I am in the process of changing it into my pretty pond. Anyway I am shocked after having a deep freeze of around 2 months, might be less but I am sure it felt that way, I am shocked to see that they are now growing again. I know we had below freezing temps for at least 6 weeks, day time highs above freezing for a couple more weeks but night time below freezing again. We are now coming out of it. I am such a happy camper as to not have to buy more this year. I have some in my basement and they are limping along but they don't all look to good. This is the before photo, the pond I had till my two pups decided to play in it and killed my liner. Now we have a house in the country and decided to use the spring pond for the goldfish and plants. Here we are digging it out. Thank goodness for big toys. I can't wait till all of the plants settle in and start blooming for me. Sandy

I don't know. I've never seen string algae growing in WH. I assume, given the environment WH grows in, that it has some defense against algae. But from the picture it looked like maybe this string algae was dead/dying. It only floats to the surface like that when dead/dying and that's what it looked like. If so that could have created a problem for the WH. But it's strange to me that this was so widespread. Seemed like every WH plant was affected. You're sure nothing had been added to kill algae? Maybe it was just a natural die off of string algae. We don't really know that much about these plants interactions. Which makes this interesting imo. Any info you can give could be useful later if this is seen again. Like does your pond currently have string algae? Other kinds of algae? Muck on the bottom? Anything else you can think of. It would be interesting to see how WH do when put back in the pond. Any pictures of the plants and root system before you add them back would be very helpful. As would any water test results. Thanks.

To a human the water looks still. At the microscopic level it's Mr Toad's wild ride. Thermal current, wind, fish and insects swimming. Take a look at your pond water under a microscope and you'll see a disco. And the bacterial world, even smaller. The weird thing about bacteria is they may not be aware you've set up a lovely filter for them. These unappreciative creatures just set up shop where ever there's food. Pond surface, plants, plant roots, Even those tiny specks of particles suspended in the water look like planets to bacteria (well, very small planets, OK, moons, maybe asteroids). Total surface area inside your pond is probably a few hundred times greater than the total surface area in the filter. And as matter builds up in the filter and cogs it the less of a home for bacteria. I've actually never cleaned a pond that didn't have a complete dead and cogged "bio filter". I'm sure they exist, somewhere. Bio filters are needed for high fish loads and basically spotless ponds. They are just for the removal of ammonia and nitrate. What's your ammonia level? Zero? If it is zero what are you trying to reduce it to? I'd bet serious cash you could remove your bio filter completely and you'd see no increase in ammonia. Try it. I don't know your pond so there is some chance I'd be wrong. Keep the bio filter alive but separate from the pond. Measure ammonia. Ever see more than a trace I'm an idiot and you can hook the filter back up. Takes about a week to test. Do it and you will learn more about ponding than you ever will from books or the internet. Things are not as straight forward as they seem. So, I wouldn't really worry about "dead spots". If you are they'd be very easy to test for using an ammonia test. Then your mind would be at ease.