Is this a hardy lily or a tropical? I was given this lily with no background. how do i pot it up?

Dianna

Looks like my waterlilies and mine are hardy - but here is the thing. I have never seen a tropical waterlily in person, so I don't know if they look the same.

Pot is up with the growth points sticking up and out. Be careful of the growth points while you are potting it up. If you break off the growth point, there will be no pads and no flowers from that point as they do not grow back.

I used pea gravel to pot mine up. A lot of people swear by the unscented clay kitty litter. It is all a matter of personal preference. You can use either a regular plastic pot or you can use the waterlily baskets to plant your waterlilies. Submerse your potted waterlily at least 18" into the water.

One other thing - they are heavy feeders. You can get waterlily tabs and feed monthly or you can get the once a year waterlily fertilizer stakes.

Please post pictures when it flowers. I would love to see. Also when it flowers, we will have a better idea as to whether your waterlily is hardy or tropical.

I have only tropicals and they are usually more like bulbs than tubers although I have one (Foxfire) that has formed a short tuber. Once the pads come up if they are smooth and green it is probably a hardy, the tropicals have more of an uneven edge and they are often mottled and different colors.

Jonna - that is good to know. Do you have any pictures of the tuberous parts of the waterlilies?

I can take some in a few days, I need to feed and repot some of the lilies but I won't get to it until probably Wed. I'll take pics and post them.

It has not put on any new growth as of yet. I thought it was a hardy, but had never seen either type.

I am new to ponds. I have a 18 in. deep pond that is only about 50 gallons or so.
Right now it is green and cloudy regardless of the pump running. I didn't have
this problem when I put it in last year.

Diana

How long has the pond been up and running? A period of green is normal in the cycling of the pond.

Does the WL have a growing point? Mine are still below the surrface of the pond, but I can see pads coming. With our warmer weather, we should be seeing them soon.

I'm with Jonna, my tropical waterlilies have more like a bulb (kind of potato-shaped) than the long tuber you have.

Dianna, that plant's going to sit and sulk until the water gets warm. You can raise the pot up a bit so it is in warmer water(near the surface) to get that water lily growing sooner. Mine are only about 6in below the water's surface and they do fine. In a pond as small as yours, I hope that's a very small water lily! Keep it in a small-ish pot if you want to keep it from taking over the whole pond.

Plants like water lilies filter the water for you once they are growing. Fish will eat algae, too. It's all about balance, the fish eat algae, their poop fertilizes the other plants that filter the water, and the plants make oxygen for the fish, too. A little algae is normal, and will feed your fish so you don't have to. It takes a while for your pond to get balanced.

Hi Dianna: All the advice I've read so far is spot on. I believe your waterlily is a hardy based on the shape of the rhizome. The good news is that it will survive your winters and that once it is growing, it is not as picky about what depth it is planted at (heed earlier advice about keeping it shallow/warm until it gets growing well) as the leaves and flowers will adjust. The bad news, if you were hoping for a blue or purple flower color, is that those colors are restricted (so far) to tropical varieties. The photo shows several crowns that can be divided (cut through rhizome with a sharp knife leaving an inch or so around each growing point/crown) to make multiple plants or leave as is and plant it in a pot with the youngest end (shown in the left of the top photo and right in the bottom) closest to the pot edge. Of course, by now, it may be warming up enough that it is shooting up leaves like crazy. In which case, just plant the whole rhizome and let it go crazy. I fertilize mine with those little Jobe plant food sticks. You can break em in half and shove them deep into the soil all around the crown. The trick is to get the plant food down to the lily roots so that you get flowers, not algae bloom in your pond.

PS your waterlily will provide some shade and help clear up the cloudy green algae you are seeing. Remember that algae (green pond) needs two things--sunlight, food--and if you deprive it of either (don't overfeed the fish, lots of plants to compete for the available plantfood, good water circulation through a filter--for example) and shade the surface with plants where you can, it will go a long way towards clearing up the water. Green water is actually sometimes a good sign that your pond is balancing itself. Try to be patient and not do water changes unless necessary (source of food in the form of minerals in the fresh water).Fish love green water, but it is rather annoying to those of us who want to actually see them from the surface !

I have a few different types of roots on my hardy waterlilies, but they mostly grow sideways, across the substrate. All of my tropicals grow straight up. After a few years some of them can get quite a neck on them, but I tend to replant anything that gets too long. They bulb up on me when they get too cold.