WOW and OMG...this thread just makes me shake my head in wonder.
Just awesome all away around.Good infor and the pictures.

Now my question is how do you deal with bugs and pest.This is a big problem for me.I lost or have
giving up on growing a lot plants cause of this.Just about the time I think I have it under control it shows up
someway else.I have a hoya that is full of bugs now Means a lot of untangling.

Dirtpig ( what a name )
It would be so easy without bugs and similar pests!!
Before I moved my plants inside, a week or so before I sprayed them all with Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower Care. (at 2 ounces /Gallon) It contains pesticide, fungicide and fertilizer. The pesticide is Imidacloprid which does an excellent job on Mealies, Scale and more. Since it is a systemic, it will keep the plants clean of bugs for some time. During the Winter I simply keep an eye out for bugs and clean them up immediately before they become real trouble. Sometimes just washing them off, or using Safer's soap, or similar keeps things in check. If not, I also use sometimes Orthene.
In Spring all my plants go outside, get checked for Bugs and if necessary get the Bayer treatment. This Spring I had to make a bucket with the diluted stuff and I actually soaked a couple smaller Orchids which had Scale. It worked. ( I wear gloves)
I would think vigilance is definitely the first step in keeping plants clean.
Btw Hoyas respond very well to the Imidacloprid treatment. In my hands it is the only way to grow Asclepiads.

My husband gave it to me,when he set up my first e mail for me.Many many years ago
Been using it very since.
Thank you so much for the infor.

Sweet!

Expert -



Amen to that.

I have seen where people build ponds in the low point of their yard thinking that with the water collecting there, it would be a good place for a pond. Not a good idea as all the yard run off will be in your pond - any lawn chemicals or fertilzers would be detrimental to fish.

Those are all good points to consider.

I just read through this whole thread which I found very interesting. Really liked the improvised fish pond. I've got 2 "tubs" about 2 metres long by about 1.5 wide that I've set up inground. They were part of an installation used by telephone companies, forgot now what the specific purpose was.

Spaced between and on either side of these are "mud ponds", made from plastic liners, for bog plants. Only problem is I set the "tubs" down too deep and have to lift them. It's part of the surface water drainage system that runs into my dam. But the water stands too deep during the wet season and I've lost a couple of plants to that. So it's still a work in progress.

But on the issue of overwintering tropical waterlilies, you should be able to get away with just storing them in dry sand. I have our native waterlilies which by virtue of location are tropicals. A lot of the waterholes the grow in (including my dam) dry out during the dry season. They keep their leaves until the ground dries completely. The leaves wither and the plants are then only tubers in the dry soil.

Our winters stay over 30C and the ground really bakes dry and hard. Soil (dry) is a good insulator so the temperature under would be fairly constant. In the wet season the plants produce small leaves once it floods above them. The leaves stay small and submerged while water levels fluctuate. Around the end of the wet season when waterlevels stay consistent or start to drop the leaves begin to grow up to the surface and they begin to flower. If they're in permanent water (the same species) they continue growing all dry season but die back a bit when the heavy rains of the wet season return.

From that it's most likely that most tropical waterlilies would die back to the tuber if they were allowed to dry out and then remain dormant if kept in dry (insulating) sand in a warm place. Worth a try if you really want to keep tropicals.

Thank you Zig. I like your very detailed description.
Drying out the tubers and storing in sand might be somethings to try out next year, since we already stored the tubers in damp newspapers in a bucket in the unheated but frost free garage. Let's see how that goes!

Spring 2013
Last Summer was very successful, we had switched over to hardy Waterlilies which bloomed wonderfully last Summer. The Paradise Fish were very happy and busy, so busy that I dropped off at least a THOUSAND babies at the Aquarium stores in my area, especially the one in Elmwood Park. I surely flooded the market!
Now again last September we moved a good group of the Fish inside, they did well over the Winter in the greenhouse and they are starting to breed now in their 40 gallon tanks.
Now we made a big mistake replacing the water after we removed the Fish in Sept. the keep the Waterlilies blooming a bit longer. That worked well, but keeping the pond otherwise intact over the Winter was not a good thing. It looked terrible, the paint started to peel, everything looked so cruddy, we had to take it totally apart again, dry up the walls and sand everything down. The Waterlilies ( in large Pots) are right now sitting in the grass and they are showing new growth. I am waiting for a few dry days to start painting the walls!
Next Fall we will surely drain the pond again completely and cover it over the Winter.

Ursula - sounds like a lot of hard work ahead, but you will be glad in the end that you did it. With your hard WL, just make sure they are not in the sun. I have found if I need to keep them out of the pond for any length of time, that damp newspaper does the trick very nicely with water in the WL pots as well.

Ohh, thanks for the tip!! Will do.