The pond is now well established.
On those very hot days the fish seem to enjoy a stream of air bubbles - created by placing the rainwater container in the garage under pressure and running a hose with air-stone into the pond. One charge lasts about 4 hours, it works well.

Wow Ursula!
It's like you've always had that pond...the plants look very happy and the fish..happier still! What a fun project

Amazing how quickly this all developed!!

I forgot how fast Waterlilies can spread out!! Especially the blue one on the right really took off.
Yes, this is FUN!!

Thought of you today Ursula. I have a water garden place nearby and I bought a yellow dwarf water lily called Helvola. The leaves are so sweet.

Pretty! Are you starting a small pond too or are you planting a fancy large Chinese bowl?

Right now it's squshed in next to the lotus in the mini pond (round water trough). I will probably unsqush it soon in it's own trough. Pics manana.

Here is the li'l guy squshed in. It's a hardy lily so I will bring it into a cold spot inside in fall.

Sooo pretty.

Ursula is your dark purple waterlily called Midnight? I saw that one and it had a good scent!

Yes, the dark blue one is called Midnight Serenade and it is very fragrant, especially in the morning.

Kathy, that is a very pretty Water Lily you picked up!
I am curious how this will work out for me, since I bought 3 tropical Lilies. Still have room in the garage.

I would certainly try but the woman at Chapley Gardens said they were annuals for us here. They were on sale for $20 so I was tempted. Is that a good price for tropicals?

That is very reasonable.
But - you need to pot them into large tubs and add fresh soil (and add boulders to keep them from floating about) , you add a few more bucks to the basic price.

I was really happy this morning to see another Lotus blossom fully open. Here it is in morning sunshine.

Looks like mine which made it over winter but didn't bloom. Here's last year.

I used to have a pink. Aren't they so amazing???? I remember how pristine the pink one was the first morning it opened. However she and the bees must have had quite a night on the town the second night. I found pollen and tiny cigarette butts all around her!!

funny!
The pink is very pretty!

Do you know the name of the yellow?

Mine is named Shiroman.
Waterford Garden has some really nice Lotus, perhaps something comes close here? Large, dwarf and teacup.
http://www.waterfordgardens.co...

Nice ones but none are mine.

beautiful photos ladies...so pristine, except that second one of your's Kathy!

Fast forwards to September 2011 -
the tropical Waterlilies of this Summer are slowing down and we are looking at temperatures in the low fifties F here in Fair Lawn by the end of the week, way too chilly for tropical fish.
Since we will not have the time then, we had to dismantle the pond today. Have a look at the happy Golden Gouramies and Paradise fish, they are now relocated to two (!) 40 gallon tanks in the greenhouse. I would think they are fine with lots of Anacharis to make them comfortable and they were busy eating already in their new home.
Here they were yesterday! Adults and Babies of all sorts of sizes - feeding frenzy!