Waterford Gardens is a wonderful place to buy gorgeous Waterlilies, Lotus and other aquatic plants and it is only a 15 min. drive from our house.
http://www.waterford-gardens.c...
It was that time of year again to pick out some pretty tropical Waterlilies. Here is my pond thread from last year to give you the background.
http://cubits.org/orchids/thre...
The water temperature needs to stay above 70 degr F as not to stress these plants. The people at Waterford don't like to sell the tropical varieties until June 1., but since we are having Summer weather, it was not a problem today. As I mentioned, we moved the Golden Gouramies out 2 days ago and they are loving the extra room. I was able to purchase 12 young Paradise Fish today at Waterford, which thrive in their warm greenhouses and multiply readily there. They are now happily swimming along with the others in our pond.
Kathy, to answer your questions - the tropical Waterlilies from last year did not survive and it was not for lack of trying. The hardy Lotus made it and has been in the pond already for a couple of weeks and started to grow. I didn't purchase any hardy Waterlilies last year, we really love the larger beautiful blooms for this kind of set up. I really wish to be able to store the Tropicals somehow during the Winter.
Here are some snapshots, it is by no means complete.
Some more outside pics of the very nice place -
And the last picture shows the young fellow scooping out some Paradise fish for me. The Golden Gouramies do not eat the snails which always seem to come along, but the Paradise fish do.
I bought the following: Antares ( a night bloomer), Ruby, Blue Beauty, Marian Strawn. I have to check the spelling...
