A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Plant Propagation Lily Pods ...........Attention carol.........you d

I was given lily pods from a friend this spring .. I planted them in a rubber tub of water an flower pots......They bloomed today.
Question ...for carol.

How did you winter your lily pods over that you planted in a tub?

Thanks. Shocked to see it today.
dodge

Beautiful barb--and when your flower starts to fade away feel down to the bottom of the stem (near the pot in the water) and pinch it off---do the same when you have spent green pads. you will get new ones eventually.

now as for over wintering---I have a paper someplace that gives you options, I will find it for you . as for myself, I just let mine die & start over the next year. BUT I am sure there is a way to keep them----there has to be--

Lynne, oh Lynne--can you help?????

This year so far all I have gotten is 2 flowers---but I have many green pads..

Did you bring them inside ?
Plastic tube will freeze an crack if I did that.
Let them in water or not inside?
I am suprised it bloomed <Never seen one before

oh yes they bloom and many times--

if you go to the Water Gardens area here in the forums you will see my thread about my water lillies---as my camera has a date setting you can see how many flowers I got in years past.

They are titled: Carol's Water lillies 2012, Carol's Water Lilies 2011, and Carol's Water lillies 2010

and yes you have to bring it in-----because yes the pot would freeze & crack---I will find the information tomorrow for you.

in the mean time, enjoy your pretty water lily---

Beautiful Dodge, and I am jealous!!! I bought a lily this year that really hasn't done that well. It lost all it's original leaves, has started to grow some new ones, but I haven't seen a flower yet! And I look every day! I am hoping my lily will winter over...we put a stock tank heater in our pond so the birds will have water all winter. Not sure if it is going to work, but I am hoping!

Hi bobbie

Thanks did you by any chance put it in soil before that?
Mine is planted in a pot of soil set in the tub .
Will get a photo..
b

In 2010 here is what Lynne told me about over-wintering the lily. She asked on her pond forum & somebody answered her like this:

Lynne, if there is no green house, they can trim them right back and store them in containers/kiddie pools inside the house."


so, when I read that, I was going to keep mine in a 5 gallon aquarium--or a 5 gallon bucket --both full of water & the cut back lilie... But I decided not to & just let it die---I wish I had not of done that. That first lily was a nice and h ealthy one.


I am thinking though--the friend that gave yours to you might well know what you could do, that OR perhaps the friend would let you over winter your pot in her pond ??? that would be easiest for you, I am thinking??? and then she would know how to prepare it before the over-wintering too...

beautiful lilly pads & flower & I like the tub too..

If I were you, when it is time to move the tub donwstairs, I would remove most of the old water, take the tub to the basement ( is there a window it could sit by ??) & then re-add some water, -then , & then over the winter, watch the water & if you think it is getting bad, change it out --then next spring take it back out & start all over again...

you could put more water into your tub now if you like..I will show you a picture of my tub from this year here in a minute---
when you add water, the pads & flowers will grow to the top of the water, so dont worry.

also did you read what I said about removing the spent flowers & spent lily pads?? you should do that too, & you will need to keep doing that all thru the summer as they need it done.

Barb, here is my half barrel: You can't see it, but I have a flower bud below the water--it is only like my 2nd or 3rd this year---


I am thinking the white on my lily pads is the lime scale depostits from my water that had evaporated after being on the pads.

Wow I thought I was looking at my own barrel.. I have another beside it with the 2 I bought .Ok I will add more water...Do you change it at all summer.?

b

well I have changed the water out in past years.
I was told to put a hose in the bottom of the barrel & turn the water on---when you figure that say 1/4 or so has been replaced then you can take out the hose.

personally I think I would remove say 1/4 of the water every few weeks then replace it with fresh water.
But this year has been so hot that I have just replaced water when it has evaporated.


Although, the hose in the bottom & forcing water out every few weeks is supposed to keep the barrel misquito larvae free.

Since I bought my lily it already came in a "soilless" substance. I am not really sure that it is "soil" I was looking at the nursery where I bought my lilly and they had stuff you could buy that was for water plants. My lily isn't looking near as good as yours or Carols! I only have a few leaves. All the leaves that were on it died away, but I didn't know about pinching them off, so I'll do that from now on. But there are more leaves I can see that are growing so that is good. Our weather has been all over the place so maybe that is is? But it isn't dead yet! I have read, I think in this forum that it is good to feed them with tomato spikes. When I bought the lily I bought some water plant food nuggets, so I just used those. Mine is in a pond with a water pump that circulates the water so I am thinking I don't need to "replace" the water, but water gets added to the pond when ever the sprinkler system goes on and if the pond overflows it waters my bigger Blue Spruce and that is always a good thing!

I have mine in 2 pots of soil sunk an watered over.. Looks good to me an bloomed.

mine is an a open weave basket lined with newspaper--the soil is clay based so it will not turn into mud so easliy--then I have 2 tomato spikes down in the clay dirt to feed the lilies--and then I have the top of the dirt covered with glass pebbles to help hold the dirt in as well.

I removed them from the grass stuff that they came in per Plants n pots instructions--I planted them at an angle with the top just sticking out of the dirt.

The guy at the nursery where I bought mine said to leave it in the pot it came in and gently lower it to the bottom of my pond and the leaves would grow to the top. Yours is doing so much better than mine, maybe I should transplant?

Bobbie - you definitely need to remove the straw-like stuff that these tubers come packed in. It serves no purpose other than packing material and is not allowing the tuber to expand and grow. I was told years ago to pot it up in clay soil with the tuber tip facing up and out of the soil at a 45 degree angle upwards, so as to give it room to grow.

I use plastic baskets with holes on the sides which allow the roots to grow out for larger plants. I usually can find these at the dollar stores. I have read on many pond websites that tomato spikes are good for growth and flowers, so I put 4 Jobes spikes in each large basket near the roots.

Good luck!

edit: Did you get this at a nursery where it was already planted in soil in a pot? Does the pots have holes on the sides? Is it big enough, and is the tuber pointing up out of the soil?

It is possible to over winter water lilies. You should expect to have varying degrees of success, since there are a lot of things that can go wrong when trying to over winter water lilies. Outdoors, the weather can surprise you by becoming colder than expected or with wide temperature swings. Indoors you can control conditions better, but sometimes the plants simply aren’t able to adjust.

Tropical water lilies are the most difficult to over winter. Tropical water lilies do go dormant in winter. They will freeze and die, if left in a cold pond over winter. It’s very common to grow tropical water lilies as annuals. Store your tropical water lily in a greenhouse, a heated aquarium or in a heated room under grow lights. Lift the pots in late September / October. You can move your water lilies to smaller pots for the winter, if you like. Lift the plant and trim back some of the leaves and roots. Replant in a 1 gallon container.

Place the pot in a small tub of water and keep it at about 68 degrees F. The idea is to keep the water lily alive, but not actively growing, so don’t fertilize or worry about providing too much space.