Anybody pay the big bucks and buy the new hardy blue/purple water lilies? If so, please share your experience and what variety you bought.

Nobody?

Do you have a link to an advertiser / promo item for these new hardy blue/purple water lilies? The blue-purple color for hardy lilies was a color the breeders were for many years working to produce.

I want to add some hybrid lilies to my bow but they all seem kinda pricy lol. But some more than others. I'm curious about these as well.
Dave

The high price is why I am inquiring on any one with experience growing these. I would hate to pay that much and lose the plant. Folks on this forum are pretty direct about their experiences which is very helpful.

If I were to grow one, it would be in a small pond garden, not a large BOW where the turtles and muskrats look at it like a tasty salad.

RAH do you have a link to the source for the blue/purple hardy lilies?

This first link is to a news story:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/jul/11/garden-variety-new-purple-water-lily-can-live-thro/

This seems to be a new one:

https://www.pondmegastore.com/shop/product.php?productid=17164&cat=341&page=1

And this seems to be the original:

http://www.lilyblooms.com/purple-fantasy-purple-hardy-water-lily/

http://www.lilypons.com/product/purple-fantasy-nymphaea-hardy-purple-water-lily-aquatic-pond-plant

It says to plant them in a pot. Is that so they do not get out of control and take over?

I do not think so. I expect they spread very slowly based on the price.

High price is likely due to newness, rarity, and lack of availability.

It would be nice to hear from those who have purchased them to see how it spreads and how stable the color is over long periods of time (years).

RAH - it's looking like you might have to be the guinea pig!

If you buy these pricey lilies, I suggest that you first plant the rhizome in a container with sides 5"-7" deep and filled with garden soil or pond mud 3.5"-4" thick. A dish pan works well as a planting container. Potting soil is light and most of it floats away. You can add a small amount of fertilizer to stimulate growth. Plant rhizome properly at an angle with the growing tip peeking out of the soil and other end deep in the soil. Submerge the planted container with about 6"-12" of water covering the soil. Move container deeper as the leaves emerge. I tie a cord to the containers to tether and more easily retrieve them. Allow to grow all summer. Then in fall or next spring pull out the whole tangled root mass and 'nestle' it into the pond bottom where you want it to begin growing. This planting method insures the best chance for growth of the expensive varieties of lilies for ponds. Note white amur, grass carp will eat the lily new tender shoots / sprouts. Turtles can also be a problem until the lilies are well established.

I have a couple 300 gal Rubbermaid livestock tanks that are 2-feet deep. Just not sure if it is a good idea to overwinter a water lily in them. Maybe too cold and might crack with ice? I have a lot of projects planned, so I will probably continue to hold off and wait for the price to come down, and/or for better hybrids to be developed.

Update:

"Rustproof, Dent, Crack & Corrosion-Resistant Even When Frozen Solid"


https://www.ruralking.com/rubbermaid-farm-tough-300-gallon-stock-tank-fg424700.html

I would love to give one a try, but my painted turtles are hungry this spring and making short work of all of my lilies :-0 Not cool.

I protect the first water lily plantings in any new body of water. Deer will also decimate water lilies until they establish. For expensive one's, I'd use fence, but for others, I use honey locust branches.

Great thoughts! It didn't cross my mind to fence the lilies. I fence damned near everything else around here, to the point I am always chewing up fences with the mower from ones I have forgotten about.

The advantage of honey locust branches is that they eventually rot. The disadvantage is working with nasty thorns!

All I've got is Black Locust, and last I checked they are a bit toxic. Nice repellent for deer, not so good for water quality. Fence it is.

Never had any trouble with honey locust even in a small settling pond full of FHM. Don't think that black locust have the thorns to protect water lilies. Be glad that you don't have honey locust!

http://www.columbiamagazine.com/mobile/index.php?fn=marticle&sid=34711

Any waterlily is a tasty nibbly for turtles, ducks, carp, musk rats etc., early in Summer when the tasty delicate new shoots start to grow

For true blue waterlilies you are talking a handfull of tropical waterlilies, cross fingers you get some tubers to form in their growing season, these are easy to store for Winter

Easier than waiting for your vaguely purple isg 'hardy' to survive the onslaught of wascally peckers

I have done what Bill has suggested above for our hardy water lilies. Only thing different is that we put them into deep rubbermade totes. They have been planted in the pots or totes all their lives and moved to about 6 feet of water. They winter there and we now have a mass of about 100 square feet from three totes. Planted red, orange, and yellow. The muskrat seem to only like the yellow here for some reason. Turtles leave them alone here.

Cheers Don.

I will be moving waterlilies from my oldest pond into the new wetland this weekend if the weather permits. I cut the honey locust branches and plied them by the wetland yesterday evening. For this wetland, I will be selecting my best whites. They will be planted in the soil on the wetland bottom. I have had excellent luck using honey locust branches to protect new aquatic plants.