Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment Planting Water Lilies

I have gotten some great tips and ideas about planting some hardy water lillies in my trout pond, and just wanted to post a thread on the topic.

I have 25 hardy lily rhizomes coming in a few weeks. My pond is about 3/4 acre, sloping 3:1 from shore, with rich clay soil. We raise Rainbow Trout, and are adding 5 Grass Carp in June to help with the milfoil and other aquatic weeds.

Esshup had a great suggestion of placing a chicken wire cage around each lily plant to keep the carp from eating them entirely. He thought to extend the wire to just below the water surface so it is invisible yet effective. Our water level at full pool is fairly stable.

As far as planting the lilies themselves, what do you all suggest? Should I place the pots in the pond, or remove the lily rhizomes from the pots and wrap them in chicken wire before planting directly in the pond soil? Also, I am wondering about ideal planting depth?

I want the lilies to thrive, our water gets deep quickly from shore so there is a limited area for the lilies to take over. Ideally, the lilies will form an aquatic hedgerow of sorts that runs along the shallows.

Any ideas much appreciated! I am sure there is something I am not even considering. PondBoss advice has been spot on with everything else so far, and my pond thanks you for it.
-Adam

Do you have muskrats in the pond? Those little buggers always seem to crew off the water plants that I want to grow.

No muskrats. I guess they exist in Colorado but I have never seen one or even heard of one around here.

I didn't protect mine when I planted them, but from what I am gathering here is you should put cages over the tops of the rhizomes so the leaves and steps can exit, but the turtles, muskrats, geese, and darned near everything else cannot enter and eat the heart of the plant.

Someone here can likely recommend the size fencing to use to protect the plants.

If I plant more, I will be doing this. Last summer my leaf stems were all eaten leaving the leaves and the rhizomes.

I thought I would bump this thread back up with a pic of the pond, hoping to get some more advice on how to not feed water lilies to the fish and wildlife.

From the pic, I am planning on placing the lilies along the right hand bank, which is the inside of the dam.
I will go around to the back of the pond, almost as far as the blue spillway pipe, if I have enough plants. I ordered 25 rhizomes.

I know I need to fence the lilies underwater, any suggestions on what fencing material? Standard chicken wire hopefully? I could also use hardware cloth which would be sturdier? Size hardware cloth?

Wondering about planting depth? Thinking to plant them in pots so the rhizomes are secure, but with holes in the bottoms of the pots so the lilies can root further into the pond soil if they want?

Spacing between rhizomes? The right hand bank in the photo is about 120 feet long.

The rhizomes are coming next week, I will probably wait another week until the water warms up a bit to plant. Still want to get a plan together soon.

and if somebody knows how to embed the photo into the body of the text, that is a mystery beyond me. much appreciated.

thanks!

cheers Zep. how'd you do it?

If lilies arrive as bare roots, plant root at a 45 degree angle with growing tip just peeking out of the soil. Poor survival often occurs on bare root rhizomes if entire root is burried. In new pond compacted clay spread of hybrid hardy lilies is slow. Some varieties spread faster and deeper than others. Adding grass carp before plants colonize is a questionable method IMO.

Lots of info in the archives. How to post photos is there too.

Personally, I use Photobucket.

thanks Bill for the tips,
would letting the lillies colonize for a year be a better timeframe?
I definitely share your concerns, and am pretty tired of feeding nursery stock to various farm animals.
The lilies I am committed to for this year, but I could easily wait on the grass carp until next year.

The clay soil isnt too compacted, we excavated and then lined the pond (due to caliche subsoil). The clay was then just dumped in place with a Bobcat with minimal compaction. So hopefully the lilies can get a good foothold.

To clarify on the planting tech, you are suggesting to not plant the rhizomes in pots? I suppose too that if there are no grass carp, then no need for wire cages at this time? Just stick the rhizomes into the soil, with the tips still emerging, right?

really appreciate your advice-
thanks

thanks Esshup for the photo posting links, that's a decent challenge for a guy like me.

I wasnt finding much in the archives about establishing water lilies.
The one good one, that others might benefit from too is-

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=266539

I was looking for more info on people's experience of successfully establishing hybrid hardy water lilies in cold climate.

Any takers? (or givers, as it may be)

I'm in Michigan and I didn't have trouble with survival of hardy waterlilies. I planted mine in a plastic tub, placed it in shallow water and as it emerged I put the tub deeper. As the stems grew to the top of the water I moved the tub deeper yet. Once the tub was a few feet deep and the rhizome wasn't in any danger of freezing in the winter ice I left it and the waterlily always came back. I was warned not to plant my waterlily in my pond bottom because it could become invasive. I guess it depends on the type of waterlily you choose.

My problem was turtles and geese cutting the stems. I put a chicken wire cage around the tub that came up to the water line. This worked pretty good for getting them established but the leaves and stems grew further out than the cage and was regularly cut up by the wildlife. I made the cage wider but it didn't help much. I had it several years and only saw it bloom once thanks to long necked geese and turtles. When the chicken wire rotted away the rhizome was destroyed or it died, not sure really.

I liked my waterlily but it was too much of a battle keeping it intact. Since you have ordered a bunch of them you might have better luck keeping some of them going.

I did the same thing as Loretta. Planted them in plastic tubs, and they did fine. I pushed them into deeper water for the winter, and when Spring rolled around the water level dropped even more. I thought I had them in deep enough water, but the water dropped so much that the dang geese ate 2 of the 4 tubs.

Until I can stabilize the water level (with a well) I moved the tubs to some ornamental ponds that are close by the house.

Anybody know what's the deal with pond-friendly fertilizer tabs?

I received my hybrid water lilies today, remarkably the same day that my back issue of pond boss magazine arrived. the july/aug 2010 issue, which has a great article on planting hardy water lilies. good timing!

I am going to plant the rhizomes in 2 gallon pots, with fertile clay soil. Using fertilizer tabs is also recommended. I was going to just drop by the farm supply store tomorrow and get some standard fertilizer tabs, like you would use with orchard trees. But then I read that the tabs need to be aquatic fertilizer tabs and fish-safe.

Should I not use the standard fertilier tabs from the farm store?
Any recs on specific fertilizer tabs that would be good for my lilies and safe for my trout?

Thanks for all your help, I promise pics will be coming when the little lilles make it to the surface.

Allright, the lilies are in the pond. In pots, with about a foot of water over the top of the rhizomes. Fertilizer tabs still need to get put in, but I am going to wait till the lilies sprout.

Fingers crossed!