Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment Water too cold to plant?

Hey Gang,

I'm curious, right now my water is about 35 to 40F and slowly warming up as spring creeps into Northern Wisconsin. I purchased some hardy water lillies, some pikeral weed, and some water iris from Menards about 3 weeks ago and I noticed they are tring to sprout out of the plastic bags they are in. Is it too cold for me to plant them in the water now? I'm not going to use baskets because I want them to spread around my shoreline. The pond is 15' deep so no need to worry about the lillies taking over the whole pond.

My understanding is that I just make a hole in the muck and plant them in it... is it just that simple?

What temp should I wait to plant them in? What would you do?

THANKS!

If you can stand reching into the cold water; plant them esp the shoreline plants. You may want to plant the shoreline plants so just the tips stick out of the water. So when it frosts not much will get burned. Another option which I prefer is to plant the plants in a shallow pan, cut off 5 gal bucket, wash basin or similar container. Set the planters in water so the plant tips just stick out of the water. In June or July remove from "pots" and transfer them to where you want them.

For the lilies make sure the growing tip just peeks above the soil surface. Planting lilies too deep with growing tips below soil level seems to kill them. Also plant lilies in small shallow (4"-8") tubs or pans. This way you can get exact planting depth. Set tup/pan in 18" - 2ft of water. Then in August transfer the whole root mass w/ soil where ever you want them. Much easier this way and difficult to kill plant with this method. They are not cheap so you want to minimize your losses.

Hey Bill,

Thanks for the advice. What about planting them inside as "houseplants" until mid-may (the last spring frost date).

Do they need to be really muddy? Any idea bout how to do this?

Thanks!

just a thought, depending on water clarity , thats how you have to start new water lilies. start them shallow then move them deeper as they start to grow. get bigger pots and leave them in the pots , most hardy lilies grow 10 to 12 sq ft. controlled. in pots you have to fertilze them , but you will have great flowers and plants. my buddy went to walmart bought some , planted them in his pond, now he's sorry he didn't control them , that was 3 years ago. you start them any time the water is starting to warm up, cut them back in fall , put below ice line and leave them for winter. thats why their called hardy.it's work to control them and you have nice plants, better than having a pond you can't fish.

Right now my pond is very clear. I have 5 water lilly bulbs, assuming I do use the baskets how much area can I expect them to cover? I want about 20 feet of shorline to be covered. Is this possible if I leave them in the basket? In defense of planting them without baskets I do have a very steep dropoff that goes from about 4 feet to 15 in no time. Would I still have to worry about them growing all crazy? My pond is quite small in comparison to many of yours so I would be able to trim them and pull them up if they get out of hand I would think.

I'm still looking for thoughts on growing them inside as houseplants to start here. Any methods that would work good for ab out a month indoors? What about the water iris and pikeral weed?

Thanks gang!

NyQuiLlama,
Just a thought, it would help if the guys responding to all your questions knew what area of the country you were from. You can update your profile to include your state or list it on every thread.

I'm in Northern Wisconsin... on the edge between Zone 3b and 4a. I'm close to the big lake, so that warms things up a bit (lake affect rules). I'll update my profile as well. Thanks for the tip.

Big day on the pond today, I'm digging a spillway. Off to work I go, I love spring!

I don't see why you couldn't plant the marginals (bog plants) in small tubs with about 3"-4" of soil till June or July. Plant them in damp or moistened soil then place about 1"-3" of water over soil. You could even leave them outside and only bring them in on nights that it frosts.

On your lilies. If you have white or yellow flowered lilies, they generally tend to grow deeper. So plant them shallower 1.5- 2ft. Pinks and reds usually do not grow as deep as whites and yellows. There are exceptions to this rule based on the name of the hybrid lily. If your pond is new with compacted sidewalls then hydrid lilies spread pretty slowlyin fact quite slow. In real soft mucky pond bottoms lilies tend to spread faster. Wild lilies that produce viable seeds always spread fast.

Generally speaking with out knowing the name of your lilies I would not keep them in pots. You want the lilies competing against algae by absorbing the nutrients from the pond not a pot. Eventually, plant lilies in the pond and hit individual pads with a light mist of roundup on those leaves that are too deep. From your description of your pond, I doubt you will doing much spraying and killing.

What names are on the packages?

Thanks Bill,

Here's what I got:

1 Nymphaea Marliacea Rosea
1 Nymphaea Chromatella
1 Nymphaea James Brydon
3 Iris Versicolor
3 Pontederia Cordata
5 Iris Sibirica

Thanks for your thoughts, I'm new to this.

Marliacea Rosa is an old standard water lily. It is free flowering (lots of flowers) light pink.. New leaves bronzy, underside red. Medium small spread. Should not be a problem growing into deep water.

Chromatella. Medium sized nice bright yellow flowers. One of the old standard yellow lilies. Good bloomer and very hardy. Young leaves green mottled with purple blotches. Small spread and does not grow deep. Mine never got deeper than 3 ft.

James Brydon. Very nice old standard bright rose red lily. Free flowering medium small cupshaped flowers with lots of petals. Leaves purple red underneath. I have never seen this one grow deep.

Three nice lilies. I think you will conclude that they do not spread fast enough because they will be real attactive and not problematic.

You will find that the iris and Pontederia are nice but they too will spread way too slowly for your needs. The iris should be planted in 2" to 6" of water. Water level can drop below the plant base in summer; no problem. Pontederia can grow in 6" to 12" of water. Plant it about 4" deep when setting it in a permanent spot.