Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment low water what to do for lilies?

I planted some lilies this spring and they are now rooted in 1" of water. Some of the leaves are on dry land. Should I transplant? thanks

Either that or add water to your pond. What was the original planting depth?

I have mine in plastic tubs. They can be slid along the bottom to keep them at the correct depth. It's easier to do if you have a string/rope on it and it ends on shore.....

My water clarity is very bad so, I planted them in approx. 16" to 18". All the rain this summer, went around us. Can't add water...hope it rains soon!

Hardy waterlilies cope fine with drought as long as there's a bit of moisture round their roots and rhisome. The crowns will wither down to tiny little buds, that will spring back to life when there is water over them again

There's enough moisture from dew in the morning and the mud they tunnel in to keep them going through a Summer dormancy. Hardy waterlilies are tough...

Andrew:

What about a winter drought? How would they survive freezing? Last winter my pond dropped about 5' (60") and I shoved them into deeper water for the winter. Everything is frozen solid for roughly 3 months here....

I pulled them up to shallower water once the pond filled from late Spring rains.

The *@&$%*!! geese ate the eel grass that I had in some of the other tubs. I thought they were deep enough, but one day both tubs were emptied out and there was a lot of goose poop on the shore.....

Ah, exposure to below freezing temperatures is a bit risky.

Some parts of the waterlily might make it where they are on the underside tunneled into mud, those exposed to air temperatures are probably gonners.

Throwing a few layers of plastic over exposed plants might help to salvage some, by retaining ground warmth, keeping freezing air away from the crowns

Welcome back Andrew. Andrew provides sound advice. Lily crowns can withstand dewatering as long as the mud they are in remains damp. Hard freezing of the crowns with no water on top of them kills most of them.

A couple of years of drought has half the ponds droughted and three months of high 90's stuff has me perty well pickled of late.

Winter and Summer drought seems to be a feature of late.

For winter, a heavy mulching with straw, hay, or wood chips might do the trick. The mulch should float away when the water comes up.

I never thought about mulch. Good idea. The ground was frozen about 12" deep where the lilies were, so I'm glad that I pushed them deeper than I had planned.

I'm going to be treating the pond with fluridone next week for milfoil, so even tho the PPB will be low, I'm taking the lilies, varigated sweet flag (digging it out of the pond), eelgrass (that's still in tubs), and a couple of American Pondweed plants out of the pond. Just in case I figured the PPB wrong and the dosage is higher than 5-6 ppb.

wigwam, mulching the lilies that are in shallow water now might help them survive. Hopefully you will get some rain this Fall to bring the pond up before winter.

Thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear. It's still damp around them so, I won't move them.

I asked about whitecap killing hardy lilies in another thread.. and you folks were correct, it wiped them out. I'll have to start over in that pond.