Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment When will I know if my Hardy Lillies survived?

So last year I planted approximately 15 small hybrid water lillies in the shallow area of my pond. 12 survived long enough to reach the surface and 4 or 5 actually covered a 4'x4' area. I had two of them bloom a hot pink flower. By early August the geese arrived and ate all of the visible lillies.


Currently the water temperatures are in the mid-to-high 60's and I am wondering when I should start to see evidence that the lillies survived the geese and are growing again. If they did not make it I will need to order new ones and get them established in a hurry. This summer we will be using a more, ahem, aggressive means to keep the geese away....




(I won't actually shoot them but I do intend to scare the $%!t out of them!)

Rockville, I'm absolutely no help being this far south, but mine haven't come up yet either. I'm thinking it's usually May before I see mine.

Well if they aren't growing in Texas I won't worry about not seeing them in Virginia yet :-)

I was visiting a clients pond yesterday and now somewhere in the grass around the pond there is a nickel plated .45 acp piece of brass. The 4 flying toilets left in a hurry.....

They'll dig up the roots and eat them too, at least they did in my pond. Next batch that goes in will be placed in a good sized dirt ball, then wrapped with heavier gauge wire that has 1" to 1 1/2" spacing. I figure the leaves and flowers can grow thru the wire, and so can some of the roots. If the geese chew on it, they won't be able to get it all and it can re-sprout from the roots that are left.

That's a big problem in my pond. With water that fluctuates 4'-5', what species do you plant, and how do you protect them from the geese when the water level drops?

Perhaps I will try wrapping the root ball in heavy wire if they don't return this year (which I think is the case). I might even go to medium hybrid lillies instead of small, hopefully they will spread better so some will be eaten away but will have spread enough to come back the next year.

I am in zone 6 a similar plant zone as Rockville MD zone 7. As of Apr 19 I have numerous, new, small, hardy hybrid water lily leaves at the surface from older established lily bed rhizomes. The shallowest beach area with the most lilies has about 30 leaves 'up' whereas those lilies in the corners and in deeper water have about 16-20 leaves on the surface. I see numerous leaves subsurface. Normally when lilies go dormant in the fall there are a few new unfolded and small leaves subsurface that have not reached he surface. These leaves usually overwinter and are normally the first leaves to reach the surface the next spring. Subsurface dormant leaves that get eaten or destroyed during winter will often be replaced by ne leaves by the dormant alive roots when spring arrives. If lily rhizome roots are alive, one should see a least a few new leaves by the time the water reaches 60-65F.

Thanks Bill! I am going up there Sunday and will let you know what I find. If there are no lillies I will plant new ones the following weekend.

RockvilleMDAngler,

I am in central Ohio and planted a bunch of hardy lillies last summer. I have several different types and I am seeing leaves on probably 1/3 of the ones planted. I will be very curious to see how many of them survived to this year.

Concerning the geese control, I have declared my pond a goose free zone! I routinely run them off as soon as I see them. I have found that there are what I call "city" geese and "country" geese. The "city" geese are not afraid of the sound of a .22 LR and need coaxing with a larger/ louder caliber (think .45 ACP or 12 guage) while the "country" geese will take off at any loud sound. I am blessed that I live on my pond so I can scare them off before they get settled. If I run them off in the Fall and Spring then I normally don't have problems with them during the Summer. Good luck!

seantOH

Essup,

I wish I would have thought of putting wire mesh around the root ball when I planted mine last summer!

seantOH

You can probably still drop a makeshift wire "basket" over the top of the lilies. Not sure what spacing to use.

I hear geese hate RC racing boats on their pond. Getting stickers on mine now!

I looked for signs of lillies yesterday and saw none. I ordered some new ones and some eelgrass, looking forward to getting them established next weekend.

Liquidsquid,

What a great idea about the boat! I will have to check into getting one just for kicks!

seantOH

Finally got to use the boat on the geese! It was a blast, but the geese didn't stick around long enough to really give them what-for. They were pretty much terrified!