The white hardy lilies are my least favorite maybe because I started with wild whites and they were nothing but trouble -spreading fast and growing deep - a real nuisance. The hybrid whites are not like the wild whites in terms of spreading rate. Hardy whites as a group do tend to grow deeper than the pinks and reds. The whites are not IMO as pretty as the other more attractive, appealing, and sometimes vibrant colors. A lot of the yellows are also larger types of hardy water lilies. There are a lot of varieties of hybrid whites but most of them are large-medium and large types with spread of 5 to 8ft occasionally 9-10ft. Smallest white ones that I could find were varieties named: Jasmine 30", Hermine 30", Candida 30-36", White Sultan (Strawn) 3'-5', Virginalis 3'-4', Walter Pagels 2'-3', Hilite 2'-5'. Keep in mind that all varieties of smaller spreading water lilies have proportionally smaller flowers compared to the larger spreading water lilies.
The hardy water lilies are IMO very good fish habitat and I rarely see them becoming over abundant in ponds with compacted bottoms. People who choose the better colorful pond varieties very rarely have trouble that I've heard about. The complaints are usually the lilies do not spread fast enough giving lots more color to the pond surface. The leaves provide shade and tend to keep the water slightly cooler. The vertical stems tend to be relatively far apart allowing some fairly good refuge areas and the predators to easily hunt through the underwater forests of shaded stems. They are fairly easily controlled with proper herbicides and spread is not rampant like that of many of the submerged aquatic weeds.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 07/11/13 09:09 PM.
