08tr - Your two choices will stay small and should meet your goals in 4-6 yrs. You can plant them until early September in Ohio which I have done numerous times. One can get often pricing deals on lilies in mid to late summer. I suggest you first plant them in shallow (6"-8"high) containers such as a cut off 5 gal bucket, an old dishpan or cut off containers from recycling. One root per pot. Use heavy garden soil or pond dirt and not potting soil. Place the planted lily in shallow water 2ft deep until it is producing new leaves. Then it can be moved deeper - 2.5 to 3 ft for over wintering. Then next spring when it is making new leaves and the pot does not have invading species in it transfer the whole root mass out of the pot into the pond bottom where you want them to grow. This process sets up sort of a quarantine to check for invasive 'piggy back' unwanted plants.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 07/12/13 06:57 PM.
